Spring 2013 • Issue 47, page 1

A Path Less Traveled: An Interview with the Honorable Laura S Taylor, Chief Judge of the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of California

By Rubin, Stacy & Mosier, Robert*

Receivership News is pleased to have the opportunity to profile the Chief Judge of the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of California, Laura S. Taylor. Following a one hour interview, RN concluded that Judge Taylor has earned the handle: a “Path Less Traveled” because of her unusual journey that leads her to becoming the Southern District of California’s Chief Bankruptcy Judge.

So what is so unusual? Laura Taylor completed her undergraduate degree (graduating with highest honors) at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She received her JD at Duke (she is originally from North Carolina). She started her legal career at Sheppard, Mullin, Richter & Hampton LLP where she made partner after a few years. This is a pretty standard chronology so far. But wait. After a dozen years at Sheppard Mullin, Judge Taylor decided to leave the large law firm to practice pro bono law. In this role, she founded the San Diego Volunteer Lawyer Program’s Special Education Project – a program that provides legal aid for disabled foster youth and low income families with disabled children. After three years in the pro bono world, and having launched the program successfully, then attorney Laura Taylor was invited to rejoin Sheppard Mullin, which she did. And she made partner for the second time. How many lawyers can claim making partner twice at the same firm with a stint of pro bono law in between? This is truly remarkable. According to Judge Taylor, the pro bono experience made her a better, more balanced person and lawyer.

Then in 2008, there was an opening on the Southern District of California Bankruptcy Court bench and voila – Laura Taylor is a new bankruptcy judge. Today she sits as the Chief Judge and was recently appointed to a seven year term on the Ninth Circuit Bankruptcy Appellate Panel. RN asked that, if Judge Taylor could fast forward 20 years and look back, what would stand out as her number one accomplishment? She is pretty confident that it will be the pro bono work and founding the San Diego Volunteer Lawyer Program’s Special Education Project.

Judge Taylor seems to revel at being a bankruptcy judge and likes the system, what it stands for, and what it can accomplish – “it is an essential element in our economy that allows individuals and businesses to take risks.”

In Judge Taylor's courtroom, she respects good papers that will support a tentative ruling. She admits that she can be talked out of a tentative, but it is rare. Judge Taylor likes facts, law and supporting evidence. She rejects labels such as “Creditor Judge” or “Debtor Judge” and states that there is a path to each of her decisions. She also said that, because she is from the South, manners are important in her courtroom.

RN (being receivership oriented - there is something in a name) spent some time with Judge Taylor on the subject of keeping a receiver in place under 11 U.S.C. § 543, after a bankruptcy is filed. She said that it will be fact specific in each instance. In a chapter 11 bankruptcy filing where a receiver has been in place and is doing a good job managing the affairs of the debtor, it may be preferable for the receiver to remain in place. She recommends that receivers in this situation obtain a thorough order from the bankruptcy judge that outlines the receiver's precise relationship with the Bankruptcy Court, the State Court and the United States Trustee. For example, how is the receiver going to be paid and when? Who is responsible to submit the Monthly Operating Reports? Is the receiver's expenditure authority limited? Can the receiver seek a comfort order from the bankruptcy judge? And so on.

Mentors who have had an influence on Judge Taylor's career include the Honorable Peter W. Bowie, the Honorable Louise DeCarl Adler, and the Honorable Irma E. Gonzalez. When Judge Taylor was appointed to the Southern District Bankruptcy Court bench, the Honorable Louise DeCarl Adler was the only female judge at that time. Now there are three female judges sitting on the Southern District of California Bankruptcy Court bench.

Mediation can be an effective tool used by Judge Taylor although it is not automatic. She is respectful of those who serve on what she describes as an exceptional mediation panel and who donate their time to bringing about settlements. Only cases that desire mediation are exposed to the process.

Judge Taylor impressed RN as being reasoned and thoughtful. She is content to let the big cases flee to Delaware and observed that some of her best cases are not the big ones. On the matter of limiting bankruptcy judges to “core issues,” she perceives that reasoning has prevailed and we have ended up where we (the bankruptcy system, including the judges) should be.

On the personal side, Judge Taylor is married to San Diego Superior Court Judge Timothy B. Taylor. They have two sons and reside on Coronado Island. Judge Timothy Taylor is known for setting his courtroom clock at least five minutes fast. Judge Laura Taylor admits that the Taylor's are always on time. Her hobbies include cooking (she may be a first cousin to Betty Crocker), traveling and reading.

The best aspect of being a judge, versus private practice, for Judge Taylor: family time.

Judge Taylor’s advice for new lawyers entering the practice of law is to be flexible, get to know who you are and what really makes you happy, and try to achieve a balance. At the same time, it is important to identify your own version of a “canary in the mine” - knowing when you are about to veer off the tracks.

RN enjoyed the hour spent with this upwardly mobile jurist. We thank her for sitting for this interview and wish her continued success in the bankruptcy system. For those fortunate enough to have a case assigned this judge, it is both a privilege and a pleasure to appear before Judge Taylor.

*Stacy H. Rubin is an associate attorney with Mulvaney Barry Beatty Linn & Mayers LLP in San Diego. Ms. Rubin handles various commercial litigation and creditor’s rights matters, specializing in representing banks and financial institutions in receivership matters, including appointment of receivers. She has presented seminars in areas of debt collection, creditor's rights, and identity theft. Ms. Rubin has published articles featured in the San Diego Daily Transcript and the California Real Property Journal, and has been an Adjunct Professor for the Paralegal Program at the University of San Diego.

*Robert P. Mosier is a Southern California trustee and receiver and principal of Mosier & Company, Inc., a firm that has specialized in managing and turning around troubled companies for more than 25 years.