Judge Robert Summerhays was appointed to the United States District Court for the Western District of Louisiana in September 2018. Prior to his district court appointment, Judge Summerhays served as a United States Bankruptcy Judge in the Western District of Louisiana for 12 years, 7 years of which he served as Chief Bankruptcy Judge. As a bankruptcy judge, Judge Summerhays presided over a number of significant corporate restructurings, such as Piccadilly Cafeterias, Gulf Fleet Holdings, Saratoga Resources/Harvest Oil, American International Petroleum, the Louisiana subsidiary of German Pellets AG, and Progressive Acute Care. He has also mediated complex energy, maritime, and healthcare bankruptcy cases.
Prior to his service as a bankruptcy judge, Judge Summerhays was a partner in the law firm of Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP, where his primary practice area was federal court litigation. Judge Summerhays served as a law clerk for Judge W. Eugene Davis (U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit) in Lafayette from 1994 to 1995. Judge Summerhays received his law degree in 1994 from The University of Texas at Austin, where he was an Associate Editor of the Texas Law Review.