Judge Douglas D. Dodd
Bankruptcy Judge
U.S. Bankruptcy Court - Middle District of Louisiana
http://www.lamb.uscourts.gov
DOUGLAS D. DODD is the United States Bankruptcy Judge for the Middle District of Louisiana. He graduated from Stanford Law School in 1982, after receiving his
undergraduate degree magna cum laude with interdisciplinary honors in 1977 from Tulane University, where he was elected to membership in Phi Beta Kappa. Judge Dodd practiced law in New Orleans for nearly 20 years before his appointment to the bench in May 2002. He has taught advanced bankruptcy law at Tulane Law School and currently serves as an adjunct professor of law at the LSU Law Center, teaching a seminar in bankruptcy reorganization.

Judge Meredith S. Grabill
United States Bankruptcy Judge
US Bankruptcy Court, Eastern District of Louisiana
The Honorable Meredith S. Grabill currently serves in the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana. Prior to taking the bench in September 2019, she practiced primarily in the areas of bankruptcy, commercial, and oil-and-gas litigation in New York and Louisiana. In her practice, she served on bankruptcy teams representing publicly traded, closely held, and individual chapter 11 debtors; official unsecured creditors’ committees; and corporate creditors. Outside of bankruptcy court, she has represented large and multinational corporations in antitrust proceedings, labor and contract disputes, and insurance and reinsurance disputes.
Judge Grabill served as a judicial clerk to The Honorable Edith Brown Clement in the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, The Honorable Martin L.C. Feldman in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana, and The Honorable Martin Glenn in the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York. She earned her J.D. from Tulane Law School, where she served as Editor in Chief of the Tulane Law Review, and received a B.A. from The Evergreen State College in Olympia, Washington.

Judge John S. Hodge
United States Bankruptcy Judge
U.S. Bankruptcy Court
http://www.lawb.uscourts.gov
John S. Hodge serves as a U.S. Bankruptcy Judge for the Western District of Louisiana. Prior to his appointment in 2018, he served as a Chapter 7 bankruptcy trustee and was a member of a Shreveport law firm where his practice focused on bankruptcy, commercial litigation and commercial real estate. He holds a Bachelor of Science in Accounting from Louisiana State University, and a J. D. from Louisiana State University Law Center.

Judge John W. Kolwe
Chief United States Bankruptcy Judge
US Bankruptcy Court for the Western District of Louisiana
John W. Kolwe was appointed United States Bankruptcy Judge by the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, effective August 12, 2015. He was sworn in by Bankruptcy Judge Robert R. Summerhays and served in the Alexandria and Monroe Divisions of the Western District of Louisiana until April 25, 2019. On October 5, 2018, he was appointed to the Lafayette and Lake Charles Divisions to fill the vacancy left by Judge Summerhays. He served as Chief Judge for the Western District of Louisiana from April 2018 to April 2023. He received his B.S. in Accounting from Centenary College of Louisiana in 1985. Following graduation from Centenary, Judge Kolwe worked as a CPA. Judge Kolwe received his J.D. in 1991from the Paul M. Hebert Law Center. He practiced law in Lafayette, Louisiana from 1991 until joining the bench. John is presently the Fifth Circuit Governor of the National Conference of Bankruptcy Judges. He is also a member of the Dean’s Council for the LSU Paul M. Hebert Law Center. John and his wife, Miriam, reside in Lafayette, Louisiana, where they raised their two children.

Judge Stephen D. Wheelis
Judge
United States Bankruptcy Court for the Western District of Louisiana
http://www.lawb.uscourts.gov
Stephen D. Wheelis was appointed by the U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals on April 25, 2019 to serve as a Bankruptcy Judge for the U. S. Bankruptcy Court, W. D. of Louisiana at Alexandria and Monroe. Prior to his appointment, he was a shareholder of Wheelis & Rozanski, APLC, in Alexandria for over 20 years and initially practiced as a partner with Provosty, Sadler & deLaunay for 14 years.
His practice included representation of creditors and trustees in all bankruptcy chapters, banking, business & commercial law, litigation & appeals. He actively practiced bankruptcy law throughout all Districts of Louisiana and in many other states, pro hac vice.
He is a Board Certified Business Bankruptcy Specialist, certified by the Louisiana Supreme Court and the American Board of Certification since January 1, 1997. He served from 2011-2019 on the Board of Directors of the American Board of Certification, the Standards and Faculty Committees. He has been a member of the American Bankruptcy Institute for more than 20 years. He served as a member of the LSBA Bankruptcy Law Advisory Commission, 1995 - 1998 and 2018-2019, and chaired the LSBA Board of Legal Specialization from 2009-2010. He served as an Assistant Bar Examiner for Code III from 2005-2019 and held memberships in the Louisiana Bankers Association, serving on the Bank Counsel Committee, as well as the Louisiana State, American and Alexandria Bar Associations.
On December 3, 2021, He was appointed to a 3 year term as the 5th Circuit representative on the Bankruptcy Judges Advisory Group for the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts. He is currently a member of the Crossroads American Inns of Court, The Judge Jerry A. Brown Louisiana Bankruptcy Inn of Court, the Federal Bar Association, The National Conference of Bankruptcy Judges, serving as Chair of the NextGeneration Committee, and an Associate Member of NACTT.
He appeared consecutively in the annual editions of Louisiana Super Lawyers, Business Bankruptcy/Creditor Rights, from 2007-2019. He previously served as an adjunct professor for paralegal studies at Northwestern State University and Louisiana College and taught courses for the American Institute of Banking.
Judge Wheelis received his J.D. Degree in 1985 from Tulane University School of Law and his B.A. in Legal Studies from Northeast Louisiana University (now ULM) in 1981.