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H
on. Richard M. Neiter, U.S. bankruptcy judge
for the Central District of California, was
sworn in during February 2006, after more
than 40 years of private practice at Stutman,
Treister & Glatt Professional Corp. Judge
Neiter’s knowledge and experience derived from decades
of representing parties to large, complex bankruptcy cases
serves him and the parties who appear before him well. He
also brings to his courtroom the energy, intelligence, open-
mindedness, compassion, and patience that marked his
long and successful career in private practice.
Judge Neiter grew up in Los Angeles and attended
Hamilton High School, the University of California at Los
Angeles, and the University of Southern California Gould
School of Law. Judge Neiter’s appointment as a bankruptcy
judge is not his first judicial appointment: in his senior
year, he served as a chief justice of Hamilton High School’s
Supreme Court.
The judge’s father, Harry, passed away when Richard was
12. His father had run two grocery stores in partnership with
Richard’s uncle. When Harry passed away, Richard’s mother,
Ida, became actively involved in managing the markets. Judge
Neiter worked his way through school at those markets.
Judge Neiter has always been a tenacious competitor. At
Hamilton High School, he was a star sprinter. Now he spends
time most weekends playing tennis. His older brother, Jerry
Neiter, a retired lawyer who practiced for decades in Los
Angeles after graduating from the same law school a few years
ahead of Richard, says that when they both worked at the
family grocery stores, they were the two fastest cashiers, but
to this day they do not agree on which of them was faster. This
competitive streak was a valuable attribute in Judge Neiter’s
career as a practicing attorney.
At UCLA, Judge Neiter was an active member of the Pi
Lambda Phi fraternity, where he became friends with Rafer
Johnson, a track star in his own right. Judge Neiter received
a Bachelor of Science degree with honors from UCLA in 1959
and went directly to the law school at USC. He served as a
member of the board of editors of the Southern California
Law Review from 1960 to 1962, when he received his J.D.
He later served on the board of trustees at the Law School
Alumni Center.
Judicial Profile
Hon. Richard M. Neiter
U.S. Bankruptcy Judge for the Central District
of California
by Jeffrey C. Krause
Jeffrey Krause is a partner and co-head of the Business Restructuring and Reorganization Practice
Group at Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP. He spent almost 25 years of his practice working with
Judge Neiter at Stutman, Treister & Glatt Professional Corp. and extends his appreciation to Theo-
dore B. Stolman and others at the firm for their assistance in providing information for this article.
24
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Judge Neiter has always been an active member of his
community; he believes in giving back. He is a past president
of Temple Judea, in Tarzana, Calif., and was the chairman of
the San Fernando Valley Community Relations Committee.
In the 1970s, he was a co-founder of Achieving Personally
Planned Learning Experiences. APPLE was designed to
provide alternative learning experiences for students in Los
Angeles by bringing together members of the community
and involving parents in the educational process.
The other co-founders of APPLE included Judge
Neiter’s wife of 53 years, Lois. Lois and Judge Neiter met
when they were students at UCLA. Both share an interest
in contemporary art and love to travel; therefore, much of
their travel revolves around their passion for art. Judge
Neiter’s extensive knowledge
of contemporary art is just
one more manifestation of his
broad intellectual curiosity.
Judge
Neiter
is
the
father of two adult children,
Mark and Deborah: both
live in Los Angeles. He has
five grandsons ranging in
ages from 2 to 8 years old.
He is a devoted father and
grandfather, spending time
with his grandsons almost
every week.
Judge
Neiter
joined
Stutman, Treister & Glatt
directly out of law school.
At the time, it was the pre-
eminent bankruptcy boutique
in California and was regarded
as the “go to” firm to represent
debtors in bankruptcy cases
and out-of-court restructuring transactions. During Judge
Neiter’s tenure of more than four decades at Stutman,
Treister & Glatt, Congress enacted the Bankruptcy Reform
Act of 1978. Judge Neiter represented debtors and trustees
in complex Chapter X and Chapter XI
cases under the
former Bankruptcy Act, as well as debtors in Chapter 11
cases under the “new” Bankruptcy Code.
Judge Neiter was a mainstay of Stutman, Treister &
Glatt from 1962 until he took the bench in 2006. During
that time he was appreciated and respected by his partners
for his tremendous work ethic, his creative problem-solving
skills, and his efforts to mentor younger lawyers within the
firm. He is incredibly loyal. Not only did he stay at a single
firm for more than 40 years, for most of that time he teamed
with a single administrative assistant, Joanne Metcalf.
Judge Neiter repeatedly used his consensus-building skills,
which he brought to the representation of his clients and
now brings to his efforts as a settlement judge, to build and
maintain the firm at which he spent his entire career in
private practice.
Judge Neiter represented all types of parties in
restructuring matters, but he was best known for
representing debtors and trustees. He represented the
Chapter 11 debtors in Sambo’s Restaurants Inc. and
Wilson Foods Corp., the fifth largest meat packer in the
United States. He represented the Chapter X trustees
in Pacific Homes, the Chapter XI trustee in the San
Francisco case of Pacific Far East Line Inc., and the
federal receiver in the racketeering action involving the
Bicycle Club in Gardena. He also served as a counsel in a
liquidation under the Securities Investor Protection Act
and for the creditors committee in the Chapter 11 case of
Consolidated Freightways Corp. in the bankruptcy court
in San Bernardino.
The unique combination of skills and innate consensus-
building ability that Judge Neiter developed as a lawyer
may be best illustrated by his central role in the successful
restructuring of Pacific Homes under Chapter X of the
former Bankruptcy Act. Pacific Homes operated multiple
facilities to care for the elderly. Most of the residents at its
facilities were members of the United Methodist Church,
and many of them had purchased contracts which they
prepaid in full, in exchange for Pacific Homes’ commitment
to care for them for the remainder of their lives. As people
lived longer and medical expenses increased, the amounts
paid for these contracts proved to be grossly insufficient to
provide lifetime care, and Pacific Homes faced the inability
to continue operating its facilities and caring for its elderly
residents.
On my first day as a summer associate at Stutman,
Treister & Glatt, Judge Neiter brought me to a global
settlement meeting among the class action plaintiffs’
lawyers, who represented residents who had relied
on these contracts; the trustee for Pacific Homes; and
representatives of the United Methodist Church, which
had encouraged its members to buy these contracts. The
Church contended that it was unaffiliated with Pacific
Homes, was not responsible for its parishioners’ decisions
to buy the lifetime contracts, and could not be sued at all,
much less held liable for the obligations of Pacific Homes.
Special counsel for the trustee and class counsel for
plaintiffs’ lawyers contended that the residents who had
purchased the lifetime contracts had been misled by their
Church. At times the meeting became heated; the stakes
were extremely high. Absent a creative solution, Pacific
Homes would have been forced to close its facilities,
leaving 1,800 elderly residents without a place to live.
Many of these residents had spent their life savings on
their contracts with Pacific Homes.
The successful negotiation of a complex multiparty
settlement of the class action lawsuits and the Chapter X
reorganization case was the result of the ingenuity, hard
work, and constructive efforts of many professionals,
but none of them were more important to the ultimate
success of the Pacific Homes case than Judge Neiter and
the trustee. Their skill in building a consensus among
parties who were angry and did not trust one another
foreshadowed Judge Neiter’s success as a mediator and
a jurist. Bankruptcy Judge James E. Moriarty, before
whom the Pacific Homes Chapter X case was pending,
Judge Neiter has always
been an active member
of his community; he
believes in giving back.
He is a past president of
Temple Judea, in Tarzana,
Calif., and was the chair-
man of the San Fernando
Valley Community Rela-
tions Committee. In the
1970s, he was a
co-founder of Achieving
Personally Planned
Learning Experiences.
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described the case and the successful consensus building,
of which Judge Neiter was one of the principal architects,
as follows:
To say that this was an unusual case was putting it
mildly. During the almost twenty years the writer has
served the Bankruptcy Court, he has handled many
large and complex cases, cases involving many times
the assets and liabilities involved in this case; but
how does one place a dollar value on the well-being
and even the lives of 1,800 elderly persons?
This Court may be old-fashioned, but it believes that
there is more to life in general than a mere dollar
sign. In our modern commercial world, many persons
seem to have lost sight of the well-being of our fel-
low man.
In this case the Trustee, his counsel, and counsel for
the residents’ committee took a hopelessly insolvent
operation and by hard work and skill in a very novel
situation and over persistent and aggressive opposi-
tion converted it into a solvent, on-going operation
that should . . . be able to continue to provide these
much needed services for the community.
1
In describing Judge Neiter’s contribution to this
successful resolution, Judge Moriarty wrote as follows:
Since its inception over thirty five years ago, the
Stutman firm has specialized in Bankruptcy mat-
ters, insolvency, Debtors’ and Creditors’ rights and
corporate reorganization. In the legal community
of Los Angeles and the state of California, this firm
is considered to be one of the best. Their service in
this most unique case was certainly of the highest
level. . . .
Special Counsel was consulted and was involved in
many administrative problems due to the unusual
problems and difficulties the Debtors’ operation
presented. However, the greatest contribution of
Special Counsel was the formulation of the plan of
corporate reorganization which was finally approved
by the Court. . . .
[T]he expertise of Special Counsel was clearly evi-
dent in the plan that was developed to resolve many
unusual problems normally not encountered in a
general Chapter X proceeding.
2
In many ways, Pacific Homes is an illustration of the
skill set that Judge Neiter developed over his many years of
practice and has brought to the bankruptcy court and to his
work as a settlement judge. It involved unusual legal issues
not previously encountered and required tremendous
creativity. It required Judge Neiter and others to formulate
solutions that addressed the competing priorities of multiple
different parties. It required someone to build a consensus
among parties who did not trust one another and who had
tremendous financial and nonfinancial stakes in the ultimate
outcome. Judge Neiter listened carefully to the concerns
of all the parties. That willingness and ability to hear and
understand each party and to clearly communicate to each
party that its concerns have been heard are some of Judge
Neiter’s greatest strengths as a judge.
For me personally, the Pacific Homes matter also
demonstrated another side of Judge Neiter. I was a summer
clerk at that first meeting. Judge Neiter explained to me,
then a neophyte in bankruptcy and complex multiparty
litigation, the various dynamics in a room filled with multiple
adverse parties. He took the time to answer my questions
and clearly enjoyed teaching me.
Judge Neiter exercises these same mentoring skills
with his law clerks and externs. Lovee Sarenas has been
his senior law clerk since he was first appointed. Other law
clerks and externs rotate through Judge Neiter’s chambers.
He expects the highest quality work product from his
externs and law clerks and provides them with extensive
constructive criticism, working through with them the
detailed legal memoranda and tentative rulings that he uses
in deciding his cases. He listens carefully to the arguments
of his externs and law clerks and encourages an open
discussion of the issues presented. Sarenas describes the
debates that often takes place in the judge’s chambers as
“mini moot courts,” at which the externs and law clerks
defend their legal analyses, learning valuable advocacy
skills in the process. Judge Neiter enjoys working with these
law students and young lawyers.
Judge Neiter has far more experience than the vast
majority of counsel and parties that appear before him.
Many professionals with comparable experience become
impatient and inclined to form quick judgments without
listening to the opinions of others. Judge Neiter carefully
listens to parties and counsel. It is necessary, but not
sufficient, to give each party a full and fair hearing. Judge
Neiter seeks to ensure that each person appearing before
him believes that he or she has received a fair hearing and
understands the process, even if Judge Neiter ultimately
rules against the person.
One of the biggest differences between Judge Neiter’s
practice of law representing sophisticated parties to
complex business transactions and the cases that are
presented to him as a judge is the predominance of cases
in which individual debtors appear in propria persona or
with counsel who have very limited bankruptcy experience.
Judge Neiter gives each of the parties and the counsel
who appear before him respect and treats them with equal
personal dignity, whether they are a pro per debtor or a
senior bankruptcy specialist. He spends the extra time to
explain to them why they are before him and why he is
making the rulings that he does.
Judge Neiter is also a skilled mediator, in great part
because of his willingness to listen patiently to both the
legal arguments presented and the parties’ goals. He served
as a mediator on the bankruptcy court’s panel of volunteer
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mediators for more than 10 years. He was a member of that
panel from the time it was formed until he was sworn in as a
judge. As a member of the panel, he volunteered to conduct
a number of mediations each year without compensation. As
a bankruptcy judge, he serves as a settlement judge for other
judges in the Central District.
Jim Stang, one of the founders of Pachulski, Stang, Ziehl &
Jones, represented a party to a matter in which Judge Neiter
served as settlement judge. Stang said that Judge Neiter was
well prepared and incredibly patient. He is always prepared.
He often counseled younger lawyers at Stutman, Treister &
Glatt that it was critical that they be the most prepared lawyer
in the courtroom in every case they handled. They could not
always have the most sympathetic client, the winning case law,
or the strongest evidence, but they could always be the most
prepared advocate.
Judge Neiter’s preparation is the result of his work ethic.
When he was a senior partner at Stutman, Treister & Glatt, he
was usually the first attorney in the office. I remember thinking
how hard I was working as I encountered him in the parking
garage of our offices before 6 a.m. as we both arrived—only to
learn that earlier that morning he had already inspected the
office building at the center of a case he was litigating.
Judge Neiter brings that same work ethic and thorough
preparation to his job as a bankruptcy judge. Virtually every
matter on his calendar is the subject of a bench memorandum
and a tentative ruling prepared by one or more of his externs
and one of his law clerks. He works with them in preparing,
reviewing, and critiquing these memoranda and rulings.
Stang commented that Judge Neiter was well prepared
when he served as a settlement judge and was a very quick
study, because of his many years of experience and strong
intellect. Judge Neiter quickly understood the nuances of
the case, but Stang was more impressed by Judge Neiter’s
willingness to listen patiently to each party’s full presentation.
In the end, this enabled the parties to feel heard and to
understand their adversaries’ positions and goals.
Judge Neiter brings these skills to his job as a decision-
maker, as well. The bankruptcy process often involves
contested motions to obtain bankruptcy court approval to
engage in particular transactions or litigation. Judge Neiter
can and will recommend to parties solutions that litigants may
not have considered as alternative solutions to the contested
motions presented to him. Through his ability to listen to the
priorities of the parties and apply his decades of experience and
creative problem-solving skills, Judge Neiter can sometimes
recommend to the parties a resolution that does not require the
winner/loser dichotomy that so often results from knock-down,
drag-out litigation. David Neale, a founding member of Levene,
Neale, Bender, Rankin & Brill L.L.P., commented on Judge
Neiter’s ability to apply his years of experience to formulate
pragmatic suggestions that often enable the parties to resolve
their disputes after an initial hearing. Neale described Judge
Neiter as “an activist judge,” in the sense that he can provide
the parties with creative ideas and concrete insights that often
provide a catalyst for consensual resolutions.
That said, Judge Neiter does not hesitate to render a prompt
decision. He recognizes that making clear, prompt decisions
on individual matters presented to him minimizes wasted
time and effort by the parties and their counsel. Neale and
his adversary both had sufficient confidence in Judge Neiter’s
skills and preparation that they stipulated to have him conduct
a jury trial. The trial was ultimately canceled when the parties,
with the assistance of Judge Neiter, reached a negotiated
settlement. Neale said that Judge Neiter’s greatest strengths
include his intelligence and his extensive experience, because
these two factors combined enable him to understand both the
technical legal issues presented and the practical implications
of his decisions.
Judge Neiter brings to the bench (and to his other endeavors
in life) a strong work ethic, thorough preparation, intellect, and
an unusual combination of patience and decisiveness. Perhaps
more important than any of these individual traits is Judge
Neiter’s inherent respect for each individual who walks into his
courtroom. Like his peers, he strives to reach a fair decision
in each case presented to him. Judge Neiter’s respect for the
participants and the process drives him to go a step further to
make sure that the parties understand that they have received
a fair day in court.
Endnotes
1
In re Pacific Homes, 20 B.R. 729, 737 (Bankr. C.D. Cal.
1982).
2
Id. at 742-43.
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