Hon. Michael G. Williamson

Judge Michael G. Williamson is chief judge of the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Middle District of Florida -- one of the largest districts in the United States with courthouses in Jacksonville, Orlando, Tampa, and Ft. Myers and approximately 38,000 pending cases. He also currently serves as an Adjunct Professor at Stetson University College of Law teaching Bankruptcy Law and as Co-Author of West’s Bankruptcy Law Manual.

Judge Williamson graduated from Duke University in 1973 and from Georgetown University Law Center in 1976. He began his bankruptcy practice serving as a Chapter 7 panel trustee from 1977 to 1979. Thereafter, in the following 20 years, he represented numerous Chapter 11 corporate debtors, creditors' committees, and trustees in bankruptcy cases pending throughout the state of Florida until his appointment to the bankruptcy bench on March 1, 2000.

Judge Williamson is past chair of the Committee on Creditors' Rights, Section of Litigation, American Bar Association; past chair of the Business Law Section of The Florida Bar and that section's Bankruptcy/UCC Committee; and a Fellow of the American College of Bankruptcy.