Appeals 101: Practical Tips and Considerations in Bankruptcy Appeals

Hon. Thomas L. Saladino is Chief Bankruptcy Judge for the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Nebraska in Omaha, sworn in on Aug. 31, 2006, and named chief judge in 2008. He was appointed to the Eighth Circuit Bankruptcy Appellate Panel in 2009.

Previously, Judge Saladino was with the firm of Fitzgerald, Schorr, Barmettler & Brennan, P.C., L.L.O. in Omaha, where he specialized in real estate law, banking law, finance, bankruptcy and debtor/creditor relations. Until his judicial appointment, he had spent his entire legal career at the Fitzgerald, Schorr law firm.

Judge Saladino has been a speaker at numerous seminars and training programs pertaining to commercial lending, commercial leasing, landlord/tenant law and bankruptcy law. Prior to his appointment, he was a member of the Building Owners and Managers Association of Omaha, Nebraska, and ABI, and a Fellow in the American College of Mortgage Attorneys.

Judge Saladino received his B.B.A. from Creighton University and his J.D. magna cum laude in 1987 from Creighton University School of Law, where he served as editor of the Creighton Law Review.

Hon. Janice M. Karlin was appointed as a U.S. Bankruptcy Judge for the District of Kansas in Topeka in 2002 and is in her second five-year term on the Bankruptcy Appellate Panel for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit. She became Chief Judge of the Tenth Circuit BAP on Sept. 4, 2015. Before taking the bench, Judge Karlin served as an assistant U.S. attorney for 22 years, concentrating on civil litigation in the federal courts. She also served as an adjunct professor of trial practice at the University of Kansas.

Judge Karlin chairs the Bankruptcy Judges Advisory Group to the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts, is the court’s liaison to the Bankruptcy Bench Bar Committee, and serves on the board of editors of the Journal of the Kansas Bar Association. She is also a member of the National Conference of Bankruptcy Judges, ABI, the American and Kansas Bar Associations, and the Women Attorney Association of Topeka.

Judge Karlin received her undergraduate and law degrees from the University of Kansas and served as note and comment editor for the Kansas University Law Review.

Dana M. Estes is a staff attorney for Richard V. Fink, the standing chapter 13 trustee for the Western District of Missouri in Kansas City. She has been with the trustee’s office since 2004.

Ms. Estes has represented the trustee before the Bankruptcy Appellate Panel for the Eighth Circuit and the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals. She is licensed to practice law in Missouri and Kansas, is a member of the Missouri Bar Association and is the president-elect of the Kansas City Bankruptcy Bar Association. Ms. Estes has been a panelist and speaker at local and national seminars on a variety of chapter 13 topics.

She received her undergraduate degree from William Jewell College and her J.D. from Washington University School of Law.