Eric L. Frank has been serving as a bankruptcy judge serving in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania since February 2006. Prior to taking the bench, Judge Frank had more than 27 years experience as a bankruptcy practitioner and was counsel in several cases that were decided by the U.S. Supreme Court and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit. While in practice, Judge Frank was a shareholder in DiDonato and Winterhalter, P.C. (from 2004 to 2006), a partner in Miller, Frank & Miller (from 1991 to 2004) and a supervising attorney at Community Legal Services, Inc. (from 1978 to 1991), all in Philadelphia, PA. He served as a law clerk to the late Justice Samuel J. Roberts of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court in 1976-77 and U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Bruce I. Fox in 1986-87. From 1998 to 2005, Judge Frank served as a member of the federal Judicial Conference Advisory Committee on the Federal Rules of Bankruptcy Procedure. He is a Contributing Author to the treatise Collier on Bankruptcy (15th rev. ed.). Judge Frank is a past Chair of the Steering Committee of the Eastern District of Pennsylvania Bankruptcy Conference and a past President of the Board of Directors of the Consumer Bankruptcy Assistance Project in Philadelphia, which provides referrals and representation in chapter 7 bankruptcy cases on a pro bono basis for eligible, indigent persons. Judge Frank received his J.D. from the University of Pennsylvania Law School in 1976, where he served on the Law Review, and his B.A. from the State University of New York at Binghamton in 1973.

Eugene R. Wedoff has served as a bankruptcy judge in the Northern District of Illinois (in Chicago) since 1987 and as chief judge from 2002 to 2007. He drafted the model Chapter 13 plan used in that district. Judge Wedoff has been a member of the Advisory Committee on Bankruptcy Rules since 2004 and served as its chair 2010-2014. He was a member of the working group that drafted the means test forms implementing provisions of the 2005 bankruptcy amendment. Judge Wedoff is currently the past president of the National Conference of Bankruptcy Judges. He has served as a member of the NCBJ’s Board of Governors, as its secretary, and as chair of its education committee. He is a member of the American Bankruptcy Institute and has served as an officer and member of its Executive Committee. He is a fellow of the American College of Bankruptcy and a member of the National Bankruptcy Conference. He presided over the Chapter 11 reorganization of United Air Lines. Judge Wedoff is the author of the chapter on professional employment in Queenan, Hendel and Hillinger, Chapter 11 Theory and Practice (LRP Publications, 1994), and has been an associate editor of The American Bankruptcy Law Journal. His article, “Means Testing in the New § 707(b),” was published by the American Bankruptcy Law Journal in 2005. Judge Wedoff is a frequent lecturer and has served as a member of the Federal Judicial Center’s Committee on Bankruptcy Judge Education. In 2009, he received the Lawrence P. King Award from the Commercial Law League, and in 1995, he received the Excellence in Education Award from the NCBJ.

John Rao is an attorney with the National Consumer Law Center, Inc. Mr. Rao focuses on consumer credit and bankruptcy issues and has served as a panelist and instructor at numerous bankruptcy and consumer law trainings and conferences. He has served as an expert witness in court cases and has testified in Congress on consumer matters. Mr. Rao is a contributing author and editor of NCLC’s Consumer Bankruptcy Law and Practice; co-author of NCLC’s Foreclosures; Bankruptcy Basics; Guide to Surviving Debt; and NCLC Reports: Bankruptcy and Foreclosures Edition, and contributing author to NCLC’s Student Loan Law. He is also a contributing author to Collier on Bankruptcy and the Collier Bankruptcy Practice Guide. Mr. Rao serves as a member of the federal Judicial Conference Advisory Committee on Bankruptcy Rules, appointed by Chief Justice John Roberts in 2006. He is a conferee of the National Bankruptcy Conference, fellow of the American College of Bankruptcy, vice-president for the National Association of Consumer Bankruptcy Attorneys, and former board member for the American Bankruptcy Institute. He is an adjunct faculty member at Boston College School of Law. Mr. Rao is a graduate of Boston University and received his J.D. in 1982 from the University of California (Hastings).