Pamela Pepper named EDW bankruptcy judge

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The Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals has announced the appointment of Pamela Pepper as a U.S. bankruptcy judge for the Eastern District of Wisconsin. Pepper, a Milwaukee sole practitioner, will take the bench July 5.

"I’m very excited about doing this job and having this opportunity," Pepper said in an interview at her law office. "I’m also humbled by having the opportunity."

Although Pepper has not practiced bankruptcy law, her legal career has focused on the federal court system. She started out as a prosecutor, then went out on her own as a criminal defense attorney.

After graduating with her J.D. from Cornell Law School in Ithaca, New York, Pepper spent one year clerking for 11th Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Frank M. Johnson Jr., who was a former prosecutor. The experience of clerking for Johnson from 1989-90 sparked both her interest in being a prosecutor and later her interest in the bench.

"Judge Johnson talked a lot about being a prosecutor," Pepper recalled. "He always said that the thing he thought was best about being a prosecutor was that you had the luxury of doing the right thing.

"You didn’t have an individual client whose judgment might sometimes be impaired. You didn’t have constituents like a [legislator]. Your only job, albeit a very hard one, was to do what was right. If that means not charging a person, if that means charging a person to the max, whatever it is, that’s the only duty you have."

In 1990, she became an assistant U.S. attorney for the Northern District of Illinois where she worked her way up to the Organized Crime and Drug Enforcement Task Force.

After four years in Chicago, she moved to Milwaukee as an A.U.S.A in the Eastern District of Wisconsin. In 1997, she decided to go into private practice. At that point, she made the switch from prosecution to criminal defense.

Pepper acknowledged that as a young prosecutor, she could not understand when opposing counsel had gone from prosecuting to defending. However, by the time she was ready to leave the U.S. Attorney’s Office, she was drawn to the idea of helping criminal defendants navigate a justice system they did not understand.

"That notion was attractive to me in a way that I was too young and naïve for it to be when I started out as a prosecutor," Pepper explained.

"Oddly enough, as you are exposed more to these people, you begin to realize that they are humans. They are not simply generic, cartoon cutout bad guys. They are human beings who had various forces in their lives that led them to make stupid decisions."

Although she has done some criminal work in the state court system, Pepper said, most of her efforts have been focused in the federal system. Having grown up professionally in the federal courts has given her an understanding and comfort with federal rules and processes, she said.

The experience of clerking for Johnson planted seeds which grew into an interest in the federal bench. As she began considering possibilities, she discussed the vacancy on the bankruptcy bench with a number of people. The more she learned about it, the more intrigued she became with the process.

"The notion that it was a court of equity was attractive to me," Pepper said. She liked the fact that it was a code-based system and found the problem-solving nature of the court appealing.

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When she comes to the bench, Pepper said, she will bring a pretty strong background in the federal rules of evidence and procedure. She also believes her enthusiasm will help, as well as the organizational skills she developed running her own practice.

Part of her time will be spent on the Southern District of Illinois’ U.S.
bankruptcy bench in East St. Louis. That role was previously filled by Judge James K. Coachys from Indianapolis.

In late May, the Seventh Circuit announced Pepper’s appointment to a 14-year term. She will fill a vacancy created in 1996 when Judge Charles N. Clevert moved from the bankruptcy bench to the district court bench.

She is the incoming president of the Milwaukee Bar Association and has spent the past year chairing the Board of Governors for the State Bar of Wisconsin.

Tony Anderson can be reached by email.