Rachel Blise appointed Eastern District bankruptcy judge

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Rachel M. Blise has been appointed to a 14-year term as a U.S. bankruptcy judge for the Eastern District of Wisconsin.

Chief Judge Diane S. Sykes of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit announced Blise’s appointment on Thursday.

Blise will take the oath of office and join the bench in Milwaukee on March 17. She succeeds the former bankruptcy judge Brett H. Ludwig, who was appointed to the Eastern District last September.

Blise is now senior counsel at Foley & Lardner. She’s been with the firm since 2011 as part of its business-litigation and bankruptcy-practice groups. Before joining the firm, she clerked for Fifth Circuit Judge Carolyn Dineen King in Houston. She’s a 2010 Marquette University Law School graduate.

Blise serves on the Board of Directors for the Eastern District of Wisconsin Bar Association and is one of the chairs of the civil committee. She’s also a member of the Board of Directors for the Milwaukee Bar Association, a past chair of the MBA’s bankruptcy section, a member of the Seventh Circuit Bar Association and a past associate member of the Thomas E. Fairchild Inn of Courts. Her pro bono work includes offering her services to the Wisconsin Women’s Business Initiative Corporation, Milwaukee Habitat for Humanity and the Milwaukee Justice Center. Follow @WLJReporter