AWLA celebrates Women's History Month and International Women's Day by recognizing Arizona’s First Woman Appointed as a Bankruptcy Judge.
In 1986, the Hon. Sarah Sharer Curley was the first woman appointed a bankruptcy judge in Arizona. She served in that position until 2014 when she retired. She was also the Court’s first woman to serve as Chief Judge from 2001-2005. While Chief Judge, she helped implement an electronic filing system for all cases and proceedings, developed a strategic planning process that encouraged all stakeholders in the system to have a voice, and spearheaded the creation and implementation of the self-help center to provide court access to those not represented by an attorney.
When she came to Arizona, one of the first legal organizations that she joined was the Arizona Women Lawyers Association, the organization having welcomed her with a reception, a gavel, and an embroidered robe. So meaningful was the gift to her that she utilized the robe for her twenty-eight years on the bench. Her remembrance of that special moment is celebrated in her recent online newsletter/blog at https://sarahsharercurley.substack.com/p/the-embroidered-robe.
In 1988, she became a member of another local organization, Soroptimist International of Phoenix, Inc., a club chartered in 1936. The Club is part of Soroptimist International, Inc., an international organization, which has NGO status with the United Nations, and whose mission is to “provide women and girls with access to education and training they need to achieve economic empowerment.” Over the years, she has been an active member, serving on the Board, as its President in 2006-2007, and currently as parliamentarian.
Having previously been a member of the Lorna Lockwood Inn of Court, Phoenix, Arizona (1995-2001), she believed that a bankruptcy Inn of Court would be beneficial to lawyers. Through the strategic planning process, she became a founding master and the first President (2011-2012) of the Arizona Bankruptcy American Inn of Court, which promotes professionalism and provides a mentoring experience for those in the bankruptcy practice. She served as a pro tempore judge of the Ninth Circuit’s Bankruptcy Appellate Panel from 1993-1998. She is the author of over 90 published opinions, a number of which have been cited by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals or were a decision of its Bankruptcy Appellate Panel.
While serving as an adjunct professor at the Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law, Arizona State University, she created and taught several courses in commercial and consumer bankruptcy law. Starting in 2009, and even after her retirement from 2014 -2018, she taught a course on bankruptcy reorganizations, municipal bankruptcies, and cross-border insolvencies, In 2020, she created and taught a course on consumer bankruptcy law.
She has been active in the American Bar Association’s Judicial Division, serving as a member of the Executive Committee of the National Conference of Federal Trial Judges (2010-2013), and as the first Co-Chair of the Bench/Bar Bankruptcy Council (2005-2006), its Vice Chair (2006-2007), and as the Judicial Division’s Liaison to the ABA Commission on Women in the Profession (2008-2009). She has also provided assistance to the National Conference of Bankruptcy Judges, finishing a three-year term on the Finance Committee, and serving on the budget advisory committee. She has been active in the National Association of Women Judges (“NAWJ”), having previously served as an officer, director, or on the board of the organization.
Before being appointed a bankruptcy judge, she was a senior-level counsel for First Wisconsin Corporation in Milwaukee, Wisconsin (1982-1986), and an associate attorney with Otterbourg, Steindler, Houston & Rosen in New York City (1979-1982) and a small, boutique law firm, concentrating on bankruptcy practice and complex litigation.
Judge Curley graduated from Mount Holyoke College (B. A. Degree), South Hadley, Massachusetts, and received her J. D., cum laude, from New York Law School (member, Law Review). She has lectured extensively in the bankruptcy area, including seminars for the Judicial Division of the American Bar Association, the National Association of Women Judges, the State and local bar associations in Arizona, and the American Bankruptcy Institute.
Articles and Publications:
An op-ed published in Newsweek, June 2022, on the student loan crisis: https://www.newsweek.com/dont-cancel-student-loans-let-bankruptcy-law-forgive-them-opinion-1717664
Sellers and Buyers Beware: New Developments in the Sale of Assets, 38 Am. Bankr. Inst. J. (Issue 10, 2019, pp. 26-27), and 39 Am. Bankr. Inst. J. (Issue 1, 2020, pp. 44-45, and 75). Article cited in “Better than a Discharge,” Epstein, David G., and Bowens, Tevin, 71 Syracuse Law Review 443, at 447 (2021).
Where to Hide? How Valuation of Derivatives Haunts the Courts–Even After BAPCPA, 83 American Bankr. L.J.. 297 (Issue 2 2009).
The Bankruptcy Card and How to Play It, published by the National Association of women Judges, was one of the first books to provide guidance to state court and non-bankruptcy judges in how to proceed with bankruptcy issues that might arise in their courts after the enactment, in 2005, of the Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and the Consumer Protection Act (BAPCPA). The book is still listed on the website of the National Conference of Bankruptcy Judges, Resources Area, as used by the Arizona Bankruptcy Court.
Professional Honors:
Arizona’s Finest Lawyers-selected January 2011;
American Bar Foundation (selected to be a Fellow in May 2007);
National Association of Women Judges, the Justice Vaino Spencer Leadership Award (2007);
Arizona Women Lawyers Association, Maricopa County Chapter Award for Professional Achievements, Contribution to the Legal Profession, and the Advancement of Women in the Profession (November 2005);
National Association of Women Judges, Lexis/Nexis “Best Project Award,” October 2003.
She has also established herself as a professional artist, having been juried into local, regional, national, and internationals shows. She is currently exhibiting her art at The Finer Arts Gallery, Cave Creek, AZ. You may view her work on https://www.sarahcurleyart.com; https://www.sarahcurleyfineart.com; and https://www.sarahcurleyfineartstudies.com