Dennis Montali (born May 20, 1940) is an American attorney and jurist who served as a United States bankruptcy judge of the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Northern District of California.

Early life and education

Montali was born in 1940 in

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...

. His father founded Montali Winery (later Audubon Cellars) in

Berkeley Berkeley most often refers to: *Berkeley, California, a city in the United States **University of California, Berkeley, a public university in Berkeley, California * George Berkeley (1685–1753), Anglo-Irish philosopher Berkeley may also refer ...

. In 1957, at the age of 17, he was the navigator for a 40 foot sailboat in the

Transpacific Yacht Race The Transpacific Yacht Race (Transpac) is a biennial offshore yacht race held in odd-numbered years starting off the Pt. Fermin buoy in San Pedro, California and ending off Diamond Head in Hawaii, a distance of around . In even-numbered years the P ...

from Los Angeles to Hawaii. He attended

Bishop O'Dowd High School Bishop O'Dowd High School is a Catholic, co-educational, college preparatory school in Oakland, California, administered by the Roman Catholic Diocese of Oakland and named for the late auxiliary Bishop of the Archdiocese of San Francisco, Jam ...

and earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from the

University of Notre Dame The University of Notre Dame du Lac, known simply as Notre Dame ( ) or ND, is a private Catholic research university in Notre Dame, Indiana, outside the city of South Bend. French priest Edward Sorin founded the school in 1842. The main campu ...

in June, 1961. He entered the

United States Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage ...

to fulfill a four-year

Reserve Officers' Training Corps The Reserve Officers' Training Corps (ROTC ( or )) is a group of college- and university-based officer-training programs for training commissioned officers of the United States Armed Forces. Overview While ROTC graduate officers serve in all ...

commitment. After his discharge in 1965, he earned a

Juris Doctor The Juris Doctor (J.D. or JD), also known as Doctor of Jurisprudence (J.D., JD, D.Jur., or DJur), is a graduate-entry professional degree in law and one of several Doctor of Law degrees. The J.D. is the standard degree obtained to practice law ...

from the

UC Berkeley School of Law The University of California, Berkeley, School of Law (commonly known as Berkeley Law or UC Berkeley School of Law) is the law school of the University of California, Berkeley, a public research university in Berkeley, California. It is one of 1 ...

in 1968.

Career

Dennis Montali started at the law firm of Rothschild and Phelen in San Francisco in April, 1968 as a law student, returned in September, 1968, and was admitted to the bar in January, 1969. Montali practiced law with August Rothschild, Robert Phelan and Lloyd King until December, 1975, when Lloyd was appointed as the

Referee in Bankruptcy A Referee in Bankruptcy or Bankruptcy Referee was a federal official with quasi-judicial powers, appointed by a United States district court to administer bankruptcy proceedings, prior to 1979. The office was first created by the Bankruptcy Act o ...

in San Francisco. Montali continued on with what became the law firm of Rothschild, Phelan & Montali. Montali joined the legal giant Pillsbury, Madison & Sutro in 1980 and stayed there until he was appointed as a judge in 1993. During the early part of his career, Dennis Montali became an established expert in bankruptcy law representing debtors. While at the law firm of Pillsbury, Madison & Sutro, he became a creditor's attorney, where he became nationally known for his knowledge of bankruptcy law. He has been a member of numerous judicial and professional organizations, including the National Conference of Bankruptcy Judges and the

American College of Bankruptcy The American College of Bankruptcy is a professional organization for bankruptcy judges, lawyers, international fellows, and accountants An accountant is a practitioner of accounting or accountancy. Accountants who have demonstrated competency ...

Federal judicial service

Dennis Montali was appointed by the U.S. Court of Appeals in San Francisco to be a United States Bankruptcy Judge on April 23, 1993, and reappointed April 22, 2007. His term expired in April 2021. Judge Dennis Montali was a member of the

Bankruptcy Appellate Panel A Bankruptcy Appellate Panel (abbreviated BAP) is authorized b28 U.S.C. § 158(b)to hear, with the consent of all parties, appeals from the decisions of the United States bankruptcy courts in their district that otherwise would be heard by distri ...

for the

Ninth Circuit The United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit (in case citations, 9th Cir.) is the U.S. federal court of appeals that has appellate jurisdiction over the U.S. district courts in the following federal judicial districts: * District ...

from May, 2000 to May, 2010, and was Chief Judge from 2009 to 2010.

Notable bankruptcy cases

Judge Dennis Montali presided over the bankruptcy of Pacific Gas & Electric Company (PG&E) that was filed in April, 2001. At the time, it was the largest utility bankruptcy in U.S. history. Judge Dennis Montali presided over the bankruptcy of PG&E that was filed in January, 2019. Again, this was the largest utility bankruptcy in U.S. history, and was also one of the most complex in U.S. history.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Montali, Dennis 1940 births Living people American lawyers and judges of Italian descent California lawyers Lawyers from San Francisco Judges of the United States bankruptcy courts Law in the San Francisco Bay Area University of California, Berkeley alumni 21st-century American judges American politicians of Italian descent