Hon. Paul M. Black was appointed as United States Bankruptcy Judge for the Western District of Virginia in 2014. He currently serves as Chief Judge of that court. A native of Roanoke, Virginia, Judge Black received his undergraduate degree from Washington and Lee University in 1982, studied at Cambridge University in England, and received his law degree from the University of Richmond in 1985. He then served as law clerk to the Honorable Blackwell N. Shelley, United States Bankruptcy Judge for the Eastern District of Virginia. After practicing law in Richmond for several years, he returned to Roanoke where he was a member of the regional firm of Spilman Thomas & Battle, PLLC. At Spilman, he was co-chair of the Bankruptcy and Creditor’s Rights practice group, and his practice focused on commercial litigation, bankruptcy, and banking and finance law. In private practice, he was named to Best Lawyers in multiple areas related to finance and insolvency, to Virginia’s “Legal Elite” by Virginia Business magazine in both Civil Litigation and Bankruptcy Law, and as a Virginia SuperLawyer in the field of Bankruptcy Law. For many years, he was an active participant in the Boyd-Graves Conference of the Virginia Bar Association, which studies and makes recommendations to the Virginia legislature on improvements to civil practice in Virginia. Judge Black was past chair of the Litigation Section of the Virginia State Bar, and also chair of the Bankruptcy Section of the Virginia Bar Association. He served as a member of the Virginia State Bar Disciplinary Board from 2007-2013. He is co-chair of the Legislative Committee of the National Conference of Bankruptcy Judges. Judge Black is a frequent speaker to insolvency professionals on matters pertaining to bankruptcy, litigation, and ethics.

Rosalie Pemberton Fessier, Esquire, is a shareholder of the firm of Timberlake Smith in Staunton, Virginia. She regularly defends constitutional officers, local governmental entities, the Commonwealth of Virginia, and their officers and employees in suits filed in federal and state court. Ms. Fessier serves on the Local Rules Advisory Committee for the Western District of Virginia and is a member of the Boyd-Graves Conference. She has served on the Board of Governors for the Virginia Bar Association as well as on the Virginia Law Foundation Committee on Continuing Legal Education. Ms. Fessier is a co-author of “Ch. 4: Motions Practice.” The Federal Civil Practice in Virginia, VaCLE (2017-2023) and serves on the VA CLE faculty for the biannual seminar: Trying Cases in the Western District of Virginia.