The highlight of the Insolvency Conference on Coronado Island this year was the interview of Judge Alex Kozinski on Friday afternoon. Judge Peter Bowie (Ret.) started off by asking Judge Kozinski for a word that describes who he is and what he is all about. The word? – handsome! He asked Judge Kozinski about his early life in Romania and his life after that in Vienna – when he first tasted ice cream and “immediately became a capitalist.”
After clerking for 9th Circuit Judge Anthony Kennedy and US Supreme Court Justice Warren Burger, his first job was with Quittner, Stutman, Triester & Glatt. He was sworn in as a US citizen sometime in those years by Judge Harry Pregerson, then a district court judge, now his colleague on the 9th Circuit. Judge Kozinski gushed about what a great judge William Lazarow was and determined to be like him. After joining the 9th Circuit himself in 1985 at 35 years old, he somehow wangled himself the the job of running Judge Lisa Fenning’s calendar while she was off on maternity leave. He described the effort as “the hordes coming at your.” He was not derisive in the slightest. The bankruptcy world has a lot of people who need help and the bankruptcy judge deals with that every day. He said that bankruptcy “brings order from chaos.” For that reason it is important.
There is a great hour-log interview with Judge Kozinski on youtube here. Pretty fun.