Bangor man state bankruptcy judge

BANGOR – Louis H. Kornreich, a longtime Bangor lawyer, will become the state’s newest federal bankruptcy judge, it was announced Thursday.

Kornreich, 51, will be assigned to the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Bangor, filling a vacancy soon to be created by the transfer of U.S. Bankruptcy Chief Judge James B. Haines Jr. to Portland.

Haines, who has presided in Bangor for several years, will make a professional move this spring to Portland to fill a vacancy created by the pending retirement of southern Maine bankruptcy judge James A. Goodman.

Pending a final security check, Kornreich will assume the $133,492-a-year position, most likely in March. Judge Goodman, with whom Kornreich practiced law in the 1970s, is scheduled to retire March 21.

An initial pool of 18 applied for the position, which is a 14-year appointment. Kornreich was one of three finalists to be interviewed for the post in Boston on Jan. 8.

Chief Judge Juan R. of the 1st Circuit Court of Appeals in Boston announced the appointment. The 1st Circuit Court of Appeals encompasses federal courts in Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island and Puerto Rico.

In a news release, Torruella said Kornreich’s “wide experience and impressive understanding of bankruptcy law” will “enhance the reputation of an already distinguished court.”

Kornreich said Thursday he was “very honored that the 1st Circuit Court of Appeals has selected me for this position.”

A New York native, Kornreich has practiced law in Bangor for more then 25 years and soon will relinquish his legal duties at the Bangor firm of Gross, Minsky, Mogul and Singal.

He is a former colleague of U.S. District Judge George Z. Singal who was appointed to a federal judgeship in Bangor last summer.

He is married to Patricia Kornreich and the Bangor couple has four daughters.

Kornreich received a law degree from the Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C., in 1974. After serving as a first lieutenant in the U.S. Army Reserve from 1974 to 1975, he became an associate in 1975 at the Bangor firm of Goodman and Kornreich where he practiced with then-attorney James A. Goodman with an emphasis on bankruptcy law and Chapter 11 reorganizations. In 1982 Kornreich joined the firm of Gross, Minsky, Mogul and Singal. For the past 20 years, Kornreich also has served as an appellate judge for the Penobscot Nation in Old Town.

An eight-member search committee co-chaired by two federal appeals judges – Kermit Lipez of Portland and Conrad Cyr of Bangor – eventually recommended four finalists for the job to the Judicial Council of the 1st Circuit. That council then selected three finalists, and Kornreich was picked after an interview before the entire 1st Circuit Court of Appeals panel of judges.

Members of the search panel included Bangor lawyers Thomas M. Brown, Robert E. Sutcliffe, Susan R. Kominsky and Dawn M. Pelletier. Also serving on the panel were Portland lawyer George J. Marcus, the Rev. Dr. Ansley Coe Throckmorton, president of the Bangor Theological Seminary, and Lois Lupica, professor at the University of Maine School of Law, Portland.

Lipez said the members of the selection panel “felt we had an excellent group of candidates, and, in the end, we concluded Louis Kornreich, because of his extensive experience in the practice of bankruptcy law, including commercial litigation, and his many presentations in bankruptcy law at various seminars was superbly qualified,” Lipez said Thursday.