2025 Recipient of the Judge Alicemarie H. Stotler Award

The Hon. Theodor C. Albert

The Honorable Theodor C. Albert was born at Fort Sill Army base in Oklahoma on April 2, 1953. After spending time in Massachusetts, Judge Albert moved with his family to Walnut, California. Judge Albert graduated from Stanford University in 1975 with a history degree, and UCLA in 1978 with a law degree.

Likely because he was destined to a life in bankruptcy, Judge Albert’s graduation from law school coincided with the enactment of the Bankruptcy Reform Act in 1978. Judge Albert’s foray into bankruptcy law occurred during the infancy and formative stages of the Bankruptcy Code. Given his early ties to the Bankruptcy Code, it is fitting that Judge Albert’s jurisprudence added meat to the bones of the Bankruptcy Code.

After law school, Judge Albert accepted an associate position at Corbett, Steelman & Davidson in Los Angeles. Four years later, Judge Albert moved his practice to Buchalter’s Orange County office.

Judge Albert was appointed as a chapter 7 panel trustee in 1998 for the Santa Ana Division of the Bankruptcy Court. He served as a chapter 7 trustee until 2005.

In 1995, Judge Albert formed Albert, Weiland & Golden with Jeffrey Golden, Michael Weiland, Evan Smiley, and Lei Lei Wang Ekvall (the 2022 Stotler Award recipient). In a few short years, the firm blossomed into a mid-size bankruptcy boutique where he worked with and mentored several attorneys, partners and associates prominent in the field. In addition to those already mentioned, they included Phil Strok, Steven Katzman, Stephen Biegenzahn, Kyra Andrassy, Reem Bello, Hutch Meltzer, California Supreme Court Justice Marcus Kaufman, Michael Heyman, now the United States Attorney for the District of Alaska, and our own Judge Autumn Spaeth, FBA/OC Immediate Past President.

Judge Albert was a frequent speaker on bankruptcy-related topics and very involved in the local legal community. In 2000, and in recognition of his contributions to the Orange County bankruptcy community, the Orange County Bankruptcy Forum gave Judge Albert the inaugural Honorable Peter M. Elliott Award, an award given to members of the Orange County bankruptcy community that demonstrate the same standards of ethics and scholarship as the late Hon. Peter M. Elliott. It is the pinnacle of honors given to the Orange County bankruptcy community.

While at Albert, Weiland & Golden, Judge Albert took a sabbatical and studied ancient Roman insolvency law in Rome, Italy. As a result, he published The Insolvency Law of Ancient Rome in the California Bankruptcy Journal. Judge Albert’s article explored Roman law governing insolvency and explained in depth the transition from potential bodily dismemberment of a debtor as a punishment for an unpaid debt to a more forgiving, civilized form of debt relief that loosely resembles a bankruptcy discharge provided under the United States Bankruptcy Code.

On June 1, 2005, Judge Albert was appointed as a bankruptcy judge by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals with his chambers located in Los Angeles. After approximately 1 year of service to the Los Angeles community, Judge Albert was relocated to Santa Ana.

Judge Albert was also known as “Professor Albert.” As a professor at Chapman University’s Fowler School of Law for 14 years, Judge Albert taught bankruptcy law to hundreds of law students, many of whom have gone on to practice bankruptcy law.

In 2022, Judge Albert was elected by his peers to serve as the Chief Judge of the Bankruptcy Court for the Central District of California. Even though Judge Albert’s assumption of chief judge duties occurred three years after the COVID-19 pandemic, Judge Albert was tasked with pivoting the bankruptcy court towards remote hearings and devising rules and guidelines to assist his fellow judges with new technology.

For nearly 20 years, Judge Albert presided over bankruptcy cases and related litigation. Judge Albert was universally known as a fair, practical judge that served the Orange County community with kindness and wisdom through an “authoritative voice.” He was considerate of the interests of debtors and creditors alike and patient with self-represented parties. He was truly dedicated to a fair and intellectual application of the Bankruptcy Code to all involved.

On May 5, 2025, we lost a compassionate, brilliant and generous pillar of the Orange County legal community when Judge Albert succumbed to cancer, surrounded by friends and family. Judge Albert’s legacy is recognized by the Orange County Chapter of the Federal Bar Association.