PRESS RELEASE
MICHAEL E. RIDGWAY
The Honorable William Jay Riley, Chief Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit, announced the court has appointed Michael E. Ridgway of Minneapolis, Minnesota, as a United States Bankruptcy Judge for the District of Minnesota. Judge Ridgway joins Chief Judge Gregory Kishel and Judges Robert Kressel, Dennis O’Brien, and Kathleen Sanberg presiding in the bankruptcy court.
Judge Ridgway is a 1978 graduate of Yankton College (S.D.) and a 1981 graduate of the University of Notre Dame Law School. He currently serves as a Trial Attorney with the United States Trustee’s Program in Minneapolis. Before that position, he was an Assistant United States Attorney in the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of South Dakota, where he handled both civil and criminal matters, including bankruptcy, asset forfeiture, and prosecutions of white collar fraud cases. Judge Ridgway also has extensive litigation experience having been in private practice for 17 years and serving as an elected county prosecutor for over five years. In October 2011, he was among a group of seven United States Trustee Program employees receiving the United States Attorney General’s Distinguished Service Award, the Department of Justice’s second highest award for employee performance, for “Exceptional Work to Address Misconduct and Abusive Practices in the U.S. Bankruptcy System.” For more information contact: Millie B. Adams, Circuit Executive (314) 244- 2600.