About Arthur L. Moller and David B. Foltz Jr.
Arthur L. Moller (1912-1993)
Arthur Moller was born in Galveston, Texas in November 1912. He
entered the University of Texas at age 16, and earned his L.L.B.
degree in 1937 and his B.A. in 1938. Following graduation, he
joined the State Attorney General's office in Austin and
concurrently served as Special Counsel to Governor Coke Stevenson.
From 1948 to 1962, he served as Assistant U.S. Attorney, as Chief
of the Civil Division, in Houston.
In 1962, Chief U.S. District Judge Ben Connally appointed Judge
Moller as U.S. Bankruptcy Judge for the Southern District of Texas,
a position he held through June 1975. While on the bench, he was a
member of the federal Judicial Center Faculty for Bankruptcy Judges
seminars and served as Governor for the Fifth Circuit of the
National Conference of Bankruptcy Judges. In 1964, Judge Moller
began a 30-year association with Matthew Bender & Company,
publishers of Collier on Bankruptcy, and served as contributing
author for the 14th and 15th editions of that treatise. He also
served as contributing author for the Collier Bankruptcy Practice
Guide and as editorial consultant for Collier's TopForm Bankruptcy
Filing program. He taught bankruptcy as an adjunct professor at
South Texas College of Law from 1978 to 1987.
In 1975 he joined the firm of Sheinfeld, Maley & Kay as Of
Counsel. Over the next 15 years, Judge Moller played an
instrumental role in the growth of the firm into one of the
preeminent bankruptcy/creditors rights law firms in the
country. In 1990, Judge Moller joined Sheinfeld partner, David
Foltz, in the formation of David B. Foltz, Jr. & Associates,
where he served as Of Counsel. There, he remained active in both
his law practice and writing, as well as participating in various
seminars and speaking engagements until the time of his death.
Judge Moller was a member emeritus of the National Bankruptcy
Conference and a member and member emeritus of the National
Conference of Bankruptcy Judges. In 1976 became only the third
individual ever to receive the NCBJ's prestigious Herbert M. Bierce
Distinguished Judicial Service Award. In 1991 Judge Moller was
inducted as a Fellow in the American College of Bankruptcy.
Shortly before his death, the University of Texas School of Law
announced the establishment of the Arthur L. Moller Chair in
Bankruptcy Law and Practice, made possible through the generosity
of over 200 donors.
The breadth of Judge Moller's influence was due not only to his
intellectual and professional stature, but also due to his capacity
as teacher, mentor and guide, and to his untiring works as
lecturer, writer and professor. His patient, wise, and kind nature,
his profound sense of fairness, and his exemplary personal and
professional ethics provided an invaluable foundation and
incomparable legacy for hundreds of young lawyers with whom he came
into contact, both while on the bench and in his practice before
and after his tenure as a judge.
David B. Foltz, Jr. (1953-2002)
David B. Foltz, Jr. was born in Lincoln, Nebraska, where his
father was then a music professor and choral conductor, which
profession took the family from Lincoln to the University of
Wichita in Wichita, Kansas, and then to the University of Southern
Mississippi in Hattiesburg, where Dr. Foltz retired as Dean
Emeritus of the College of Fine Arts.
David graduated from Deerfield Academy in Deerfield,
Massachusetts in 1971 with honors, and thereafter attended Yale
University, where he received his B.A. degree in 1975. In 1978, he
received his J.D. degree from Tulane University, following which he
and his wife, Beth, moved to Houston, where he joined the
firm of Sheinfeld, Maley & Kay, where he became a partner in
1984.
David left the Sheinfeld firm in 1990 to form, together with his
mentor, Arthur Moller, the firm of David B. Foltz, Jr. &
Associates. With the exception of a period of time when he was in
the partnership of Kirkendall, Isgur & Foltz, David practiced
in his own firm until closing his practice in 2001 due to
illness.
Throughout his legal career, David pursued his love and great
talent for learning, teaching and writing. He authored numerous
articles on bankruptcy in addition to teaching at the Paralegal
Institute of Houston and as an adjunct professor at the University
of Texas School of Law in Austin. He was a longtime member of the
planning committee and faculty of the University of Texas School of
Law Annual Bankruptcy Conference, and served as its Chair for one
of its annual sessions. He also served as an adjunct professor
teaching bankruptcy at South Texas College of Law and as a member
of the Advisory Committee on Rules of Bankruptcy Procedure of the
United States Judicial Conference.
David was demonstrably and deservedly proud of his family, which
includes Beth and daughters Sarah and Kallie. His most
cherished legal-related achievement was serving as the leading
force, together with Mickey Sheinfeld and Dan Julian, in bringing
to reality the establishment of the Arthur L. Moller Chair in
Bankruptcy Law and Practice at the University of Texas School of
Law, honoring Judge Moller's many contributions to the practice of
bankruptcy law.
About American Inns of Court
American Inns of Court (AIC) are designed to improve the skills,
professionalism and ethics of the bench and bar. An American Inn of
Court is an amalgam of judges, lawyers, and in some cases, law
professors and law students. Each Inn meets approximately
once a month both to "break bread" and to hold programs and
discussions on matters of ethics, skills and professionalism.
Looking for a new way to help lawyers and judges rise to higher
levels of excellence, professionalism, and ethical awareness,
the American Inns of Court adopted the traditional English model of
legal apprenticeship and modified it to fit the particular needs of
the American legal system. American Inns of Court help lawyers to
become more effective advocates and counselors with a keener
ethical awareness. Members learn side-by-side with the most
experienced judges and attorneys in their community.
An American Inn of Court is not a fraternal order, a social
club, a course in continuing legal education, a lecture series, an
apprenticeship system, or an adjunct of a law school's program.
While an AIC partakes of some of each of these concepts, it is
quite different in aim, scope, and effect.
American Inns of Court actively involve more than 25,000 state,
federal and administrative law judges, attorneys, legal scholars
and law students. Membership is composed of the following
categories: Masters of the Bench: judges, experienced lawyers, and
law professors; Barristers: lawyers with some experience who do not
meet the minimum requirements for Masters; Associates: lawyers who
do not meet the minimum requirement for Barristers; and Pupils: law
students. The suggested number of active members in an Inn is
around 80.
Most Inns concentrate on issues surrounding civil and criminal
litigation practice, and include attorneys from a number of
specialties. However, there are several Inns that specialize in
criminal practice, federal litigation, tax law, administrative law,
white-collar crime, bankruptcy, intellectual property, family law,
or employment and labor law.
The membership is divided into "pupillage teams," with each team
consisting of a few members from each membership category. Each
pupillage team conducts one program for the Inn each year.
Pupillage team members get together informally outside of monthly
Inn meetings in groups of two or more. This allows the
less-experienced attorneys to become more effective advocates and
counselors by learning from the more-experienced attorneys and
judges. In addition, each less-experienced member is assigned to a
more-experienced attorney or judge who acts as a mentor and
encourages conversations about the practice of law.