Phil Brandt used to tell his college mates that there were so few roads in the country, his school bus had to turn around by backing into Canada at the end of the road. And it was true. It’s been a long road since then for the retiring U.S. bankruptcy judge.
A middle child, one of four brothers, he was raised on a modest potato farm in northern Whatcom County. His parents were hard working, involved in the community and school boards, and enjoyed taking the family on hiking trips in national parks. Even as a young teen, Judge Brandt too, was no stranger to hard work. He drove the family’s tractor on the farm and got a part-time job delivering parts for the local car dealer.
More brain than brawn, Judge Brandt found that the local scene didn’t quite fit his style or satisfy his intellectual curiosity. He was inspired by a term he spent as a Senate page in Olympia, where he gained an early appreciation for the legislative process. By the time he graduated from Lynden High School, he was ready to leave the comforts of home in Western Washington and set his sights on bigger plans.
Admission to Harvard was his ticket to a higher place of learning, new opportunity and broader social connections. When he set out on his freshman trip to Boston, he boarded an airplane for the first time. It was also his first trip to the east coast.
Judge Brandt enjoyed playing the role of the new guy from the Pacific Northwest. “My nickname in the crowd was ‘Blue Grizzly,’ because I always wore my blue University of Washington sweatshirt and a pair of blue jeans,” he recalls, “although the dining halls required coat and tie in those years.”
But his first semester at college was difficult. Struggling, he perceived that his cohort was far better prepared for the rigors of Ivy League academic challenges than he. At mid-winter break, he even considered giving up. His family refused to allow him to quit.
Harvard turned out to be the perfect place for this exceptionally bright, ambitious student. It didn’t take long for him to appreciate the privilege of his college education. He was fascinated with architecture and building design, and studied Frank Lloyd Wright. (That interest ultimately landed him on the design committee for the new federal courthouse in 2001.) Finally, Judge Brandt turned his focus to economics, and concedes that “but for the math, I would have continued to pursue that as a career.”
Harvard in the early ’60s was a breeding ground for political and social change. Abroad, the Vietnam War had gained momentum and needed new recruits. “It was not a surprise to me to receive a ‘gentle hint’ from the draft board that my number would soon be called,” he remembers.
He attended Navy Officer Candidate School, was commissioned and served in the Communications Department of the USS Long Beach, a nuclear missile cruiser. He served on two deployments in the Western Pacific, i.e., the Gulf of Tonkin.
Judge Brandt stayed a navy reservist for years after his commission, and was eventually promoted to captain. He was cleared beyond top-secret clearance for work in the U.S. Pacific Command Center, where top-level briefings were held to provide military analysis and advice for any event that might require action. He was awarded a joint service commendation medal, which at the time was an impressive honor to bestow on a reserve officer. For years, he has worn the ribbon replica on his civilian suit coat.
After completing active duty, Judge Brandt, recently married, was eager to get back to civilian life and further his education. Law school was a natural place to apply his interests and talents. He attended the University of Washington School of Law School and graduated in 1972.
He spent a year in Washington, D.C. working for the Department of Justice and Federal Maritime Commission, and then chose to relocate to Washington as a deputy prosecutor for Pierce County. In 1975, he served as the director of the Standards Project for the Governor’s Committee on Law and Justice.
The next year, Judge Brandt and his family settled in Whatcom County. He entered private practice with the Lynden firm of LeCocq, Simonarson, Visser & Johnson (now Zender Thurston), handling business, land use, international transactions, immigration and municipal affairs. Later, he opened the firm’s Bellingham office. The combination of his legal experience and knowledge of local business led to his appointment to the Whatcom County Economic Development Task Force, charged with analysis of the region’s economy and making public policy recommendations to promote growth.
He joined Graham & Dunn in 1986 as a shareholder in its Tacoma office, practiced banking, business and commercial law, and had a substantial litigation practice. He was active in City Club of Tacoma and the Tacoma-Pierce County Chamber of Commerce, and served on the board of the Martin Luther King Center, which provided housing for those who were unable to afford it.
In 1991, Judge Brandt was appointed for a 14-year term to the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Western District of Washington. He was one of 70-plus applicants for the position. He immediately inherited a heavy case load covering the full range of chapter 7, 11 and 13 cases and other bankruptcy-related matters.
Most bankruptcy cases involve administration of assets such as real property, boats, cars and bank accounts. But in one of his early cases, the court was presented with a rather unusual asset. “I’ll never forget Ivan, the African silverback gorilla. Sadly, Ivan was used as a display showpiece to draw customers to a Lakewood shopping mall,” he remembers. When the owners filed for bankruptcy protection, Judge Brandt was charged with the task of deciding Ivan’s future, and he found a home in Atlanta. “Ivan’s caregivers at Zoo Atlanta still write to me with updates on his welfare,” the judge laughed.
For most of his judicial career, he has divided his time on the bench and maintained chambers in both Seattle and Tacoma. He served as chief judge of the Bankruptcy Court for the Western District of Washington from October 2001 to June 2005.
Judge Brandt’s heavy schedule did not interfere with his commitments to professional organizations. He has been very active in the American Bar Association, the Washington State Bar Association and local bars, and has been a frequent speaker and chair of continuing legal education programs. He serves on the ABA’s Joint Task Force (now Joint Ad Hoc Committee) on Bankruptcy Court structure and Insolvency Processes — a forum for national level discussion on bankruptcy issues and the development of ABA positions.
But Judge Brandt has had a unique judicial privilege: he has served simultaneously as an appellate judge and a bankruptcy judge. He enjoyed his assignments as a pro tem on the Ninth Circuit Bankruptcy Appellate Panel so much that he decided to apply for the position. In 1998, he began a seven-year term on the BAP and was later reappointed for an additional three years.
The Ninth Circuit BAP consists of six regular panel members selected from all over the circuit. It resolves appeals arising out of bankruptcy court decisions in nine western states and historically has handled about 60 percent of the new appeals filed in the circuit. Judge Brandt is only the second bankruptcy judge from Washington to land a position on the BAP.
The opportunity allowed Judge Brandt to master appellate analysis, while collaborating with other prominent and experienced jurists. As a BAP judge, Judge Brandt heard appeals in almost every district in the Ninth Circuit. The cases ranged from pro se consumer debtors trying to reverse the dismissal of their bankruptcy petitions to complex interpretations of the Bankruptcy Code and its interactions with state or federal statutes.
Over the years, he authored scores of published opinions. “Serving on the BAP provided me with a chance to work with outstanding judges from across the circuit and to have a direct influence on the direction of bankruptcy jurisprudence in the Circuit,” he said.
The BAP’s schedule was rigorous. Almost every month, Judge Brandt crisscrossed the circuit and he often traveled to three states in one week. He learned the art of how to travel light, packing only his signature bowtie and sports jacket. He even devised a system whereby he would send by courier, in advance, a stack of briefs, excerpts and bench memos from chambers to his destination, and at the end of the hearing, couriered the completed ones back to Seattle.
His colleagues observe that Judge Brandt’s voice has remained consistent: a mix of ironic humor, moral consideration and warm humanity. He commands the bench, bowtie in place, without any pretension, posturing or pomposity.
Another theme is the apparent impact of his Navy experience. In serious appellate deliberations, he has often drawn guidance from Navy values and protocols. Anyone who has appeared before Judge Brandt is familiar with his off-hand quotes from military heroes and witty analogies between litigation and battle tactics.1 And despite all attempts to break him of the habit, in every order, memo and opinion, he still writes dates in military format: e.g., 5 January 2010.
Judge Brandt will officially retire on 5 January 2010 but anticipates continuing to serve in recall status — the Article I equivalent to senior status. His colleagues have expressed that they will especially miss his sharp intellect, dry wit, thoughtfulness and willingness to share sage advice.
What’s the next phase of life expected to bring the judge? He looks forward to celebrating holidays with friends and the couple’s three children: Peter, an animal rights attorney; Claire, a San Francisco artist; and Elizabeth, a social worker. And time to allow him to enjoy more of what he loves: film, good books, art museums and travels to warm climates with his wife, Dorothy.
Deirdre Glynn Levin is a Seattle attorney and former clerk to Judge Brandt. She may be reached at the Law Office of Deirdre Glynn Levin, 1325 Fourth Ave., Suite 1500, Seattle, WA 98101, by phone at 206-224-3700 or via her website, www.seattlelegalcounsel.com.
1 “But bankruptcy proceedings are not exercises in successive approximation, on the model of early modern (World War II and before) naval gunfire, wherein one shoots a salvo, observes the splashes relative to the target, corrects, and shoots again, repeating the process until the target (or one’s own ship) is destroyed[.]” In re JSJF Corp., 344 B.R. 94, 103 (9th Cir. BAP 2006).
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