PRESS RELEASE

For Immediate Release

November 18, 2003 

STEVEN J. KATZMAN TO SERVE AS U.S. TRUSTEE

IN CENTRAL DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA FOR INTERIM PERIOD

            WASHINGTON, D.C.–Steven J. Katzman, United States Trustee for the Southern District of California and the Districts of Hawaii, Guam, and the Northern Mariana Islands (Region 15), will also serve as United States Trustee for the Central District of California (Region 16) for an interim period effective on November 24, 2003, it was announced today by Lawrence Friedman, Director of the Executive Office for United States Trustees. Former Region 16 U.S. Trustee Maureen Tighe will be appointed as a U.S. Bankruptcy Judge for the Central District of California.

            Katzman was appointed U.S. Trustee for Region 15 on May 19, 2003. Prior to that he was senior insolvency and federal litigation counsel for the Orange County, Calif., law firm of Albert, Weiland & Golden LLP. Before entering private practice, Katzman served for eight years as an Assistant U.S. Attorney and Special Assistant U.S. Attorney. From 1991 through 1996 he prosecuted bankruptcy fraud and related crimes, including mail fraud, wire fraud, and bank fraud, in Los Angeles for the office of the U.S. Attorney for the Central District of California. From 1996 through 1999, he established and managed a new office of the U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Ohio, in Youngstown. Katzman received his law degree in 1987 from the University of California School of Law at Davis and his undergraduate degree in 1984 from the University of California at Santa Cruz.

            The U.S. Trustee Program is a component of the Justice Department that protects the integrity of the bankruptcy system by overseeing case administration and litigating to enforce the bankruptcy laws. Region 16 is headquartered in Los Angeles, with offices in Riverside, Santa Ana, and Woodland Hills.

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