Hon. Jeffery Deller

The Honorable Jeffery A. Deller is a Judge on the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania (the “Court”), and has been a member of the Court since 2005. From 2013 through 2018, Judge Deller served as Chief Judge of the Court. Judge Deller was appointed by Chief Circuit Judge Michael Chagares as a member of the Bankruptcy Committee of the Third Circuit Judicial Council, and he previously served the Third Circuit in this capacity under Chief Circuit Judge D. Brooks Smith. 

Judge Deller is currently a member of the Board of Governors of the National Conference of Bankruptcy Judges and is Co-Chair of the Historical Committee of the United States District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania. Previously he also served as a member of the Chief Judge Advisory Committee with the Federal Judicial Center in Washington, D.C. This committee is charged with the duty of planning and presenting training to chief federal judges. Judge Deller was appointed by Duquesne University President Ken Gormley to Chair the Dean Search Advisory Committee with respect to the University’s search for its 13th law school dean, and currently serves as a member of the Dean’s Advisory Committee at the Thomas R. Kline School of Law of Duquesne University.  

Judge Deller is a contributing author to Collier on Bankruptcy, which has long been recognized as the most authoritative and comprehensive treatise on the subject of American bankruptcy law. Judge Deller served as Editor-in-Chief of the prestigious American Bankruptcy Law Journal and has had appointments as an adjunct faculty member or lecturer at the Thomas R. Kline School of Law at Duquesne University, the University of Pittsburgh School of Law, and the West Virginia University College of Law – teaching bankruptcy related classes and the law of secured transactions.

Prior to his appointment to the bench, and after graduating cum laude and as a member of the law review from the Duquesne University School of Law, Judge Deller was an associate attorney and then shareholder at the law firm of Klett Rooney Lieber & Schorling (now known as Buchanan Ingersoll & Rooney), where he practiced bankruptcy and commercial law. Judge Deller is a Past President of the Bankruptcy and Commercial Law Section of the Allegheny County Bar Association. He is the recipient of various honors. They include the Outstanding Achievement Award by the Duquesne University Law Alumni Association, the Outstanding Young Lawyer Award by the Allegheny County Bar Association, the Cornell High School Wall of Fame, and is a Fellow to the American College of Bankruptcy.

Judge Deller is an Eagle Scout, and is proud to be the first person in his immediate family to attend college (graduating from the University of Pittsburgh with the B.A. in Economics and Political Science).

• J.D., Thomas R. Kline School of Law of Duquesne University
• B.A., University of Pittsburgh