THE HON. CHARLES M. WALKER was appointed on July 27, 2016, as a United States Bankruptcy Judge for the Middle District of Tennessee.  Before taking the bench, Judge Walker served as a trial attorney for the U.S. Department of Justice in the Office of the U. S. Trustee for 14 years.  Prior to his time with the U.S. Trustee, Judge Walker was in private practice with the law firms Wyatt, Tarrant and Combs, LLP and Bone McAllester Norton PLLC concentrating in the areas of creditors rights and commercial litigation.  Judge Walker served eight years on active duty with the U.S. Air Force and continues to serve as a brigadier general in the Kentucky Air National Guard.  He holds a Bachelor of Aviation Management from Auburn University, a Master of Science in Human Resources Management from Troy University and he received his Juris Doctorate, cum laude, from The John Marshall Law School in Chicago.  Judge Walker is active in the Nashville community, an alumnus of Nashville’s Young Leaders Council and a former Director of the Mid-South Commercial Law Institute and Family & Children’s Service. He was the first recipient of the Honorable Cornelius Blackshear Fellowship awarded by the National Conference of Bankruptcy Judges in 2004.  In 2015 he was the recipient of the Major General Robert I. Gruber Excellence in Teaching Award, which is awarded by the U.S. Air Force Judge Advocate General School, recognizing the most exceptional reserve military law instructor.