About

Biography

Michael P. Richman is a founding member (with his law partner and spouse Claire Ann Richman) of Richman & Richman LLC (www.randr.law) in Madison, Wisconsin, recently named as a 2025 Best Law Firm in the United States. Throughout his extensive career of over 40 years, Michael has appeared in state, federal courts and, in particular, bankruptcy courts in more than 20 states and territories.

Michael focuses on the representation of Chapter 11 debtors, creditors, and creditors' committees. He regularly advises and represents clients in virtually every aspect of financial distress and bankruptcy, including out-of-court restructurings, prosecution and defense of creditors' rights litigation (including preference and fraudulent conveyance cases), individual and group secured and unsecured creditors, landlords, purchasers of assets under Bankruptcy Code section 363 and other parties in interest.

Michael has served as President of the American Bankruptcy Institute ("ABI") (2005-05), as well as Director (1996-2008), chairman of the board (2006-07) and a member of its management and executive committees. He served as chairman of the Section 363 Subcommittee of ABI's National Commission to Reform Chapter 11, and co-vice chair of ABI's National Ethics Task Force. He has for many successive years been honored as a "Super Lawyer" in peer surveys conducted by Thomson Reuters, including most recently for Wisconsin in 2024. He was also recently honored by Best Lawyers in 2024 and 2025 as a Lawyer of the Year for bankruptcy and litigation in Madison. 

Michael has written numerous articles on ethics in bankruptcy practice published by the ABI's Journal, is a regular lecturer on bankruptcy ethics and other topics for ABI and the Practicing Law Institute, and has been an invited speaker/lecturer at hundreds of bankruptcy conferences over the past 30 years.

Michael is also the founder and a performing member of ABI's house band, the Indubitable Equivalents, which regularly performs classic rock covers at bankruptcy conferences around the country. His is Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Madison Symphony Orchestra and has taught bankruptcy law as an adjunct Professor of Law at the University of Wisconsin Law School since 2018.