Mobile attorney Henry Callaway was formally sworn in Thursday as the city’s newest federal bankruptcy judge, capping a legal career that colleagues say has been defined as much by compassion as by courtroom skill.
Although Thursday marked his ceremonial investiture, Callaway had already been on the job since May 1, having replaced retiring Bankruptcy Judge Margaret A. Mahoney. Appointed by the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, Callaway will serve a 14-year term earning $185,012 annually. When Judge William Shulman retires on June 1, Callaway is expected to become the court’s chief judge, overseeing bankruptcy cases across the southwestern counties of Alabama. Bankruptcy Clerk Chip Maldonado said Shulman is expected to continue working through September, after which Callaway may serve as the sole judge for several months until a replacement is appointed.
Speaking before a courtroom packed with fellow judges, family members and attorneys, Callaway reflected on his decades spent representing creditors in bankruptcy proceedings, while also noting his extensive pro bono work representing people facing financial hardship. “I know how fine the line is between financial survival and financial disaster for many Alabamians,” he told the gathering.
Mobile County Circuit Judge Sarah Stewart offered a personal anecdote to illustrate Callaway’s character during the ceremony, describing how, years earlier, Callaway had informally stepped in as guardian for a young boy whose only useful piece of information for authorities was that he was a Boy Scout whose troop leader was “Mr. Henry.” Callaway took the child into his home until a permanent arrangement could be made. Stewart noted that the child now works part time for the University of South Alabama football team. Stewart said Callaway possesses the intelligence and temperament essential for the bench, adding that in all the roles she has seen him in, “I have never seen him lose his temper or even raise his voice.”
Callaway, 56, began practicing law at Hand Arendall in 1983 after graduating from Harvard University and earning his law degree from Vanderbilt University. His career has included representing William Ziegler in a successful effort to overturn a death penalty conviction, an unsuccessful attempt to block a new area code from taking effect in Mobile in 1995, and representation of Waste Management in a 1994 dispute with the city of Prichard.
He has been active with the Mobile Bar Association’s Volunteer Lawyers Program since its founding in 1989, and in 2006 received the association’s Liberty Bell Award, which honors a local citizen’s efforts to promote understanding of the U.S. Constitution. He was also a nominee for Mobilian of the Year in 2007. Callaway said becoming a judge was never a lifelong ambition, but that bankruptcy law had always appealed to him because, unlike many other areas of law, “it usually makes sense.”