Attorney

RILEY C.
WALTER

Riley Walter has focused on restructuring, insolvency and reorganization matters since 1980. Mr. Walter specializes in Chapter 11 and Chapter 12 reorganization cases representing debtors and Chapter 9 cases involving special districts. He has handled all types of cases, including, but not limited to, large farms, dairies, wineries, canneries, developers, retail businesses, gold mines, hospitals and hospital districts. Mr. Walter has also authored numerous articles on insolvency and bankruptcy and is a frequent speaker to business, legal, agricultural and financial groups, including presentations at the National Conference of Bankruptcy Judges, Farmers and Ranchers Tax Conference, Central California Bankruptcy Institute, Eastern District Judicial Conference and the Agricultural Lending Institute.

Mr. Walter is a Certified Business Bankruptcy Specialist, accredited by the American Board of Bankruptcy Certification, and is a Fellow of the American College of Bankruptcy, Class XIII. He has been recognized as a “Top 100” Super Lawyer for Northern California seven times and annually as a Northern California Super Lawyer beginning in 2004. He has enjoyed an Av rating from Martindale-Hubbell since 1995.

Mr. Walter was a lawyer representative to the Ninth Circuit Judicial Conference and is past chair of the Eastern District Judicial Conference Committee. He was co-chair of the Business Law Section of the Fresno County Bar Association. He is a past president of the Central California Bankruptcy Association, past president of the San Joaquin Valley Chapter of the Federal Bar Association, past director of the California Bankruptcy Forum and California Receiver’s Forum, past chair of the Agricultural Law Section of the Fresno County Bar Association, and past co-chair of the Agribusiness Committee of the Business Law Section of the California State Bar.

Mr. Walter’s passion for serving his community is evident through his active involvement in civic and social organizations.  He was a founding board member of the Central Valley Business Incubator and is past board chair of the Lyles Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship at Fresno State. He served as Vice Chair of the City of Fresno Charter Review Commission. Mr. Walter served on the Valley Children’s Hospital Board of Trustees on its Finance and Facilities Committees and was Chair of the Valley Children’s Hospital Medical Foundation. In addition, he has been a trustee or director of several cultural, arts and historical groups.  He was formerly an associate professor of agricultural business management at Cal Poly Pomona, a lecturer at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, has taught agricultural law at San Joaquin College of Law and entrepreneurship at Fresno State.

In his spare time, he reads, studies Native American anthropology and enjoys travel.