Jerome Robert Kerkman

At Kerkman & Dunn, our team of attorneys offers a depth of experience you would only otherwise find at a large firm. As a small firm, we provide personalized and hands-on attention to each client and are able to avoid conflicts. With our skilled business litigation lawyers, our team has the bandwidth to handle even the most complicated business litigation and bankruptcy issues.

Jerry's interest in chapter 11 cases and business litigation began during his third year of law school, more than 30 years ago.  He interned with Judge C.N. Clevert who was a bankruptcy judge at the time and later became a district court judge in Milwaukee.  While in law school, Jerry wrote a law review article that studied the effects of the then new 1978 Bankruptcy Code in chapter 11 cases.  The article was published as the lead article in the Marquette Law Review: The Debtor in Full Control: A Case for Adoption of the U.S. Trustee System, 70 Marq. L. Rev. 159 (1987).  

After graduating from the University of Wisconsin law school, Jerry immediately represented chapter 11 debtors with a mid-size Milwaukee firm and eventually worked for one of the largest firms in Milwaukee before founding Kerkman & Dunn in 2006.  Kerkman & Dunn grew to be one of the most successful chapter 11 boutique firms in the Midwest and in May of 2017 was joined by the lawyers from Wagner Law Group, a litigation boutique in Milwaukee  to become Kerkman Wagner & Dunn.  It practices bankruptcy throughout the State of Wisconsin and in Northern Illinois, and has represented large chapter 11 debtors in bankruptcy courts in Madison, Wausau, Chicago and of course Milwaukee. 

Jerry and Kerkman Wagner & Dunn have represented creditors' committees, individual creditors and chapter 11 debtors.  Their approach is often innovative.  For example, the leading case to consolidate a large number of chapter 11 debtors into a smaller, more manageable number of debtors was approved recently by the bankruptcy and district courts in Milwaukee in the Bruckner decision.  Jerry has also developed and led claim processes that took a large number of claims and resolved disputes to them with minimal court hearings.  The firm's approach to cases usually results in a confirmed plan of reorganization because it emphasizes a business approach to cases; before filing a case, the exit strategy must be known.

Jerry and the firm look forward to the challenges of complex chapter 11 cases and obtaining a positive result for their clients.