The Honorable Gerald Rosen ’73, Chief Judge of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan will receive the 11th Annual Dennis Archer Public Service Award on November 19. The Michigan Bar Association is honoring Rosen for his work mediating Detroit’s bankruptcy settlement, an effort that took months of difficult negotiation and resulted in a fund that shored up city pensions and protected artworks (from sale) at the Detroit Institute of Arts. Detroit shed $7.3 billion of its $18 billion in debt, restructured $3.1 billion, reached five-year labor agreements with all its unions, and developed and implemented a multi-year $1.7 billion revitalization plan for city services and operations. A Detroit News article on Rosen (by David Shepardson) quoted Kevyn Orr. Detroit’s former emergency manager, who credited Rosen for the city’s quick exit from bankruptcy: “Judge Rosen’s steady leadership and practical judgment allowed the city and its creditors to achieve the impossible: they forged a consensual, comprehensive plan of adjustment in less than two years. [He created the deal that] streamlined key city operations, helped improve public safety, preserved the city’s world-class art museum in a perpetual public trust, and avoided drastic cuts to pension and related retiree benefits. It is no exaggeration to say that Judge Rosen was indispensable.” The award ceremony will take place at the Detroit Institute of Arts. Rosen was on the campus of his alma mater this past February, when he delivered the 2015 William Weber Lecture in Social Science, which was titled “Detroit Bankruptcy: Lessons Learned.”