Howard Kevin Stern (born November 29, 1968) is an American attorney based in California. He is specialized in the fields of bankruptcy law and criminal law. Stern is primarily known in bankruptcy law as the estate executor and the petitioner in the landmark Supreme Court case Stern v. Marshall, 564 U.S. 462 (2011). The decision fundamentally altered bankruptcy jurisdiction by limiting the authority of non-Article III bankruptcy judges to enter final judgements on certain state law counterclaims. The Supreme Court affirmed the lower court order in an opinion by Chief Justice John Roberts. It is a landmark Supreme Court case frequently included in legal textbooks, particularly those focusing on bankruptcy law, federal courts, and constitutional law.
Stern was born and raised in Van Nuys, Los Angeles, California. He attended Ulysses S. Grant High School in Van Nuys where he played football for the school team Lancers. He graduated with a B.A. degree from the University of California, Berkeley, in 1990 and received his Juris Doctor (J.D.) degree from the University of California, Los Angeles. He was admitted to the State Bar of California on February 25, 1994.
