WASHINGTON – Gail B. Geiger has been appointed by Attorney General Eric Holder as Acting U.S. Trustee for Alaska, Idaho, Montana, Oregon, and Washington (Region 18), effective on January 5, 2013, the Executive Office for U.S. Trustees announced today. She replaces Robert D. Miller Jr., who is retiring after nearly 25 years with the U.S. Trustee Program (USTP), including the past two and a half as U.S. Trustee.

Prior to her appointment as Acting U.S. Trustee, Ms. Geiger served as the Assistant U.S. Trustee in the Eugene, Ore., office. She has also served as Special Assistant to the Office of the General Counsel in the Executive Office for U.S. Trustees (EOUST) in Washington, D.C., coordinating USTP enforcement activity relating to mortgage servicers and other creditors, and as Associate General Counsel for Consumer Practice in the EOUST’s Office of the General Counsel, advising USTP field offices on consumer bankruptcy issues. In October 2011, she was part of a team of USTP employees who received the Attorney General’s Award for Distinguished Service for their work on the $25 billion National Mortgage Settlement. Other assignments in the USTP include serving as Acting Assistant U.S. Trustee in Riverside, Calif.; a Trial Attorney in Seattle; and Attorney in Charge in Agana, Guam.

Before joining the USTP in 1990, Ms. Geiger practiced law with a Seattle law firm and served as an Assistant Attorney General for the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands. Ms. Geiger received her law degree cum laude from Willamette University Law School in Salem, Ore., and her undergraduate degree from Gonzaga University in Spokane, Wash.

The USTP is the component of the Justice Department that protects the integrity of the bankruptcy system by overseeing case administration and litigating to enforce the bankruptcy laws. The USTP has 21 regions and 95 field offices. Region 18 is headquartered in Seattle, with additional offices in Spokane, Wash.; Anchorage, Alaska; Boise, Idaho; Eugene and Portland, Ore.; and Great Falls, Mont.