Philip H. Brandt, U.S. Bankruptcy Judge for the Western District of Washington, grew up on a farm in Whatcom County, Washington, and graduated from Harvard with a B.A. in Economics in 1966. He served on active duty in the U.S. Navy in the communications department of USS Long Beach, a missile cruiser, on two Western Pacific (i.e., Gulf of Tonkin) deployments, after which he attended the University of Washington School of Law (J. D. , 1972). He continued to serve in the Naval Reserve, retiring with the rank of Captain in 1989.

From 1972 to 1976 Judge Brandt served in state and federal prosecutorial positions. Thereafter he practiced commercial litigation with Simonarson, Visser, et al., in Bellingham and Lynden, Washington from 1976 to 1986, and then with Graham & Dunn in Tacoma and Seattle from 1986 to 1991.

In October of 1991 he was appointed as a U.S. bankruptcy judge for the Western District of Washington, and presided in Seattle and Tacoma. He was appointed by the Ninth Circuit to its Bankruptcy Appellate Panel in January of 1998. He also served as chief judge of the Bankruptcy Court for the Western District of Washington from October 2001 to June 2005, when he became chief judge of the Bankruptcy Appellate Panel, serving in that capacity through the end of his BAP term in July of 2007. Judge Brandt retired in 2010, but continues to serve in recall status in other Ninth Circuit districts as well as on the BAP and in his home district.

Judge Brandt is a member of the Washington State Bar, the National Conference of Bankruptcy Judges, and the American Bar Association, its Business Law Section, and its Judicial Division. In the Business Law Section, he has been active in the Business Bankruptcy and the Business and Commercial Litigation Committees, and has served on the Editorial Board of Business Law Today. In the Judicial Division, he is as member of the National Conference of Federal Trial Judges.