SCHOOL OF LAW

Jay L Westbrook

Benno C. Schmidt Chair of Business Law

JD University of Texas at Austin
BA University of Texas at Austin

One of the nation's most distinguished scholars in the field of bankruptcy, he has been a pioneer in this area in two respects: empirical research and international/comparative studies. Professor Westbrook also teaches and writes in commercial law and international business litigation. He practiced in all these areas for more than a decade with Surrey & Morse (now part of Jones, Day) in Washington, D.C., where he was a partner, before joining the faculty in 1980. He is co-author of The Law of Debtors and Creditors (Aspen, 4th ed., 2001), As We Forgive Our Debtors: Bankruptcy and Consumer Credit in America (Oxford, 1989), and The Fragile Middle Class (Yale, 2000). He has been Visiting Professor at Harvard Law School and the University of London, and is a member of the American Law Institute, the National Bankruptcy Conference, and the American College of Bankruptcy. He has served as a consultant to the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank. He was the United States Reporter for the ALI's Transnational Insolvency Project and co-head of the United States delegation to the UN (UNCITRAL) conference on cross-border insolvency. He is a director of the International Insolvency Institute and President of the International Academy of Commercial and Consumer Law. He has twice been named the Outstanding Teacher at the Law School.