The University of Texas at Austin   School of Law

Education

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

Areas of Specialty

• Bankruptcy
• International Litigation
• Secured Credit

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 and arbitration . 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. In addition to many articles in these fields, he is co-author of As We Forgive Our Debtors: Bankruptcy and Consumer Credit in America (Oxford, 1989), The Fragile Middle Class (Yale, 2000), The Law of Debtors and Creditors (Aspen, 6th ed., 2009), and A Global View of Business Insolvency Systems (Martinus Nijhoff 2010). He has been a 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 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 serves as a consultant to the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank. He has also served as a director of the International Insolvency Institute and as President of the International Academy of Commercial and Consumer Law. He has twice been named the Outstanding Teacher at the Law School.

Recent Publications

• International Arbitration and Multinational Insolvency [Symposium: International Academy of Commercial and Consumer Law], 29 Penn State International Law Review 635 (2011).
• Introduction, 46 Texas International Law Journal 437 (2011).
• Breaking Away: Local Priorities and Global Assets, 46 Texas International Law Journal 601 (2011).

Full list of publications…

Recent Activities

• The University of Texas Annual Bankrupty Conference

  November 1, 2009

  The University of Texas Law School

  Recent Developments and Theory of Section 363 Sales

• St. Gallen University International

  October 20, 2009

  St. Gallen, Switzerland

  International Judicial Negotiation 2009

• Judicial Conference

  October 5, 2009

  University of Zagreb, Croatia

  Contracts in Bankruptcy

Full activities list…