Jay L Westbrook
- Benno C. Schmidt Chair of Business Law
Faculty Profile: Jay L Westbrook
Main Profile Content
Featured Work
The Demystification of Contracts in Bankruptcy
Jay Lawrence Westbrook & Kelsi Stayart White, 91 American Bankruptcy Law Journal 481 (Summer 2017)
Biography
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, 7th ed., 2014); As We Forgive Our Debtors: Bankruptcy and Consumer Credit in America (Oxford, 1989); The Fragile Middle Class (Yale, 2000); and A Global View of Business Insolvency Systems (Martinus Nijhoff 2010). 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 serves 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 that created the Model Law on Cross-Border Insolvency. He is an emeritus director of the International Insolvency Institute and a director and former President of the International Academy of Commercial and Consumer Law. He has been the recipient of outstanding contribution awards from the National Conference of Bankruptcy Judges, the International Insolvency Institute, and the American College of Bankruptcy. He has twice been named the Outstanding Teacher at the University of Texas School of Law. Recipient of "Larry King Award" from the Commercial Law League.
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Courses for Fall 2023
View Course HistoryProfessional Activities
2022
Ongoing
Advisor, Texas International Law Journal
2021
Annual
Jay L. Westbrook Conference, The University of Texas. Annual
UT School of Law -- Organizer (Annual)
2016
March 5 - March 7, 2016
The Duberstein National Moot Court Team
New Orleans & NYC -- Advisor (Annual)
2015
December 5, 2015
American Bankruptcy Institute
Phoenix, AZ -- Secured Credit in the International Arena - Moderator and Presenter
November 20, 2015
Young Scholars Conference
Brooklyn Law School -- Co-organizer
October 29, 2015
National Bankruptcy Conference
Washington D.C. -- Regulations Governing SIFIs (too big to fail banks)
September 1, 2015
Keynote Lecture
Hamilton, Bermuda -- Current Problems in Cross-Border Insolvency, International Association of Insolvency Regulators
2014
July 2014
Commercial Law & the Public Interest, International Academy of Commercial & Consumer Law
Istanbul, Turkey
2012
January 2013
Oxford University Roundtable on Insolvency
Oxford, UK
June 2012
Symposium on International Bank Regulation
American Law Institute & Bingham Foundation, London, UK -- Commentator
April 2012
"Exemption of Derivatives from Bankruptcy"
American College of Bankruptcy, San Antonio, TX
March 2012
"Reshaping Capital Markets & Institutions: Twenty Years On"
Texas Law Review, Austin, TX -- Commentator
2011
2012
“Derivatives & Sovereign Debt” Conference on Sovereign Debt
Humboldt University, Berlin, Germany
December 2011
“The Keys to Multinational Coordination of Bank Distress” Conference on Financial Regulation in Uncertain Times
Tilberg University, Lugano, Italy
March 2011
International Insolvency Seminar for Students
Waseda University, Tokyo, Japan
2010
July 2010
“International Arbitration & Multinational Insolvency”
International Academy of Commercial & Consumer Law, Toronto, Canada
June 2010
“The Model Law in the United States: COMI and Groups”
International Insolvency Institute, Rome, Italy
2009
November 1, 2009
The University of Texas Annual Bankrupty Conference
The University of Texas Law School -- Recent Developments and Theory of Section 363 Sales
October 20, 2009
St. Gallen University International
St. Gallen, Switzerland -- International Judicial Negotiation 2009
October 5, 2009
Judicial Conference
University of Zagreb, Croatia -- Contracts in Bankruptcy
May 15, 2009
Judicial Conference
Abu Dhabi -- Modern Bankruptcy
March 1, 2009
Texas Harvard Conference on Commercial Law Realities
University of Texas Law School, Austin, Texas -- Organizer (with Elizabeth Warren)
February 1, 2009
Conference on Business Restructuring and Turnaround
Wharton Business School Philadelphia -- Organizer: Panel on Legal Restructuring
January 10, 2009
Seminar on Insolvency
World Bank, Washington, D.C. -- Exemption of Derivatives in Bankruptcy
2008
September 19, 2008
INSOL Europe Edwin Coe Lecture
Barcelona -- Multinational Insolvency: Today and Tomorrow
September 10, 2008
Testimony
Congressional Committee on the Judiciary, Commercial subcommittee -- Exemption of Financial Assets from Bankruptcy
August 12, 2008
International Academy of Commercial and Consumer Law Biennial Meeting
Bamberg, Germany
Priority Conflicts as a Barrier to Cooperation in Multinational Insolvencies
June 7, 2008
International Insolvency Institute Annual Meeting
Berlin
Presentation: COMI and the Bear, Stearns Decision
February 12, 2008
Harvard Texas Conference on Commercial Realities
Harvard Law School, Cambridge, Mass.
Organizer (with Elizabeth Warren)
2007
September 9, 2007
International Procedural Assn Quadrennial Meeting
Bahia, Brazil -- General Report on Insolvency-Common Law Jurisdictions
June 2007
Speaking Engagement
Advisory Committee of the American Law Institute -- Spoke as Co-Chair of the Advisory Committee of the American Law Institute to the ALI Project on Transnational Insolvency: European Principles at a meeting at Columbia.
June 2007
Paper Presentation
Annual Meeting of the International Insolvency Institute -- Presented his paper "International Arbitration and Bankruptcy" at the Annual Meeting of the International Insolvency Institute in June (with Professor Christoph Paulus).
June 2007
Meeting Participant
UNCITRAL Working Group on Insolvency, Corporate Groups -- Attended the meetings in New York of the UNCITRAL Working Group on Insolvency, Corporate Groups, as the representative of the International Insovlency Institute.
May 15, 2007
Lecture
Oxford University, Oxford, England -- Legal Integration of NAFTA Through Supranational Adjudication
March 31, 2007
Organizer
Texas-Harvard Joint Conference -- Organized the Third Annual Texas-Harvard Joint Conference on Commercial Law Realities, held in April at the Law School (empirical and comparative scholarship by young scholars).
February 2007
Paper Presentation
American University Conference -- Presented his paper "Legal Integration of NAFTA Through Supranational Adjudication" to a conference on "The North American Legal System," at American University.
2006
December 31, 2006
Paper Presentation
Commercial Law Conference -- Presented his paper "Has the Stigma of Bankruptcy Declined among United States Consumers?" to a commercial law conference in Lanciano, Italy.