Consumer Bankruptcy Legal Update

Prof. Bruce A. Markell is a professor of bankruptcy law and practice at Northwestern University’s Pritzker School of Law in Chicago. From 2004-13, he was a U.S. bankruptcy judge for the District of Nevada, and from 2007-13 he was also a member of the Bankruptcy Appellate Panel for the Ninth Circuit.

Before taking the bench, Prof. Markell practiced bankruptcy and business law in Los Angeles for 10 years as a partner at Sidley & Austin, and he was a law professor for 14 years. After law school, he clerked for then-judge Anthony M. Kennedy on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. Prof. Markell is the author of numerous articles on bankruptcy and commercial law and a co-author of four law school casebooks. He contributes to Collier on Bankruptcy and is a member of Collier’s editorial advisory board.

Prof. Markell is a conferee of the National Bankruptcy Conference, a Fellow in the American College of Bankruptcy, a member of the International Insolvency Institute and a member of the American Law Institute. He is also a founding member of the NITA-trained faculty of the Advanced Consumer Bankruptcy Practice Institute and a commissioner for ABI’s Commission on Consumer Bankruptcy.

Prof. Markell has served as an advisor on bankruptcy and secured transaction reform to the Republic of Indonesia, and recently completed a project redrafting Kosovo’s bankruptcy law. He also consults regularly with the International Monetary Fund on insolvency-related issues (having been part of the IMF’s missions to Ireland, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Montenegro, Serbia and Greece).

Prof. Markell received his J.D. in 1980 from the University of California at Davis.

Hon. David W. Houston, III is a retired U.S. Bankruptcy Judge for the Northern District of Mississippi and practices with Mitchell, McNutt & Sams in Aberdeen, Miss., where his practice is focused on commercial transactions, commercial litigation, bankruptcy and creditors’ rights. As a judge, he also presided over cases in the Southern District of Mississippi, Middle District of Louisiana, and the Northern, Southern and Western Districts of Texas. Judge Houston conducted trials in numerous consumer and complex business cases and authored hundreds of published opinions.

Prior to assuming the bench, he was a partner for 11 years in the Aberdeen, Miss., law firm of Houston, Chamberlain and Houston. He also served as a special agent with the FBI in Washington, D.C., Tampa, Fla., and New York City. Due to his experience in the area of alternative dispute resolution, he is available to conduct mediation and arbitration proceedings.

Judge Houston received his B.B.A. in accountancy in 1966 and his J.D. in 1969 from the University of Mississippi.

Hon. William H. Brown retired in 2006 as a U.S. Bankruptcy Judge for the Western District of Tennessee and resides in Carbondale, Colo. During his career on the bench, he had been designated to sit in the Middle District of Tennessee, Southern District of Florida, Eastern District of Michigan and Western District of Kentucky. He also served a four-year term on the Bankruptcy Appellate Panel for the Sixth Circuit from 1999-2002. He currently conducts mediation in bankruptcy and commercial law matters, has conducted mock trials, and has testified as an expert witness in bankruptcy court proceedings.

Judge Brown is a member of ABI and served on its Executive Committee, and he is a Fellow in the American College of Bankruptcy. He has also authored or co-authored several texts, including Bankruptcy Exemption Manual, 2005 Bankruptcy Reform Legislation with Analysis (1st and 2nd editions), Bankruptcy and Domestic Relations Manual and the Law of Debtors and Creditors (all published by Thomson West), and he is a principal contributing editor for Norton Bankruptcy Law and Practice.

In 2008, Judge Brown joined Hon. Keith M. Lundin as co-author of Chapter 13 Bankruptcy, published by Bankruptcy Press. He currently serves as an advisor to the Academy for Consumer Bankruptcy Education, the education arm of the National Association of Chapter 13 Trustees.

He received his J.D. from the University of Tennessee College of Law, where he was a member of the Order of the Coif.