Alexandria, Va. — The American Bankruptcy Institute (ABI) announces that Chief Bankruptcy Judge Barbara J. Houser (N.D. Tex., Dallas) has been selected by the ABI Board of Directors to be President-Elect. She will become president for a one-year term, starting at ABI’s 2020 Annual Spring Meeting. An ABI member since 2003, Judge Houser has served as Vice-President-Research Grants and co-chair for ABI’s Alternative Dispute Resolution Committee, and she is a frequent speaker at ABI events and a contributor to the ABI Journal.

Sworn in as a bankruptcy judge for the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Northern District of Texas in 2000, Judge Houser previously was an attorney and shareholder at Sheinfeld, Maley & Kay PC in Dallas. While at Sheinfeld, she led the firm’s representation of clients in a variety of significant chapter 11 cases, including as her last major case the firm’s representation of Dow Corning Corp. — one of the largest chapter 11 cases ever filed.

Judge Houser was elected a Fellow of the American College of Bankruptcy in 1994 and currently serves as its vice president. She was elected to membership in the National Bankruptcy Conference in 1996 and also serves as a member of its Executive Committee. Judge Houser is also a past president of the National Conference of Bankruptcy Judges. A frequent author and lecturer on corporate restructuring and insolvency law, she is a visiting professor of law at the Dedman School of Law at Southern Methodist University, where she teaches creditors’ rights. Judge Houser is a contributing author to Collier on Bankruptcy (15th Ed.) and the Collier Bankruptcy Manual (3rd Ed.), and the National Law Journal named her one of the 50 most influential women lawyers in America in 1998. She received her J.D. from Southern Methodist University Law School.

The complete list of directors and officers is available at https://www.abi.org/about-us/board-of-directors.   

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ABI is the largest multi-disciplinary, nonpartisan organization dedicated to research and education on matters related to insolvency. ABI was founded in 1982 to provide Congress and the public with unbiased analysis of bankruptcy issues. The ABI membership includes nearly 11,000 attorneys, accountants, bankers, judges, professors, lenders, turnaround specialists and other bankruptcy professionals providing a forum for the exchange of ideas and information. For additional information on ABI, visit www.abiworld.org. For additional conference information, visit https://www.abi.org/education-events.