University of Pennsylvania Finding Aids

Harry Dixon Jr. (1944-2006), a lawyer from Nebraska, wanted to form an organization with the dual purpose of providing Congress with expert and unbiased views on legislation and creating an institution that could keep the bankruptcy community aware of legislative activities affecting them. In February 1982, Dixon incorporated under Nebraska law this new organization which was to be called the American Bankruptcy Institute (ABI). The records of the American Bankruptcy Institute document two main areas of the organization: the history and operating activities of the American Bankruptcy Institute and the organization's professional activities, publications, and research on bankruptcy related issues. The materials date from 1982-2013, with the bulk from 1985-1996. Materials are largely in paper format, comprising correspondence, memos, facsimiles, resumes/c.v., financial records, by-laws, articles of incorporation, certificates, lease agreement, newsletters, marketing materials, clippings, press releases, scripts, white papers, meeting files which typically include agendas, minutes, and sign-in sheets, committee files, conference and seminar material, Library of Congress reports, information bulletins, Congressional reports, records, and bills, court records, briefs, procedures, Congressional hearing testimonies and remarks, publications, monographs, and other related printed matter. The records also include audiovisual materials such as photographs, VHS tapes, audio cassette tapes, DVDs, and CDs. The strengths of the American Bankruptcy Institute records are the documentation of the Board of Directors files; ABI conference and seminar files; ABI's effort to expand membership; Committee files; and the organization's analysis of bankruptcy legislation from the mid-1980s to the mid-1990s. Extensive areas of analysis by ABI include the U.S. Trustee Program which include numerous oversight hearings; Chapter 7 Substantial Abuse; Chapter 12 Family Farmer Bankruptcy; additional bankruptcy judgeships; the Bankruptcy Amendments and Federal Judgeship Act of 1984 (BAFJA) including the Bankruptcy Survey Project conducted by the ABI after the law (BAFJA) went into effect; judicial salaries; leveraged buyouts (LBO); pension plans and retirement benefits; proposed amendments to bankruptcy rules and forms; significant Supreme Court cases; S. 1985 National Bankruptcy Review Commission Act, S. 1559 Bankruptcy Technical Corrections Act, and testimonies before various Congressional committees from 1989-1996.

Judge David H. Adams is a retired American bankruptcy attorney and judge, having practiced privately many years and served as a US Bankruptcy Court judge. This collection includes his personal materials ranging from 1984-2006, consisting mainly of materials concerning the National Conference of Bankruptcy judges, in which Judge Adams was heavily involved, on its Board of Governors from 1996-1999, its secretary in 2000, and its president in 2004. The collection includes much correspondence between NCBJ members from 1984-2006, event and conference data from many of the yearly NCBJ conferences, as well as budget, committee, and resolution data from those years, illustrating the planning processes and behind the scenes information about the NCBJ and its activities, members, and meetings.

Frank W. Koger, 1930-2003, received his J.D. from Kansas City University in 1953 and his L.L.M. from University of Missouri in 1966. After having worked in private practice since 1956, Koger was appointed Bankruptcy Judge to the Eighth Judicial Circuit in 1986. He remained in this position until his retirement in 1997. Koger was a member of the American Bar Association, the Commercial Law League of America, and the Missouri Bar Association. He was also a member of the National Conference of Bankruptcy Judges, where he served as Secretary, Vice President, and President in the 1990s. The collection, 1990-1997, chiefly includes records created and assembled by Koger as a member of the National Conference of Bankruptcy Judges from 1993-1997. The collection also includes materials regarding a skit, created by Koger, which gained notoriety within the bankruptcy law community.

Joseph L. Cosetti was appointed United States Bankruptcy Judge for the Western District of Pennsylvania in 1980, where he served as Chief Judge until 1994. He served as President of the National Conference of Bankruptcy Judges (NCBJ) from 1991 to 1992. The NCBJ, which provides continuing legal education to judges, lawyers and other involved professionals, aims to secure a greater degree of quality and uniformity in the administration of the bankruptcy system and to improve the practice of law in the bankruptcy courts. Papers in the collection span the period of 1972-2001, with the majority of the documents created in the years 1989-1992. Chiefly represented are materials created by the National Conference of Bankruptcy Judges and collected by the Office of the President from 1989 to 1992.

As a teacher, scholar, lawyer, and consultant, Lawrence P. King (1929-2001) played an important role in the reform of bankruptcy law from the 1960s to his death in 2001. King taught commercial and bankruptcy law at New York University Law School. He served on a number of congressional commissions formed to analyze and reform bankruptcy law, including the Advisory Committee on Bankruptcy Rules of the Judicial Conference of the United States. He gave speeches and participated in panels regarding bankruptcy legislation for a number of seminars and educational programs. He was an active member of the National Bankruptcy Conference, an organization of lawyers, judges, and professors dedicated to bankruptcy reform. He had leadership roles in National Bankruptcy Conference committees, including the Committee on Legislation, where he was Chairman. He is well known as Editor of Collier on Bankruptcy, a reference series that became the leading treatise on bankruptcy law during King's 40-year tenure. The collection,1952-2001, includes personal and professional correspondence; reports, correspondence, and memoranda relating to King's participation in the Advisory Committee on Bankruptcy Rules; congressional hearings and testimony by King and his colleagues; meeting minutes, correspondence, and committee materials from the National Bankruptcy Conference, of which King was an active member; papers relating to the New York University Advanced Workshop on Bankruptcy and Business Reorganization, which King created and taught; seminar materials from the Federal Judicial Center, the National Conference of Bankruptcy Judges, the Association of American Law Schools, and other organizations; articles written by King; teaching materials; subject files on a range of topics, including personal bankruptcy, bankruptcy reform, the Bankruptcy Code, consumer legislation, and the Marathon Pipeline bankruptcy court case; and other papers used by King in the course of his scholarship.

The Leonard M. Rosen Papers consists of the records of The National Bankruptcy Conference (NBC) Meeting and Administrative Records belonging to Mr. Rosen. Leonard M. Rosen was a prominent American bankruptcy attorney, and a co-founder of the New York firm Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz. . Rosen contributed to the drafting of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code, taught as an adjunct professor at NYU and served as chairman of the National Bankruptcy Conference from 1984 to 1992.

Linda B. Riegle earned her J.D. from the Albany Law school in 1977. She has served as Bankruptcy Judge for the United States Bankruptcy Court in Nevada since 1988. Riegle is a member of the National Conference of Bankruptcy Judges (NCBJ), serving on the Board of Governors from 1991 to 1997. The Linda B. Riegle Collection of National Conference of Bankruptcy Judges Records includes meeting materials, committee papers, and correspondence relating to Riegle's participation on the Board of Governors of the NCBJ from 1991 to 1997.

Mary Davies Scott (born in 1944) earned her J.D. from the University of Arkansas, Little Rock, in 1978. Scott was appointed Bankruptcy Judge to the Eastern District of the United States Federal Court in 1987, where she remained until her retirement in 2002. From 1996 to 2002, she served as a member of the Bankruptcy Appellate Panel of the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals. Scott is a member of the National Conference of Bankruptcy Judges, where she has served in a number of leadership roles. She has served on the Board of Directors of the American College of Bankruptcy since 2002. Scott planned and taught at various workshops and seminars for the Federal Judicial Center, an organization that provides continuing education to the federal judiciary, including bankruptcy judges. As chair of the American College of Bankruptcy's Archives Committee, Scott was instrumental in creating and developing the National Bankruptcy Archives at the University of Pennsylvania Law School. The collection, 1984-2002, chiefly include correspondence, meeting materials, and related records pertaining to Scott's activities as a member of the American Bankruptcy Institute, the American College of Bankruptcy, the Bankruptcy Appellate Panel of the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals, the Federal Judicial Center, the National Conference of Bankruptcy Judges, and the Office of the United States Trustees.

Murray Drabkin (1928-) was a commercial bankruptcy lawyer at Hopkins and Sutter in Washington, D.C. until 2001. He was a member of the National Bankruptcy Conference and co-authored the "Judges' bill," which, together with the "Commission bill," drafted by a federal commission to study bankruptcy laws, was the basis for the Bankruptcy Reform Act of 1978. The collection, 1932-1999, includes materials relating to bankruptcy reform and the jurisdiction of bankruptcy judges in the 1970s and 1980s; records and papers of the National Bankruptcy Conference, where Drabkin was an active member; material relating to two important legislative projects formed by the National Bankruptcy Conference, the Code Review Project and the Insurance Insolvency Project; correspondence related to the activities of bankruptcy committees in New York and Washington, D.C.; and published manuals, reports, and reference books.

Nancy Dreher was a member of the American College of Bankruptcy, Fellow of the American Bar Association, and member of the National Conference of Bankruptcy Judges (NCBJ), where she served as Editor-in-Chief of the American Bankruptcy Law Journal from 1994 to 1998. Dreher also edited the NCBJ publication Conference News from 1999 to 2000, a period during which the newsletter underwent a thorough restructuring. The Nancy C. Dreher collection includes selected issues of the American Bankruptcy Law Journal, which Dreher edited from 1994 to 1998, and "Conference News," the official NCBJ newsletter that was edited by Dreher from 1999 to 2000. The collection also includes administrative papers detailing the correspondence between Dreher and members of the NCBJ, the history of the NCBJ, and the operations of the American Bankruptcy Law Journal; annotated drafts of articles published by these two NCBJ organs under Dreher's supervision, correspondence and meeting materials relating to the activities of the Editorial Advisory Board for the American Bankruptcy Law Journal; and correspondence and other material relating to the activities of the Newsletter Committee for Conference News.

Norman H. Nachman (1909-2001) worked as a Chicago bankruptcy attorney for 60 years, served as President of the Chicago Bar Association, and helped to draft new bankruptcy code. His colleagues named him the “Dean of U.S. Bankruptcy Lawyers.” This collection, dated 1983-1998, consists of materials relating to Nachman’s career in bankruptcy law and includes case documents, reports on aspects of bankruptcy law, Nachman’s daily appointment calendars, business correspondence dated 1992-1998, and various publications including law journals and books authored by his colleagues.

Ralph H. Kelley (1928-2004) was appointed United States Bankruptcy Judge in the Sixth Federal Judicial Circuit in 1969. In 1993 he retired as Chief Judge of the Bankruptcy Court for the Eastern District of Tennessee but remained the court’s senior judge. He was a member of the National Conference of Bankruptcy Clerks and the National Conference of Bankruptcy Judges, where he served as President from 1985 to 1986. In 1980, Ralph Kelley was appointed to the Committee on the Budget of the Judicial Conference of the United States, where he served until 1990. The collection (1967-2004) includes letters and memoranda with the Administrative Office of the United States, congressional leaders, and bankruptcy judges; programs, promotional material, and other material relating to seminars, workshops, conferences, and other meetings in which Kelley was invited to participate; congressional testimony by Kelley before various congressional committees; essays and other writings generated by Kelley; speeches, lectures, and other presentations created by Kelley; subject files, created and maintained by Kelley, relating to Kelley's key legislative advocacy, including support for an increase in bankruptcy judgeships, improved salaries and retirement benefits for bankruptcy judges, and Chapter 13 of the Bankruptcy Code; publications, releases, directories, news clippings, and other papers not created by Kelley but used by Kelley for reference; and letters, press releases, video material, and other material commemorating and honoring the life and work of Kelley.

Randall J. Newsome (b. 1950) graduated from the University of Cincinnati Law School in 1975. In 1998, Newsome was appointed to the Northern District of California's bankruptcy court, where he became Chief Judge in 2004. Randall Newsome has served as a faculty member for the Federal Judicial Center since 1987. He joined the National Conference of Bankruptcy Judges in 1983, serving as President from 1998-1999. He is a fellow of the American College of Bankruptcy. The collection (1993-2004) includes audio cassette tapes of interviews with important figures in bankruptcy law, conducted by Newsome.

Randall J. Newsome attended Boston University for his Bachelor of Arts in 1972 and the University of Cincinnati College of Law for his Juris Doctor in 1975. With 28 years of experience serving as a settlement and bankruptcy judge, Judge Newsome is best known for his intelligent and pragmatic approach to resolving complex matters and he is frequently sought out as a national speaker on topics related to bankruptcy. Judge Newsome devoted much of his career handling local and national bankruptcy issues. Not only was Judge Newsome vocal about bankruptcy reform for consumers, but he was also actively involved with the ongoing legislative battles over bankruptcy reform, particularly during the ever changing Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act (BAPCPA) in the late 1990s. The Randall J. Newsome Papers, 1969-2010, primarily covers Judge Newsome's activities as a Bankruptcy Judge from 1982-2010 as well as his activities as a member and future President of the National Conference of Bankruptcy Judges (NCBJ).

Robert B. Morton (1912-2005) earned his law degree from the University of Kansas in 1935. In 1962, Morton became a judge in the United States Bankruptcy Court, a position he held until 1986. Upon his retirement from the court, Morton worked for Morris, Laing, Evans, Brock and Kennedy, a law firm located in Wichita, Kan. Morton was an active member in a number of bankruptcy and legal organizations, most notably the National Conference of Bankruptcy Judges, where he served as President from 1975 to 1976 and as Treasurer from 1980 to 1982. The collection, 1973-1994, includes correspondence, memoranda, handwritten notes, and related material regarding Morton's activities as a member of the National Conference of Bankruptcy Judges; as counsel to the bankruptcy department of Morris, Laing, Evans, Brock and Kennedy; and as an advocate for improved benefits for bankruptcy judges.

Robert D. Martin (1944-) was appointed Chief United States Bankruptcy Judge for the Western District of Wisconsin in 1978. Martin was a charter fellow of the American College of Bankruptcy and a conferee of the National Bankruptcy Conference. He was a member of the National Conference of Bankruptcy Judges (NCBJ), an organization devoted to providing to providing education and advice relating to bankruptcy legislation. Martin served on the Board of Governors of the NCBJ from 1988 to 1991, as Secretary in 1994, and as the conference's President in 1996. The collection, 1982-2000, includes materials relating to Martin's activities as a committee member, Secretary, and President of the NCBJ; as a member of the National Bankruptcy Conference, which participated in the National Bankruptcy Review Commission in the mid-1990s; as a federal judge on the Judicial Conference of the United States; as a lecturer, panelist, and participant in seminars, workshops, and meetings across the United States; as a researcher and expert on a variety of bankruptcy related issues; and related material.

The Honorable Samuel L. Bufford is a former United States Bankruptcy Judge in the Central District of California, where he served from 1985 to 2010 and presided over nearly 100,000 cases. After graduating with a B.A. from Wheaton College in Illinois, Judge Bufford earned his law degree from the University of Michigan, where he was an editor of the Michigan Law Review and of the Journal of Law Reform and a Ph.D in Philosophy from the University of Texas. He practiced corporate, bankruptcy, antitrust, securities, and other types of business law in Los Angeles, Beverly Hills, San Francisco, and New York between 1974 and his appointment to the bench, except for a stint teaching law and urban planning at The Ohio State University between 1975 and 1977. Widely regarded as one of the foremost scholars of U.S. and comparative insolvency law, Bufford has authored one book, United States International Insolvency Law (Oxford University Press, 2009), and numerous law review articles and more than 75 published opinions. In addition, he is a frequent lecturer throughout the United States and abroad on issues of bankruptcy law and legal ethics. Bufford has served as an adjunct professor at the University of Southern California Law Center and has taught at The Ohio State University and during the winter, 2004 term, as Nomura Lecturer on Law, taught a course in international and comparative insolvency law. He now lectures at the Dickinson School of Law at Penn State as a Distinguished Scholar in Residenice on issues of bankruptcy, international and comparative insolvency law, commercial transactions, and international business transactions. He has taught foreign seminars sponsored by the Abu Dhabi Judicial Department, USAID, the International Insolvency Institute, and the U.S. Commerce and State Departments and has given seminars in the United States for foreign judges. Bufford was a member of the 2004 Global Judges Forum, which provided advice to the World Bank on formulating international standards and best practices for insolvency laws and practices. Bufford is past chair of the National Conference of Federal Trial Judges of the American Bar Association and serves on the board of directors for Volunteers of America Los Angeles. He serves on the editorial advisory boards for the International Insolvency Review and the West Annual Review of International Insolvency. Bufford served as editor in chief of the America Bankruptcy Law Journal from 1990 to 1994. Rulings, correspondence, and related material regarding Bufford's activity as a bankruptcy judge, his role in the National Conference of Bankruptcy Judges, and his activity working with other countries on international insolvency matters.

T. Hartley Kingsmill was appointed Bankruptcy Judge to the Eastern District of Louisiana in 2003. The collection, 1982-1988, chiefly includes correspondence, reports, photocopies of legislation, and related material regarding Kingsmill's activity as a member of the National Conference of Bankruptcy Judges.