Judge Bufford to lend expertise to American Bar Association and World Bank

The Honorable Samuel L. Bufford, distinguished scholar in residence at Penn State Law, has accepted an invitation to join the academic advisory group to the prestigious ABA Standing Committee on Federal Judicial Improvements (SCFJI), the only ABA entity dedicated entirely to the substantive issues affecting the federal judiciary. The SCFJI plays a vital role in the development of ABA positions on legislative and administrative proposals potentially affecting the federal judiciary.

“Serving as a member of the advisory group will provide a good platform for my efforts to improve substantially to provisions in the Code of Judicial Conduct for retired judges, like myself,” said Bufford, one of the world’s foremost scholars of insolvency law and a former U.S. Bankruptcy Judge in the Central District of California. Over his twenty-five year judicial career he heard more than 100,000 cases.

Comprised of federal judges, practicing attorneys, and academics who provide a broad array of experience and viewpoints, the committee also serves as a liaison between the ABA and the federal judiciary, as well as with other governmental and nongovernmental entities involved in judicial reform. Judge Bufford is a past chair of the National Conference of Federal Trial Judges of the American Bar Association.

In January, Judge Bufford will also participate as a member of the Insolvency and Creditor/Debtor Regimes (ICR) Task Force that is being reconvened in Washington, D.C., by the World Bank in the wake of the Global Financial Crisis.

The ICR Task Force will examine a number of themes which hold considerable significance for the future regulatory design of insolvency systems in World Bank client countries. In particular, the ICR Task Force will be requested to study and comment on recent developments in the following areas:

• The role of out-of-court restructuring within a developed insolvency system;
• The regulation of insolvency practitioners; and 
• The insolvency law treatment of credit default swaps and other financial contracts.

Judge Bufford most recently authored the bench and practice guide United States International Insolvency Law (Oxford University Press 2009). His teaching interests include bankruptcy, international and comparative insolvency law, commercial transactions, and international business transactions.