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Samuel Bufford papers
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Held at: University of Pennsylvania: Biddle Law Library [Contact Us]3460 Chestnut Street, Biddle Law Library, Philadelphia, PA 19104-3406
This is a finding aid. It is a description of archival material held at the University of Pennsylvania: Biddle Law Library. Unless otherwise noted, the materials described below are physically available in their reading room, and not digitally available through the web.
Overview and metadata sections
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. A scholar 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.
The Samuel Bufford Papers, 1980-2010, include calendars of judicial rulings for Bufford's time served as a bankruptcy judge, correspondences, edited and submitted articles, and related materials regarding his involvements in the National Conference of Bankruptcy Judges, and his materials for his International Insolvency activities, most significantly, papers related to the foreign seminars in which he participated.
- Calendar of Judicial Rulings
- National Conference of Bankruptcy Judges
- International Insolvency Activity
Received from Samuel Bufford, 2010.
A file-level container list is available offline in spreadsheet form. Please contact the Archives for more information.
Processed by Zev Fagin, Spring 2011.
- Publisher
- University of Pennsylvania: Biddle Law Library
- Finding Aid Author
- Jordon Steele
- Access Restrictions
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The archives reserves the right to restrict access to materials of sensitive nature. Please contact the department for further information.
- Use Restrictions
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Copyright is retained by the authors of items in these papers, or their descendants, as stipulated by United States copyright law.
Collection Inventory
This series includes summaries of rulings and related court documents accumulated by Judge Bufford when making his court decisions during the period of January 2001 through June 2008.
Files related to the Endowment for Education and one file related to the American Bankruptcy Law Journal can be found in Boxes 52-55.
Files related to the American Bankruptcy Law Journal (for which Bufford served as editor in chief from 1990 to 1994), the International Committee, the Endowment for Education, and correspondence with members of the National Conference of Bankruptcy Judges.