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Hon. Leif Clark (Ret.)

Leif Clark
  • International reputation for influencing the development of the law as a United States Bankruptcy Judge
  • Broad experience in international legislative development, training of lawyers and judges, and scholarship
  • Sought-after mediator of complex disputes involving finance and insolvency

Hon. Leif Clark (Ret.) served as a United States Bankruptcy Judge for 25 years, sitting in the Western District of Texas. As a bankruptcy judge, Judge Clark developed a national reputation for thoughtful, insightful and clearly written judicial decisions that have strongly influenced the development of the law. During his tenure on the bench, he was also an active author and speaker at seminars nationwide. Serving as an adjunct professor at the University of Texas School of Law, he taught both basic bankruptcy and advanced bankruptcy seminars. For many years, he also taught U.S. Constitutional Law to international students from over 20 countries as part of the McGeorge University International Masters of Laws degree program in Salzburg, Austria.

Judge Clark has also participated in numerous international efforts, including as an adviser to the American Law Institute’s Transnational Insolvency Law project (headed by Prof. Jay L. Westbrook of the University of Texas), and the development and administration of a USAID-sponsored judicial training program for judges in the emerging economies of Central and Eastern Europe. Judge Clark was a member of the consulting committee for the U.S. delegation to UNCITRAL’s Working Group V, which was then drafting the Model Cross-Border Insolvency Law. From 2004 until 2013, he was a member of the U.S. delegation to that Working Group, contributing to the completion of the Legislative Guide on Insolvency Law, the Practice Guide to Cross Border Insolvency, and, most recently, re-drafting the Guide to Enactment of the Model Law on Cross Border Insolvency. Since 2008, he has been an author for Collier on Bankruptcy, publishing a monograph on cross-border insolvency under U.S. law, which has since been incorporated into Volume I of the Treatise. He currently provides consulting services to both the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank on international insolvency issues involving both commercial entities and natural persons.

From the early 1990’s, Judge Clark has acted as a mediator in a wide variety of disputes, and continues an active mediation and arbitration practice nationwide. He is a member of the Bankruptcy & Finance Panel of MWI, a leading provider of dispute resolution services to the insolvency and finance fields. He also serves as an expert witness and consultant in a number of different contexts, including cross-border disputes. Judge Clark is a member of the American College of Bankruptcy and the National Bankruptcy Conference.