The National Bankruptcy Archives

In October 2000 the Biddle Law Library and the American College of Bankruptcy collaborated to create a special collection entitled the National Bankruptcy Archives (NBA), a national repository of materials relating to the history of debtor-creditor relations, bankruptcy and the reorganization of debt. The NBA collects records from the American College of Bankruptcy as well as from other organizations whose activities have been relevant to the history of bankruptcy and insolvency legislation, regulation, and administrative and judicial determination. The NBA also houses papers of individuals who have influenced the field, and other collections documenting the history of bankruptcy law.

For more information about the Archives, you may watch the following video.

Collection Guides

In re Benny

NBA28

NBA11

NBA10

Other collection guides are available upon request.

Collection guides for the National Bankruptcy Archives were created using the XML editors Notetab Pro, Altova XMLSpy, and OXygenML. All guides are compliant with the Encoded Archival Description (EAD) Document Type Definition Version 2002. Please contact the Archives for more information.

Charter Donors

American College of Bankruptcy

The American College of Bankruptcy is an honorary professional and educational association of bankruptcy and insolvency professionals. It was formed in 1989 and has approximately 500 Fellows, selected by a Board of Regents from among recommendations received from the Circuit Admissions Council in each federal judicial circuit. Fellows include attorneys, professors, judges, accountants, government officials, trustees, bankers, specialists, appraisers and others involved in the bankruptcy and insolvency community. The mission of the College is to honor and recognize distinguished bankruptcy professionals who are qualified for membership in an effort to set standards of achievement for others in the insolvency community, and to fund and assist projects that enhance the highest quality of bankruptcy practice, including undergraduate and graduate programs related to bankruptcy and insolvency.

National Conference of Bankruptcy Judges

The National Conference of Bankruptcy Judges (NCBJ) provides continuing legal education to judges, lawyers and other involved professionals and promotes cooperation among Bankruptcy Judges. The association 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. NCBJ has financially supported the National Bankruptcy Archives at Biddle Law Library since its inception. The NCBJ has also contributed it bylaws, publications and other materials to the collection. Papers of members of NCBJ have been contributed to the archive, including those of Judge Judith Fitzgerald and Judge Frank Koger.

Murray Drabkin

Murray Drabkin was a commercial bankruptcy lawyer at Hopkins & Sutter in Washington, D.C until 2001. He is 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.

Merrill R. Francis

Merrill R. Francis is a partner at Sheppard, Mullin, Richter & Hampton LLP in Los Angeles, California. He has practiced extensively in Bankruptcy Court since 1960, representing secured creditors, unsecured creditors, creditors' committees, and trustees in Chapter 11 corporate reorganization proceedings. He has been a member of the ABA Section of Business Law-Ad Hoc Committee on Bankruptcy Court Structure and Insolvency Processes, the ABA Section of Business Law-Task Force on Federal Court Structures, the ABA-Ad Hoc Committee on Partnership in Bankruptcy, and the American Bankruptcy Institute.

Frank R. Kennedy

Frank R. Kennedy was a professor of bankruptcy law at the University of Iowa from 1940 to 1942 and 1946 to 1960 before moving to the University of Michigan where he taught bankruptcy law and related subjects from 1961 to 1984. As a member of the National Bankruptcy Conference, he has acted as chairman of the Drafting Committee, a member of the executive committee, and as secretary. In 1959 he was also invited to become the reporter for the first Advisory Committee on Bankruptcy Rules of the Judicial Conference of the United States (ACBR), of which he was a member from 1960 to 1976. Professor Kennedy was appointed executive director of the Commission on Bankruptcy Laws (CBL) in 1970.

Lawrence P. King

Lawrence P. King was the Editor in Chief of Collier on Bankruptcy. For over 40 years he taught at the New York University School of Law, where he created, administered, and taught in their Annual Workshop on Bankruptcy and Business Reorganization. He also served as Counsel to the law firm of Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen and Katz in New York. He was a Fellow of the American College of Bankruptcy, a member of the American Law Institute and the American Bar Association Business Bankruptcy Committee, and an active participant in the National Bankruptcy Conference. He served as a consultant to the pre-Code Commission on the Bankruptcy Laws of the United States in 1971-73, and as an adviser to the National Bankruptcy Review Commission in 1996-97.

Kenneth N. Klee

Kenneth N. Klee is a member of Klee, Tuchin & Bogdanoff LLP. He is also an Acting Professor at the UCLA School of Law, teaching courses in bankruptcy law and chapter 11 business reorganizations law, and a business simulation clinic on creating value through the renegotiation of business agreements. Klee served as a contributing editor to Collier on Bankruptcy from 1979 until 1996 and a consulting editor from 1980 to 1996. He was Associate Counsel to the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on the Judiciary, from 1974 to 1977, where he was a principal draftsperson of the Bankruptcy Code. Since then, he has served periodically as a bankruptcy consultant to the House Judiciary Committee and to the United States Department of Justice.

Robert D. Martin

Robert D. Martin was an attorney with Ross & Stevens, S.C., in Madison Wisconsin, until he was appointed Chief United States Bankruptcy Judge for the Western District of Wisconsin in 1978. He serves extensively by designation to the bankruptcy courts in the Northern Districts of Illinois and Iowa. He is a former President of the National Conference of Bankruptcy Judges, a charter fellow of the American College of Bankruptcy, a conferee in the National Bankruptcy Conference, and a member of the Board of Directors of the Turnaround Management Association. Judge Martin co-authored "Ginsberg & Martin on Bankruptcy" with the Hon. Robert E. Ginsberg, and "Secured Transactions Handbook for Wisconsin Lawyers and Lenders" with the Hon. John K. Pearson. He is a contributing author to "Norton Bankruptcy Law and Practice" and "Norton Bankruptcy Law Adviser" and has taught debtor/creditor, general practice, farm credit, and advanced bankruptcy courses at the University of Wisconsin Law School.

For information about donating materials to the National Bankruptcy Archives, please consult our Collection Development Policy page.