Judge Barbara Houser receives the 2014 William L. Norton, Jr., Judicial Excellence Award
Congratulations to Judge Barbara Houser, recipient of the 2014 William L. Norton, Jr., Judicial Excellence Award. The award, which is named after the founding member of both the American Bankruptcy Institute (ABI) and the American College of Bankruptcy, is given to a judge whose career embodies the same kind of continued dedication and outstanding contributions to the insolvency community as the award’s namesake. The selection committee is made up of three representatives of the ABI and three editors/contributing editors of the Norton Bankruptcy Law and Practice, 3d treatise.
Each year, a check for $10,000 in the recipient’s name is presented by Thomson Reuters to the education endowment funds of ABI and NCBJ (National Conference of Bankruptcy Judges). Thomson Reuters sponsors this award jointly with the ABI.
Judge Barbara Houser has served as the Chief Bankruptcy Judge for the Northern District of Texas, since 2000. She is a member of the Judicial Conference Committee on the Administration of the Bankruptcy System; of the American Bankruptcy Institute’s Board of Directors and ABI’s Executive Committee; the Texas and American Bar Associations, serving at one point as chairman of the Dallas Bar Association’s Committee on Bankruptcy and Corporate Reorganization; and of the National Conference of Bankruptcy Judges, serving as President during the 2009-2010 term. She is a conferee of the National Bankruptcy Conference, currently serving on Executive Committee. She is also a fellow of the American College of Bankruptcy. In 2011 Judge Houser received the Distinguished Alumni Award for Judicial Service from the SMU Dedman School of Law, and in 1998 she was named by the National Law Journal as one of the fifty most influential women lawyers in America. She is also a visiting Professor at the SMU Dedman School of Law.
