45^th Annual Jay L. Westbrook

Bankruptcy Conference

Austin Nov 19-20, 2026 Four Seasons Hotel

Live Webcast Nov 19-20, 2026

Overview

Now in its 45th year, UT Law CLE’s Jay L. Westbrook Bankruptcy Conference stands as one of the nation’s premier bankruptcy law programs. Each year, the conference brings together a distinguished national faculty of leading judges, academics, and practitioners for cutting‑edge discussions on the most important issues in bankruptcy practice. Recognized for its depth, insight, and exceptional networking opportunities, the Westbrook Conference continues to be a cornerstone event for professionals across the bankruptcy community.

Planning Committee

Sean B. Davis—Chair

Winstead PC
Houston, TX

April Stephens Rogers—Director

The University of Texas School of Law
Austin, TX

Hon. John C. Akard

U.S. Bankruptcy Judge, Retired
Tomball, TX

Omar J. Alaniz

Reed Smith LLP
Dallas, TX

Kimberly A. Bartley

Waldron & Schneider
Houston, TX

R. Byrn "Byrnie" Bass Jr.

Attorney at Law
Lubbock, TX

Pam Bassel

Chapter 13 Trustee
Hurst, TX

Katharine Battaia Clark

Thompson Coburn LLP
Dallas, TX

Megan F. Clontz

Ferguson Braswell Fraser & Kubasta PC
Plano, TX

Brian T. Cumings

Graves Dougherty Hearon & Moody
Austin, TX

Ashley L. Harper

Hunton Andrews Kurth LLP
Houston, TX

Christy Heimer

Heimer Law Offices P.C.
Austin, TX

Hon. Marvin Isgur

U.S. Bankruptcy Court, Southern District of Texas
Houston, TX

Erin E. Jones

Jones Murray LLP
Houston, TX

Aaron M. Kaufman

Gray Reed
Dallas, TX

Deborah B. Langehennig

Austin, TX

Hon. Michelle V. Larson

U.S. Bankruptcy Court, Northern District of Texas
Dallas, TX

Tara LeDay

Husch Blackwell LLP
Austin, TX

Demetra Liggins

McGuireWoods
Houston, TX

Angela Littwin

The University of Texas School of Law
Austin, TX

Ryan Manns

Norton Rose Fulbright US LLP
Dallas, TX

Kelli S. Norfleet

Haynes and Boone, LLP
Houston, TX

Jay H. Ong

Munsch Hardt Kopf & Harr, P.C.
Austin, TX

Hon. Michael M. Parker

U.S. Bankruptcy Court, Western District of Texas
San Antonio, TX

Michael R. Rochelle

Rochelle McCullough, L.L.P.
Dallas, TX

Cristina Rodriguez

The Office of Tiffany Castro, Chapter 13 Trustee
Houston, TX

Hon. Joshua P. Searcy

U.S. Bankruptcy Court, Eastern District of Texas
Tyler, TX

Eric M. Van Horn

Stinson LLP
Dallas, TX

William L. Wallander

Vinson & Elkins LLP
Dallas, TX

Jay L. Westbrook

The University of Texas School of Law
Austin, TX

Deborah D. Williamson

Dykema Gossett PLLC
San Antonio, TX

Megan Young-John

Porter Hedges LLP
Houston, TX

Venue

Four Seasons Hotel

98 San Jacinto Boulevard
Austin, TX 78701-4082
512-478-4500 (reservations)
Map

Our Sponsors

Thank you to our sponsors! Click each logo below to learn more.

Vinson & Elkins LLP

Vinson & Elkins LLP
www.velaw.com/

At Vinson & Elkins, our people are our strongest asset. Collaborating seamlessly across 12 offices worldwide, we provide outstanding client service. Our lawyers are committed to excellence, offering clients experience in handling their transactions, investments, projects and disputes across the globe.
We make the business of our clients our business, and are recognized professionals in key industries driving our global economy forward. Our market-leading approach comes from our experience — experience gained from representing entrepreneurial innovators in their most important deals and disputes for over 100 years. Our commitment to excellence, coupled with our commercial approach to solving problems, allows us to collaborate with clients to achieve results.
MACCO Group

MACCO Group
www.macco.group/case-studies

MACCO Restructuring Group, LLC (“MACCO”) is a national, award-winning, middle-market focused interim leadership and financial advisory practice. Based in Houston, Texas, it has professionals and locations from coast to coast who possess real world business experience and have led and managed companies serving as CEOs, CROs, CFOs, as senior lenders or in fiduciary roles such as operating chapter 11 trustee, assignee, and receiver.

MACCO believes businesses in operational or financial peril, and the people who own or manage them, should have access to cost-effective, straightforward solutions. MACCO’s attributes of independence, high-ethical standards, and our willingness to take accountability, each allow us to act quickly, move confidently and execute precisely to “put out the fire and protect the stakeholders from getting burned.”
Jones Walker LLP

Jones Walker LLP
www.joneswalker.com

Jones Walker LLP is a law firm committed to helping clients address today’s challenges, maximize opportunities, and set the stage for future success. Our bankruptcy and restructuring team touts a national footprint, industry focus, and top-tier attorneys providing unparalleled guidance to creditors, debtors, and other business stakeholders. Our experienced attorneys provide counsel at every step, from pre-bankruptcy planning and negotiation of out-of-court workouts and restructurings, to representing clients in bankruptcy court litigation, appeals, and complex Section 363 asset sales and bidding procedures. Attorneys in the practice group are equally skilled in state and non-bankruptcy law remedies and proceedings, such as receiverships. Jones Walker’s bankruptcy and restructuring practice is dedicated to helping businesses, creditors’ committees, lenders, trade creditors, and customers navigate distress within the marketplace.
Reed Smith LLP

Reed Smith LLP
www.reedsmith.com

Reed Smith is a dynamic international law firm dedicated to helping clients move their businesses forward. With an inclusive culture and innovative mindset, we deliver smarter, more creative legal services that drive better outcomes for our clients. Our deep industry knowledge, long-standing relationships and collaborative structure make us the go-to partner for complex disputes, transactions, and regulatory matters.

For more information, please visit www.reedsmith.com.
Financial Software Solutions

Financial Software Solutions
www.trustesolutions.com/

TrusteSolutions, a division of Financial Software Solutions, LLC (FSS), delivers better case management for Chapter 7 trustees with more automation, more customization, and more mobility than any other software available, helping them uphold their fiduciary responsibilities with excellence, maintain compliance effortlessly and maximize profitability. CORE (Case Organization for Receivers & Executives), provides a system of record for court-appointed receivers and Chapter 11/liquidating trustees that saves time through integrated banking, flexible accounting, professional support, and automation tools that take advantage of the “one free look” for ECF documents. Both FSS cloud-based software solutions are productivity-enhancing tools built to save time and increase profitability.
Parkins & Rubio LLP

Parkins & Rubio LLP
www.parkinsrubio.com/

Parkins & Rubio LLP is a boutique business law firm, with offices in Houston and New York, comprised of experienced financial restructuring, business bankruptcy attorneys and bankruptcy litigators focused on debtor-creditor rights, corporate bankruptcies, bankruptcy litigation and complex debt restructurings. Our experience includes oil and gas (up-stream, mid-stream, and down-stream, oil field service companies), real estate, financial, chemical, airline, health care, automotive supply chain, trucking, logistics, restaurants, hospitality, private equity and corporate governance. Each of the founding partners of the firm is enthusiastic about the practice of law and has devoted their entire careers to the practice of restructuring, bankruptcy law and bankruptcy litigation. We use our expertise to provide top-tier legal representation to our clients with an uncompromising commitment to ethical, efficient hard work to optimize client results and to build strong and lasting relationships with our clients.
Haynes and Boone, LLP

Haynes and Boone, LLP
www.haynesboone.com/

Founded in 1970, Haynes and Boone, LLP is among the fastest-growing firms in the Am Law 100, providing a full spectrum of legal services across multiple sectors, including corporate, energy, financial services, real estate, restructuring, litigation, intellectual property and specialty transactions. The firm’s nearly 700 lawyers practice across 19 global offices in California, Colorado, Illinois, New York, North Carolina, Texas, Virginia, Washington, D.C., London, Mexico City and Shanghai. Thirty-One different firm practice areas were ranked in the 2023 Chambers USA Legal Guide, and in 2024, Haynes Boone became the first Am Law 100 firm to ever earn a Gold-level Bell Seal from Mental Health America, recognizing its industry-leading commitment to creating a mentally healthy workplace. For more information, visit haynesboone.com.
Stinson LLP

Stinson LLP
www.stinson.com/
Bracewell LLP

Bracewell LLP
bracewell.com/

Bracewell LLP is a leading law firm that is known worldwide for its unique depth and experience in the energy, infrastructure, finance and technology sectors. To complement our sector-focused excellence, we boast an impressive and diversified array of market-leading substantive practices, including award-winning transactional, litigation, regulatory and government relations practices. This robust mix of sector and practice strengths has allowed us to be a firm of choice for many of the world’s largest and most successful corporate enterprises, financial institutions, private funds and governmental entities.

Our firm’s success is anchored by four authentic pillars of strength: a culture based on personal relationships, collaboration and a shared passion for the firm and its clients; our distinction as a destination firm for talent; blue-chip clients; and a reputation for excellence as a sector and large practice powerhouse.
East West Bank

East West Bank
www.eastwestbank.com/
Munsch Hardt Kopf & Harr, P.C.

Munsch Hardt Kopf & Harr, P.C.
www.munsch.com

Munsch Hardt is a Texas-based law firm with more than 39 years of experience representing commercial clients on any legal matter they may face during the life cycle of their business, from start-up ventures to established institutions with legal needs across Texas and around the world. Munsch Hardt’s Bankruptcy, Restructuring & Insolvency practice ranks among the largest and most experienced insolvency practices in the Southwest. Our practice has been consistently ranked by Chambers USA – Texas since 2005, as well as regionally every year since 2010 in the categories of “Bankruptcy and Creditor Debtor Rights / Insolvency and Reorganization Law” and “Litigation-Bankruptcy” by U.S. News – Best Lawyers® “Best Law Firms”, published by Woodward/White, Inc. To learn more, please visit our website at www.munsch.com.
Hayward PLLC

Hayward PLLC
haywardfirm.com/

Hayward PLLC is a bankruptcy, litigation and creditors' rights law firm with attorneys in Dallas and Austin, Texas. HPLLC prides itself on resolving complex commercial problems for its clients using the talents of its large firm-experienced partners to solve problems at small firm prices. We focus on meeting the needs of our clients in many areas of business restructurings and commercial litigation, including significant Chapter 7 and 11 cases. Combining breadth of knowledge with many decades of experience, HPLLC represents its clients in the divergent strategies and agendas that are encountered in workout, restructuring, and insolvency matters as well as other aspects of commercial litigation.

Bankruptcy Conference

Overview

Planning Committee

Venue

Four Seasons Hotel

Our Sponsors

Vinson & Elkins LLP

MACCO Group

Jones Walker LLP

Reed Smith LLP

Financial Software Solutions

Parkins & Rubio LLP

Haynes and Boone, LLP

Stinson LLP

Bracewell LLP

East West Bank

Munsch Hardt Kopf & Harr, P.C.

Hayward PLLC

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