Bufford, Samuel L. (Samuel Lawrence), 1943-

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. Widely regarded as one of the foremost scholars 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.