Brook Gotberg

Professor of Law

Brook Gotberg joined the faculty in 2020. She teaches Bankruptcy, Contracts, Secured Transactions and other commercial law subjects. Professor Gotberg’s scholarship focuses primarily on debtor and creditor relations, both in and out of bankruptcy. She has published articles on the impact of bankruptcy provisions on small and medium-sized enterprises, the treatment of preferential transfers in the bankruptcy code, and more generally on the laws and policies shaping business reorganization in the United States. Professor Gotberg has also presented extensively on current developments in bankruptcy law.

Prior to joining the law faculty, Professor Gotberg was a tenured professor for the University of Missouri Law School in Columbia, Missouri. Professor Gotberg also practiced commercial law with Sullivan & Cromwell in Los Angeles, California. She has litigated a variety of cases, from large antitrust suits to minor contract disputes, and has represented both debtors and creditors in bankruptcy court. She is a former clerk to Judge Milan D. Smith Jr. on the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals and the Honorable Thomas B. Donovan in the Bankruptcy Court for the Central District of California. Professor Gotberg graduated magna cum laude from Brigham Young University with a B.A. in political science, and received her J.D. cum laude from Harvard Law School.

In addition to writing, teaching and engaging in the theory and practice of law, Professor Gotberg enjoys playing tennis with her husband and having dance parties with their five children.

Education

  • B.A., Brigham Young University
  • J.D., Harvard Law School
  • A No-Contest Discharge for Uncollectable Student Loans, 91 U. COLO. L REV. 183 (2020) (co-authored with Matthew Bruckner, Dalie Jimenez, and Chrystin Ondersma). [SSRN]
  • Preference Law Perpetuates Preferences in Chapter 11, 38 AMER. BANKR. INST. J. 30 (Sept. 2019).
  • Moving Beyond Medical Debt, 27 ABI L. REV. 93 (2019) (co-authored with Michael D. Sousa). [SSRN]
  • Relational Preferences in Chapter 11 Proceedings, 71 OKLA. L. REV. 1013 (2019) . [SSRN]
  • Optimal Deterrence and the Preference Gap, 2018 B.Y.U. L. REV. 559 (2018). [SSRN]
  • Technically Bankrupt, 48 SETON HALL L. REV. 111 (2017) . [SSRN]
  • Conflicting Preferences in Business Bankruptcy: The Need for Different Rules in Different Chapters, 100 IOWA L. REV. 51 (2014) . [SSRN]
  • Preferences Are Public Rights, 2013 WIS. L. REV. 1355. [SSRN]
  • Restructuring the Bankruptcy System: A Strategic Response to Stern v. Marshall, 87 AM. BANKR. L.J. 191 (2013) (peer reviewed). [SSRN]
  • The End of Conquest: Consolidating Sovereign Equality, INTERNATIONAL NORMS AND CYCLES OF CHANGE (Wayne Sandholtz & Kendall Stiles, eds. Oxford University Press 2008) .