Michael Sousa joined the faculty at the Sturm College of Law in 2008, and will teach and pursue scholarship in the areas of bankruptcy law and commercial law. Immediately prior to joining the faculty at the College of Law, Michael was an associate in the Business Reorganization and Financial Restructuring Practice Group at Duane Morris LLP, an AM Law Top 100 law firm. In addition to his private practice experience, Michael served as a judicial law clerk in both state and federal court. He served as a law clerk in federal bankruptcy court to the Honorable Rosemary Gambardella, Chief Bankruptcy Judge for the United States Bankruptcy Court for the District of New Jersey, and to the Honorable Donald H. Steckroth, Bankruptcy Judge for the United States Bankruptcy Court for the District of New Jersey. He also served as law clerk to the Honorable William J. Martini in the United States District Court for the District of New Jersey, and to the Honorable John E. Wallace, Jr. in the Appellate Division of the New Jersey Superior Court.

Michael received his J.D. from Rutgers University School of Law, and his LL.M. in Bankruptcy from St. John’s University School of Law, where he was named the American Bankruptcy Institute Scholar. He currently serves as a member of the Advisory Board for the LL.M. in Bankruptcy Program at St. John’s University School of Law. Michael was recently appointed to a three-year term to serve on the Editorial Advisory Board for the American Bankruptcy Institute Law Review. In addition, Michael is a contributing editor to four national bankruptcy publications, including the Journal of Bankruptcy Law and Practice, the American Bankruptcy Institute Journal, the Norton Annual Survey of Bankruptcy Law, and the multi-volume treatise, Norton Bankruptcy Law and Practice 3d. Moreover, he is a co-author of the one volume treatise, Consumer Bankruptcy Manual, published by Thomson-West. He is also a member of the Editorial Advisory Board for the Journal of Bankruptcy Law and Practice. Michael recently participated, pro bono, in the preparation of an amicus curiae brief submitted to the United States Supreme Court in Travelers Indemnity Co. v. Bailey, No. 08-295 (2009).

To date, his articles have been cited by several judicial opinions, including Biltmore Associates, LLC v. Twin City Fire Insurance Co., 572 F.3d 663 (9th Cir. 2009), Miller v. Ameriquest Mortgage Co. (In re Laskowski), 384 B.R. 518 (Bankr. N.D. Ind. 2008), In re Xpedior Inc., 354 B.R. 210 (Bankr. N.D. Ill. 2006), and Smith v. Butler Associates (In re Smith), 2008 WL 4148923 (Bankr. D. Kan. 2008). Another article was cited as authority in an appellate brief to the United States Supreme Court in Board of Trustees of the Ohio Carpenters Pension Fund v. Bucci, No. 07-1107 (June 9, 2008).

Featured Publications

• A Casus Omissus in Preventing Bankruptcy Fraud: Ordering a Search of a Debtor’s Home, 73 Ohio State Law Journal (forthcoming 2012).
• A Delicate Balancing Act: Satisfying the Fourth Amendment While Protecting the Bankruptcy System From Debtor Fraud, 28 Yale Journal on Regulation (Summer 2011).
• Consumer Bankruptcy Manual, Thomson West (2011).
• The Principle of Consumer Utility: A Contemporary Theory of the Bankruptcy Discharge, 58 University of Kansas Law Review 101 (2010).
• Arbitration Agreements in Bankruptcy, in NORTON BANKRUPTCY LAW AND PRACTICE 3D (Thomson West 2009).