As has been reported elsewhere (and also here), Judge Bruce Markell of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court of Nevada has agreed to join the faculty at Florida State as the Jeffrey A. Stoops Professor of Law. Markell started his career as a judicial law clerk to a then-Ninth Circuit judge named Anthony Kennedy. He joined Sidley & Austin where he became a partner specializing in bankruptcy. He next was a professor at Indiana University until he finally reached the pinnacle of his career — being my colleague at UNLV. In fact, it was such an honor for him to be my colleague that he joined the UNLV faculty several years before I did.

Florida State has made an incredibly smart and wise hire. Congratulations to them. Markell will bring a depth and breadth of experience in bankruptcy that few legal academics can match. Penn State made a similar move by hiring Sam Bufford in 2010 as a distinguished scholar in residence when he stepped down from the bankruptcy bench in the  Central District of California.

A few years ago, I tried to keep track of new faculty hires and lateral faculty moves in the bankruptcy field. TaxProf blog does it for faculty specializing in tax, and it seems useful (or at least useful to this aging law professor). It might be worth trying again. If you know of new hires or lateral faculty moves this year or last year in the bankruptcy area, leave a comment or send me an e-mail (rlawless-at-illinois-dot-edu).

Westcott Building image from Ruth Peterkin/Shutterstock.