Adjunct Professor of Law
United States Bankruptcy Judge
Fellow, American College of Bankruptcy
Member, American Bankruptcy Institute, International Insolvency
Institute, and National Conference of Bankruptcy Judges.
BA., cum laude, Yale University
J.D., Columbia University School of Law
Robert Drain is a United States Bankruptcy Judge for the
Southern District of New York. Judge Drain received his
B.A. degree cum laude with honors from Yale University in
1979 and his J.D. degree in 1984 from the Columbia University
School of Law, where he was a Harlan Fiske Stone Scholar for three
years.
At the time of his appointment in 2002, he was a partner in the
Bankruptcy Department of the New York law firm of Paul, Weiss,
Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison, where he represented debtors,
trustees, secured and unsecured creditors, official and unofficial
creditors committees, and buyers of distressed businesses and
distressed debt in chapter 11 cases, out-of-court restructurings
and bankruptcy-related litigation. He also was actively
involved in several transnational insolvency matters.
Judge Drain is a fellow of the American College of Bankruptcy
and a member of the American Bankruptcy Institute, the
International Insolvency Institute, and the National Conference of
Bankruptcy Judges. He is a past member and secretary of the
Bankruptcy and Reorganization Committee of the Association of the
Bar of the City of New York. He is an adjunct professor at St.
John’s University School of Law and has lectured and written on
numerous bankruptcy-related topics.
Since his appointment he has presided over such chapter 11 cases as
Loral, RCN, Cornerstone, Refco, Allegiance Telecom, Delphi, Coudert
Brothers, Frontier Airlines, Star Tribune, Reader’s Digest, A&P
and Hostess Brands. He also has presided over the ancillary or
plenary cases, as the case may be, of Corporacion Durango,
Satellites Mexicanas, Parmalat S. p. A. and its affiliated United
States debtors, Varig S.A., Yukos (II), SphinX, Galvex Steel and
TBS Shipping.
Judge Drain teaches Negotiations in Bankruptcy.