The American Bankruptcy Institute (ABI) presented Chief Bankruptcy Judge Barbara J. Houser (N.D. Tex.; Dallas) with the Judge William L. Norton, Jr. Judicial Excellence Award at the ABI luncheon during the 88th National Conference of Bankruptcy Judges annual meeting in Chicago on Oct. 10.

The Norton Judicial Excellence Award was established by West, a Thomson Reuters business and ABI in 2006, and it honors a current or retired judge based on that judge’s lifetime achievements as an educator, writer or scholar. Chief Judge Houser is the ninth recipient of the award.

An ABI member since 2003, Chief Judge Houser was sworn in as a bankruptcy judge for the Northern District of Texas in Dallas on Jan. 20, 2000. Upon graduation from law school, she joined Locke, Purnell, Boren, Laney & Neeley in Dallas and became a shareholder in 1985. Judge Houser then joined Sheinfeld, Maley & Kay PC in 1988 as the shareholder in charge of the Dallas office until she was sworn in as a bankruptcy judge.

In 1998, the National Law Journal named her one of the 50 most influential women lawyers in America. She was elected a Fellow of the American College of Bankruptcy in 1994 and currently serves as one of its vice presidents. She was also elected to membership in the National Bankruptcy Conference in 1996 and serves as a member of its Executive Committee. Judge Houser served as president of the National Conference of Bankruptcy Judges from 2009-10.

In 2011, she received the Distinguished Alumni Award for Judicial Service from the Dedman School of Law at Southern Methodist University, where she has been a visiting professor of law, teaching creditors’ rights. She currently serves on ABI’s Board of Directors and is a contributing author to Collier’s on Bankruptcy (15th Ed.) and the Collier Bankruptcy Manual (3d Ed.).