Larry Bates
Professor of Law

B.A., University of Minnesota
J.D., Marquette University School of Law
LL.M, Harvard Law School

Professor Bates joined the faculty after almost nine years in practice as a corporate bankruptcy specialist with the Dallas law firm Carrington, Coleman, Sloman & Blumenthal. While in practice, Professor Bates represented clients in some of the largest bankruptcy reorganization cases in the United States, including Zales Jewelers, National Gypsum, Federated Department Stores, Circle-K Stores, Southmark, The Western Company, Metro Express Airlines, Texas American Bancshares, and First City Texas Bancorp. Professor Bates also represented clients in pro bono cases involving prisoners rights and the death penalty. Professor Bates teaches Secured Transactions, Bankruptcy, Constitutional Law, Supreme Court Seminar and Legal Analysis, Research & Communications. He is also Faculty Advisor to the Baylor Law Review and coaches Baylor’s American Bar Association Moot Court Team, which finished third in the nation last year. He has written extensively on commercial law and bankruptcy since joining the faculty. His recent publications include Administrative Regulation of Terms in Form Contracts: A Comparative Analysis, Volume 16, Emory International Law Journal (2001 - 2002), Excepting Credit Card Debt From Discharge in Bankruptcy: Why Fraud Can’t Mean What the Courts Want it to Mean, Volume 78, North Dakota Law Review (2001 - 2002), and Certificates of Title in Texas Under Revised Article 9, Volume 53, Baylor Law Review (Fall 2001). He is also a Commissioner for the Bankruptcy Law Exam Commission, Texas Board of Legal Certification and a member of the American Bankruptcy Institute.

Professor Bates earned his J.D., magna cum laude, from Marquette University School of Law in 1983 after receiving his B.A., magna cum laude, from the University of Minnesota in 1978. He received an LL.M degree from Harvard Law School in 1986, where he was an editor for the Harvard Civil Rights-Civil Liberties Law Review. Professor Bates clerked for the Honorable John L. Coffey of the United States Courts of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit from 1986-87. He also served as an adjunct professor at Southern Methodist University School of Law in 1994.