The Hon. Elizabeth S. Stong

Judge Elizabeth S. Stong is a U.S. Bankruptcy Judge for the Eastern District of New York, sitting in Brooklyn.  She entered on duty on September 2, 2003.  Previously, she was a litigation partner and associate at Willkie Farr & Gallagher, litigation associate at Cravath, Swaine & Moore, and law clerk to U.S. District Judge David Mazzone in the District of Massachusetts.

Judge Stong is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, the Council of the American Law Institute, the board of the Practising Law Institute, the board of the New York County Lawyers’ Association, and the board of the New York Law Institute.  She is also a member of the Advisory Committee of Columbia University’s Committee on Global Thought and the Advisory Board of P.R.I.M.E. Finance, an international dispute resolution and judicial training organization based in The Hague.  She regularly serves as a delegate to UNCITRAL’s Working Groups on Arbitration and Conciliation and Insolvency, and is an elected member of the European Law Institute.  She is the Chair of the ABA Standing Committee on Continuing Legal Education and holds leadership roles in the International Insolvency Institute, the American Bankruptcy Institute, and the ABA Business Law Section, International Law Section, and Judicial Division.  Judge Stong is an adjunct professor at Brooklyn Law School. 

Her past positions include President of the Harvard Law School Association, Chair of the National Conference of Bankruptcy Judges International Judicial Relations Committee, Co-Chair of the New York Fellows of the American Bar Foundation, as well as Co-Chair of the New York City Bar’s Council on the Profession, Vice Chair of its Judiciary Committee, and Chair of its Alternative Dispute Resolution Committee.  She also served on the ABA’s Standing Committee on Pro Bono and Public Service, Standing Committee on the American Judicial System, Standing Committee on Federal Judicial Improvements, Standing Committee on Continuing Legal Education, Center for Innovation, Commission on Women in the Profession, and Commission on Homelessness and Poverty.  In addition, she served as Vice President of the Federal Bar Council, Vice President of the board of directors of the New York City Bar’s Fund Inc. and City Bar Justice Center, the board of directors of the International Insolvency Institute, and an officer of the ABA Business Law Section.  She was also a member of the board of MFY Legal Services, Inc., one of the largest providers of free legal services to low-income residents of New York City.  

Judge Stong has trained judges in more than 25 countries on five continents, including North, Central and West Africa, Central Europe, Central Asia, the Middle East, the Arabian Peninsula, and South America with the U.S. Commerce Department Commercial Law Development Program, the World Bank, the ABA-Rule of Law Initiative, and INSOL, among other organizations.  She has consulted with the Supreme Court of China and People’s High Courts in Beijing and Guangzhou, the Uganda Registration Services Bureau, and has recently led judicial workshops and consultations in Bahrain, Kuwait, Kazakhstan, Nigeria, and Brazil, among other venues. 

Judge Stong has received many recognitions for her work.  These include the American Bar Foundation’s Outstanding State Chair Award, the ABA Glass Cutter Award, the NYIC Hon. Cecelia Goetz Award, the Association of Insolvency and Restructuring Advisors Judicial Service Award, the MFY Legal Services Scales of Justice Award, and the Brooklyn Bar Association’s Freda Nisnewitz Award for Pro Bono Service, among others.  She received her A.B. magna cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa from Harvard University and her J.D. from Harvard Law School.

EDUCATION: Harvard College, B.A.; Harvard Law School, J.D.