U.S. Bankruptcy Chief Judge Emeritus A. Jay Cristol, a three-time alumnus of the University of Miami, made a commitment to create the Judge A. Jay Cristol Endowed Chair in Bankruptcy at his alma mater.
Andrew B. Dawson, professor and vice dean for academic affairs at the School of Law, was named the first chair during a recent ceremony at the Lowe Art Museum on the Coral Gables campus. It was Cristol's second significant donation to his alma mater; he made an endowed gift toward the school’s bankruptcy clinic in 2012, the Eleanor R. Cristol and Judge A. Jay Cristol Bankruptcy Pro Bono Assistance Clinic.
"Next to doctors, lawyers contribute the most to helping people,” said Cristol. “I am pleased that I am able to endow this chair to assist Miami Law on its path to becoming one of the finest law schools in the United States.”
A Love of Life and the Law
The nonagenarian has lived a vibrant and exciting life, both in the air and on the ground, as Jeffrey Duerk, executive vice president for academic affairs and provost, pointed out in his introduction at the investiture event.
At 15, Cristol snuck out to take flying lessons behind his parents' back, a move that would get him grounded, in every sense of the word. But the former Miami Beach High School student would get another chance to earn his wings when the Korean War interrupted his education at the University of Miami. The U.S. Navy put him through flight school, and he spent the war in the Sea of Japan aboard the aircraft carrier USS Princeton flying a Grumman AF "sub killer" on day and night missions.
Post-war and back at the University of Miami, Cristol earned a degree in philosophy followed by his J.D. and would remain in the Navy, retiring as a captain in 1989.
Cristol would continue his service in the Judge Advocate General's Office, graduating from the Naval Justice School as well as flying operational missions during the Cuban Missile Crisis and airlifts during the Vietnam War. He lectured at the International Institute of Humanitarian Law in San Remo, Italy, on assignment from the Department of Defense. And, he received more than a dozen decorations, among them the Meritorious Service Medal, the Navy Commendation Medal, and the Navy Achievement Medal.
The Pennsylvania native, whose family fled to Miami Beach during the Depression, served as Special Assistant Attorney General of Florida, and after 25 years of civil law practice, stepped down as senior partner in a firm he founded to accept an appointment to the federal bench. At Miami Law, Cristol teaches Reorganization in Bankruptcy, a seminar that studies principal issues raised by Chapter 11 of the Bankruptcy Code. He has also taught Law of War and served as the administrative officer for the summer Naval Reserve law courses at Naval Justice School in Newport, Rhode Island.
Always a ’Cane, Cristol earned a Ph.D. in 1997 from the University’s Graduate School of International Studies after spending 17 years researching an attack during the Six-Day War on the USS Liberty, in which 34 Americans died. He wrote a book on the subject, “The Liberty Incident Revealed: The Definitive Account of the 1967 Israeli Attack on the U.S. Navy Spy Ship.’’
Endowed Chair as Part of 100 Talents Initiative
“Endowed chairs leave a lasting legacy. When visionary donors such as Judge Cristol make gifts to endow faculty chairs, they create permanent legacies that link their names to the chair holders’ achievements in perpetuity,’’ President Julio Frenk said during the investiture event. “Faculty who are experts in their field can touch thousands of lives through teaching, mentorship, and their innovation and discovery.”
Dawson’s chair pairs with Frenk’s key intention to retain and bring exemplary faculty members to the University through the 100 Talents Initiative. One of the key elements in the University’s strategic plan, the Roadmap to Our New Century, the initiative aims to establish at least 100 new endowed faculty chairs by the time the University celebrates its centennial in 2025.
The vice dean took a circuitous route to his life’s calling. The Williams College Spanish major spent almost half a decade teaching and coaching freshman and junior varsity football at a Dallas high school, and first tested the waters of law as a paralegal at a Dallas law firm years before joining the Miami Law faculty in 2011.
He was a Kauffman Legal Fellow at Harvard Law, clerked for the Jane R. Roth, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, and clerked for the Peter J. Walsh, U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware.
A native of Dallas, Texas, Dawson is likewise a scholar, who began his interest in the subject while studying U.S. Bankruptcy Code under professor Elizabeth Warren at Harvard, where he graduated in 2008. While there, he was senior editor of the Harvard Negotiation Law Review, recipient of the American Bankruptcy Institute Medal of Excellence, and the Irving Oberman Memorial Award.
“Judge Cristol told the story of a young couple in bankruptcy court and presenting their plan to repay creditors,” said Dawson. “When they finished, he asked, ‘Did you leave yourself enough money to buy ice cream for your kids each week?’ The story made me cry, and what hit me was Judge Cristol’s humanity and empathy,” Dawson said.
“Judge Cristol has given us many gifts over time,” he added, addressing the judge, “and you have taught me a great deal, leaving a mark on the way I teach the subject, the way I think about it, the way I write about it. I am truly humbled to celebrate it and to celebrate you.”
Dawson’s research focuses on the intersection of federal bankruptcy and labor laws, both in the corporate and municipal bankruptcy context, where federal judges are being asked to resolve challenging financial problems in the public as well as the private sector.
In addition to his scholarship, he has served as the reporter for the labor and benefits subcommittee of the American Bankruptcy Institute's commission to study the reform of Chapter 11. The ABI commission worked for three years to study ways in which the Bankruptcy Code should be modernized to consider the significant changes in corporate finance and corporate governance since the Code's enactment in 1978.
Dawson has also contributed to the study of cross-border insolvency under the UNCITRAL Model Law on Cross Border Insolvency. The United States adopted the Model Law in 2005; Dawson conducted the first empirical study of this new chapter 15 of the Bankruptcy Code. He has also served on the advisory board of the Caribbean Insolvency Symposium and was inducted into the International Insolvency Institute’s NextGen Leadership Program in 2014.
He was one of the primary organizers of the second International Comparative Law Insolvency Symposium held at the School of Law in the fall of 2019.
“In addition to all that he does, Drew has long been actively engaged with the University of Miami School of Law,” said Anthony E. Varona, dean and M. Minnette Massey Professor of Law at the School of Law. “He has served on numerous faculty committees, including the Appointments Committee, the Strategic Planning Committee, the Judicial Clerkship Committee, the Hiring Committee for the Investors’ Rights Clinic, and the Junior Faculty Development Committee.
“Drew’s many years of exemplary service to our School of Law ultimately culminated in his being named vice dean for Academic Affairs,” Varona added. “Drew has become an invaluable member of the University of Miami School of Law community, and we are fortunate to have him.”
