¶¶Òõpro

Skip to main content
Skip to main content
MenuSearch & Directory

Abigail B. Willie, J.D.

Visiting Assistant Professor
School of Law


Education

B.A., University of Texas - Austin, 1996
J.D., Southern Methodist University Dedman School of Law, 2000

Practice Areas

Professor Willie brings more than two decades of private practice experience and government service to the classroom setting, where she teaches a variety of business law and UCC-based courses.

A proud native Texan, she graduated from The University of Texas at Austin (B.A., with special honors) in 1996, and from Southern Methodist University School of Law (J.D., cum laude) in 2000, where she served as associate managing editor of the school’s flagship law review, The Southern Methodist University Law Review. Following law school, she served as law clerk to the Honorable George P. Kazen of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas (2000-2001), then practiced as an attorney in the Insolvency & Reorganization Section of Vinson & Elkins L.L.P. in Dallas, Texas (2001-2005). In 2005, she returned to government service, serving as law clerk to the Honorable Raymond W. Gruender of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit (2005-2006), the Honorable Charles E. Rendlen, III of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Eastern District of Missouri (2006-2018), and the Honorable Alan S. Trust of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Eastern District of New York (2020-2023). She also has devoted considerable time to pro bono appellate work in the area of bankruptcy law.

In addition, Professor Willie was awarded a one-year, in-residence Fellowship with the prestigious Supreme Court Fellows Program for the U.S. Supreme Court (academic year 2018-2019), where she served as the Fellow assigned to the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts, the central support entity for the Judicial Branch. Before entering academics full-time in August 2023 as a Visiting Assistant Professor here at Saint Louis University School of Law, she taught various business law classes at the School of Law for a number of years as a Lecturer in Commercial Law, and also taught legal research and writing in the L.L.M. program of another regional law school.

Research Interests

Professor Willie’s professional interests include bankruptcy law and creditor’s rights, federal courts (with an emphasis on non-Article III tribunals), and poverty law.