Emily F. Shanks

EMILY is an associate in the Bankruptcy section at Gray Reed in Dallas, and she has represented debtors, secured creditors and unsecured creditors in a wide range of corporate restructurings in various industries. She has also frequently represented secured lenders through in- and out-of-court workouts, and she has worked on a variety of bankruptcy-related litigation. She has experience in general commercial litigation, representing clients in both federal and state court matters. Previously, she clerked for Justice Paul Green at the Supreme Court of Texas. After working in the area of chapter 11 restructurings and discovering that she wanted to practice bankruptcy law, she also served as Judge Scott Everett’s first term law clerk at the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Northern District of Texas to further develop her bankruptcy skill set.

Emily has participated in numerous public speaking engagements, including a panel presentation at the 2024 Texas Women in Bankruptcy Conference, where she shared her insights on recent Fifth Circuit bankruptcy cases, and she was a debater for a “Great Debates” panel at the 2023 State Bar of Texas Bankruptcy Bench Bar Conference on whether the Supreme Court “got it right” in the Bartenwerfer v. Buckley case. In addition, she was selected for and participated in the National Conference of Bankruptcy Judges’ 2023 NextGen class, and in 2020, she participated in the John C. Ford Inn of Court Dallas area chapter 11 restructuring course, where she tied as “Runner Up” for the “Rookie of the Year” Award. She also has served as the vice chair of the State Bar of Texas Bankruptcy Section’s Young Lawyers Committee (YLC), for which she assisted with its “Starting Out Right Program,” put on by the YLC each year to teach young bankruptcy lawyers in the community, and she recently transitioned into the role of YLC chair, where she serves on the State Bar of Texas Bankruptcy Law Section Council and oversees YLC liaisons. Before her service as the YLC chair and vice chair, she was the YLC Law School Relations liaison, where her main job was to assist with planning, coordinating and running the annual Elliott Cup competition for law students in the Fifth Circuit to help them prepare for the national Duberstein Moot Court Competition. Additionally, she is co-chair of Events for the Dallas-Fort Worth Chapter of the International Women’s Insolvency & Restructuring Confederation (IWIRC), and she serves as a member of the Pipeline Programs Subcommittee for the State Bar of Texas Bankruptcy Law Section’s DEI Committee. She also is member of the John C. Ford Bankruptcy Inn of Court.

For the past two years, Emily has been an active member of the Junior League of Dallas and volunteers with the Boys & Girls Club Dallas Collegiate Steps Program, through which she volunteers two to three Mondays each month during the school year to teach ninththrough twelfth-grade students at the Boys and Girls Club how to plan and prepare for college. Additionally, each year she receives one or two mentees whom she individually mentors through the entire college application process. These roles allow her to engage with and support the greater Dallas community through service and mentorship, and to support deserving kids in underserved communities who will be the next generation of professionals.