William Z. (Bill) Kransdorf
Adjunct Professor of Law
Coordinator, NYC Bankruptcy Assistance Project
Legal Services NYC
Professor Kransdorf is coordinator of the NYC Bankruptcy Assistance
Project (NYC BAP or the Project) at Legal Services NYC, which
provides free bankruptcy assistance to low-income New Yorkers. He
earned his BA from the University of Chicago and his JD from
Harvard Law School. He has worked in legal services since 1992,
first at Legal Aid of Marin, near San Francisco and, later, at the
former Legal Aid of Alameda County. He also worked for the workers’
rights law firm of Van Bourg, Weinberg, Roger & Rosenfeld, and
later went into private practice as a bankruptcy attorney in
Oakland, California. Bill later returned to Legal Aid of Marin
where he eventually became Director of Legal Services. He has been
coordinator of NYC BAP since 2005. The Project employs pro bono
attorneys from New York’s top law firms, as well as law students
from top law schools, to assist debtors in the preparation of
bankruptcy petitions as well as with contested matters in the
bankruptcy courts. The Project has become a national model of pro
bono and bankruptcy advocacy.