Christopher Soper
- Clinical Professor of Law
- Director of Legal Writing

- Tufts University, B.A.
- Cornell Law School, J.D.
Office: 446
Mondale Hall, 229 19th Avenue South
Minneapolis, MN 55455
- P: 612-626-1605
- E: csoper@umn.edu
Christopher Soper is a Clinical Professor of Law and Director of Legal Writing. He coordinates and supervises the legal writing and moot court programs. He teaches legal writing and bankruptcy law and writes in the area of bankruptcy law.
Professor Soper earned his B.A., magna cum laude, from Tufts University, where he spent an academic year studying in the Tufts-in-Paris program. He earned his J.D., magna cum laude and Order of the Coif, from Cornell Law School. While in law school, he was a note editor for the Cornell Law Review. He studied at the Cornell Paris Summer Institute at the Université Paris I Panthéon-Sorbonne and at the University of Cape Town Faculty of Law. He worked as a summer associate for Cleary Gottlieb in New York and as a research assistant for Professor Robert S. Summers.
After law school, Professor Soper clerked for the Honorable James B. Loken of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit and for the Supreme Court of the Republic of Palau. He also worked as an attorney for the United States Sentencing Commission. Prior to joining the University of Minnesota Law School faculty, he worked at Dentons US LLP, where he maintains a role as counsel in the bankruptcy group.
Courses
Bankruptcy: Power, Process, and Procedure
Civil Rights/Civil Liberties Moot Court
Legal Research and Writing
Legal Writing II
Legal Research & Writing Student Instructor
International Bankruptcy
William McGee Civil Rights Moot Court Competition Team
Civil Rights/Civil Liberties Moot Court Directors
Civil Rights/Civil Liberties Moot Court Managing Director
Senior Legal Research & Writing Instructor
Publications
Books
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Successful Legal Analysis and Writing: The Fundamentals (West Academic, 2017)
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Insurance Issues in Bankruptcy: A Collier Monograph (LexisNexis Matthew Bender, 2014)
Journal Articles
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How to Lose A Repo in 10 Days (but Get Your Money Back), 36 American Bankruptcy Institute Journal 24 (Nov. 2017)
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Parental Pitfalls in the Code: Discharge Exception for Judgment Against Parent Based on Willful and Malicious Acts of Children, 36 American Bankruptcy Institute Journal 10 (Aug. 2017)
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Statutory Interpretation Merry-Go-Round: Student Loan Cosigner Discharge Then, Now and Later, 35 American Bankruptcy Institute Journal 22 (Aug. 2016)
Book Chapters
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Mass Tort Chapter 11 Cases, in Reorganizing Failing Businesses: A Comprehensive Review and Analysis of Financial Restructuring and Business Reorganization 15-1 (Megan M. Adeyemo & Rafael X. Zahralddin-Aravena, eds., American Bar Association, Business Law Section, 3d ed., 2017)
CLE Materials
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The Art of Writing Like a Lawyer, The 2019 Bankruptcy Institute (Minnesota Continuing Legal Education, 2019)
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The Nifty Nine, The 2017 Bankruptcy Institute (Minnesota Continuing Legal Education, 2017)
Other Publications
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The Structured Writing Group: A Different Writing Center?, 29 The Second Draft 8 (Spr. 2016)
| SSRN
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Executory Contracts in Bankruptcy, QuickCounsel (Oct. 1, 2012)
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Intellectual Property Law Issues In Bankruptcy, QuickCounsel (Oct. 1, 2012)
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Implications For Asbestos-Related Future Claims: In re Grossman’s Inc., Law360 (June 24, 2010) (SNR Denton client alert June 9, 2010)