I spend a lot of my time thinking about our bankruptcy system. That interest led me to ask why people end up filing bankruptcy in the first place. Over the last twenty-five years, I have worked with amazing research collaborators to gather data on bankruptcy filers. Since 2013, I have been a co-principal investigator on the Consumer Bankruptcy Project. We are the only research project that regularly collects data on U.S. bankruptcy filers.

In the classroom, I teach Consumer Finance and Secured Transactions. Both take a lawyering approach about how law works in action rather than just in the books. I also offer Bankruptcy Seminar in which students hear directly from leading judges, practitioners, and other professionals about the most advanced legal issues facing the system. To show students how to do their own research on the legal system, I also co-teach Empirical Methods in Law.

Being engaged with law reform helps my research and teaching. I am a member of the National Bankruptcy Conference for which I have done several projects. I am a fellow of the American College of Bankruptcy and currently serve as co-chair of its Policy Committee. In 2019, the American Bankruptcy Institute’s Commission on Consumer Bankruptcy released its final report for which I served as the reporter.

It is a delight and privilege to serve on the faculty at one’s alma mater. My wife and I met as undergraduates at Illinois and are proud parents of three Illinois alumni. More details about work are available at my official faculty bio and on my CV.