News about the Business Law Program or news about faculty or students that relates to business law
A new paper from Professor Ralph Brubaker, “Assessing the Legitimacy of the ‘Texas Two-Step’ Mass-Tort Bankruptcy,” was recently featured on the Harvard Law School Bankruptcy Roundtable. Brubaker’s article analyzes the “Texas Two-Step” maneuver as courts grapple with legal challenges to the fundamental legitimacy of it. The paper was also listed on SSRN’s Top Downloads for Bankruptcy, Reorganization & Creditors eJournal and for Law & Society: Private Law-Financial Law eJournal.
On October 17, Professor Sarah Lawsky was part of a panel discussion at the University of Pittsburgh School of Law covering “AI in Tax Law: Tax Administration &
Educating the Next Generation.” She was one of eight panelists from academia, industry, government sharing expertise on the role of artificial intelligence in tax administration, legal practice, and tax law education.
In the most recent issue of the Yale Journal on Regulation, Professor Sarah Lawsky has published a note as part of the symposium on Joshua D. Blank and Leigh Osofsky’s “Automated Agencies: The Transformation of Government Guidance.” In her article, she concludes, “Automated guidance thus might exacerbate the access to justice gap. Unlike publications, automated guidance may fool people into thinking that they have received individualized guidance, when they actually have not.”
Speaking about his new book, “Debt’s Grip,” Professor Robert Lawless sat down with WBGL’s Community Matters program. He discussed the research that went into the work, how bankruptcy affects the lives of everyday Americans, and common misconceptions about the bankruptcy process. He concluded with advice for how to support those going through financial hardships.
Professor Richard Kaplan recently presented his paper, entitled “The Law and Economics of Financing Long-Term Care: An Unrecognized Impediment to Wealth Transmission,” at a symposium on The Law and Economics of Wealth Management and Transmission sponsored by the George Mason University Law School. The paper will be published in the George Mason Law Review.
Professor Ralph Brubaker ’89 and Jamie Sprayregen ’85 had a collegial debate about current bankruptcy issues at the National Conference of Bankruptcy Judges in Chicago in late September. The conversation was moderated by Bankruptcy Judge Michelle Harner.
In a new opinion article published by Bloomberg, Professors Sean Anderson and Robert Lawless explain why they believe the Trump administration’s decision to allow workers to invest retirement savings in cryptocurrency and private equity is a bad decision for the workers. “There is no reason to expect that inviting plans to offer these alternative investments will lead to better outcomes overall for participants—especially considering the higher fees and expenses that typically come with them,” they write. “But there is ample reason to think these investment options will make things worse by increasing the risk of large losses for participants, most of whom can ill afford them.”
In his new book, Debt’s Grip: Risk and Consumer Bankruptcy, Professor Robert Lawless and co-authors Pamela Foohey and Deborah Thorne examine the stories and the data behind people who file for bankruptcy in the U.S., finding the human nuance in the bankruptcy system. “When we thought about writing this book, we asked ourselves, ‘What do we have from the data that we think people would want to read?’” Lawless told the Illinois News Burea. “We also wanted to write a book that had a broader reach, so we realized that we had to show both the data and the personal stories of the people who show up in bankruptcy court.”
We kick off season two with an engrossing conversation with Professor Robert Lawless about his new book, Debt’s Grip: Risk and Consumer Bankruptcy. The book explores financial precarity in the United States and utilizes original data from the Consumer Bankruptcy Project, including the words of bankruptcy filers themselves to shed light on their situations. Professor Lawless shared insight into how he began his work on this project, how the book came about, and how the research has helped him as a teacher at Illinois Law.
For more information about Debt’s Grip, including ways to purchase the book, please visit the publisher’s website: https://www.ucpress.edu/books/debts-grip/paper
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The University of Illinois College of Law is proud to welcome Eric Baudry and Sarah Lawsky as new faculty members this fall. Baudry joins as an assistant professor of law with a specialty in tax law, poverty, and redistribution; Lawsky will serve as the L.B. Lall and Sumitra Devi Lall Professor of Law and the co-director of the Innovation Law and Technology Program.
“I’m really excited about joining the law school here because of the vibrant intellectual life among the faculty,” Lawsky said. “The University of Illinois is such an incredible institution, and the opportunity to do interdisciplinary work here at the law school with the other parts of this university is really exciting.”
Lawsky comes to Illinois having previously taught at George Washington University Law School, UC Irvine School of Law, and, most recently, at Northwestern Pritzker School of Law. Her work focuses on computational law, with a focus on formal methods and the formalization of tax law. As part of the Innovation Law and Technology Program, she hopes to continue her work in conjunction with experts from the Siebel School of Computing and Data Science and the School of Information Sciences as well as others. At the College of Law, Lawsky will be teaching contracts and federal income tax courses, aiming to meet the existing high standards of the law school.
“Illinois has an amazing tax professor in Dick Kaplan, who’s terrific. My goal is to try to match the very high level of quality of tax instruction that he has established,” she said.
Also an expert in tax law, Baudry comes to Illinois Law with experience as a clerk in the Eastern District of Michigan and the Ninth Circuit, a Skadden Fellow at Mid-Minnesota Legal Aid, and a faculty fellow at the University of Michigan Law School. He will teach income taxation, corporate taxation, and a seminar on the intersections of taxation and poverty.
“I’m interested in planting roots in this community, both as a person who lives in Champaign and as a tax scholar who cares about inequality in our community. Specifically, I’m interested in how residents experience impoverishment and how our local and state governments can use tax law as a vehicle to help improve the lives of their citizens” Baudry said. “My long-term goal as a professor would be to bring that work into the law school.”
Both Lawsky, who has spent the last nine years at Northwestern, and Baudry, a native Minnesotan, expressed their excitement to be a part of Illinois Law and the local community. Having a son in the state university system gave Lawsky an idea what to expect, and she says she’s eager to “learn what it means to be a part of the University of Illinois system.” Baudry shared his enthusiasm to talk to students, alumni, and faculty about his professional expertise as well as his personal passion for games.
“Getting to know the faculty and the staff and the spaces at Illinois Law, I immediately felt like this is a place that would push me to be my best, while also offering fantastic resources and supports for my journey to get there,” he said.
The College of Law is pleased to welcome Baudry and Lawsky to the faculty and looks forward to their accomplishments as part of the University of Illinois.