Brooklyn Journal of Corporate, Financial & Commercial Law Annual Symposium: Debt in the Real World

Thursday, March 27 & Friday, March 28

Thursday, March 27, 2025

1:45 p.m.: Registration and Coffee
2:15 p.m. to 5:15 p.m.: Program

Friday, March 28, 2025

9 a.m.: Registration and Breakfast
9:30 a.m. to 4 p.m.: Program

About the Symposium

Household debt drives the economy. Consumers finance their houses, their cars, their education, and other significant purchases. For many, credit facilitates upward mobility and access to the middle class. But debt is a double-edged sword. Job loss, illness or family crises can leave families with unsustainable debt overhang. Debt and debt forgiveness through bankruptcy are inextricably tied to our social safety net, and to the safety and soundness of the financial system. The symposium will confront the empirical realities of consumer debt and its real-world implications for law, social policy, and politics.

The last year has seen the completion of five important books on bankruptcy and consumer finance. These books will frame the conversation:

1. A. Mechele Dickerson, The Middle-Class New Deal: Restoring Upward Mobility and the American Dream (University of California Press, Jan. 2026)
2. Pamela Foohey, Robert M. Lawless and Deborah Thorne, Debt’s Grip: Risk and Consumer Bankruptcy (University of California Press, 2025)
3. Melissa B. Jacoby, Unjust Debts: How Our Bankruptcy System Makes America More Unequal (New Press, 2024; audiobook Tantor Media, 2025)
4. Patricia A. McCoy, Sharing Risk: The Path to Economic Well-Being for All (University of California Press, forthcoming 2025)
5. Chrystin Ondersma, Dignity not Debt: An Abolitionist Approach to Economic Justice (University of California Press, 2024)

Each panel discussion will begin with a presentation by the author of the themes of their book, followed by comments and discussion.

Click here to view the Full agenda.

Sponsored by the Brooklyn Journal of Corporate, Financial & Commercial Law, the Center for the Study of Business Law and Regulation, and the Edward V. Sparer Public Interest Law Fellowship.

Panelists
 

Abbye Atkinson, Professor of Law and Co-Director of the Center for Law and Economic Justice, University of California Berkeley Law School

A. Mechele Dickerson, University Distinguished Teaching Professor; Arthur L. Moller Chair in Bankruptcy Law and Practice, The University of Texas at Austin School of Law

Pamela Foohey, Allen Post Professor of Law, University of Georgia School of Law

Melissa B. Jacoby, Graham Kenan Distinguished Professor of Law, UNC School of Law

Edward Janger, David M. Barse Professor of Law, Brooklyn Law School

Dalié Jiménez, Professor of Law, University of California, Irvine School of Law

Robert M. Lawless, Max L. Rowe Professor of Law; Co-Director, Illinois Program on Law, Behavior and Social Science, University of Illinois College of Law

Adam Levitin, Carmack Waterhouse Professor of Law and Finance, Georgetown Law

Susan Block-Lieb, Professor of Law; Cooper Family Chair in Urban Legal Issues, Fordham University School of Law

Angela K. Littwin, Charles Sapp Chair in Banking, Financial, Commercial and Corporate Law Professor, The University of Texas at Austin School of Law

Patricia A. McCoy, Liberty Mutual Insurance Professor of Law, Boston College Law School

Chrystin Ondersma, Professor of Law, and Judge Morris Stern Scholar, Rutgers Law School

John A.E. Pottow, John Philip Dawson Collegiate Professor of Law, University of Michigan Law School

Katherine Porter, Professor of Law, University of California, Irvine School of Law; Former United States Representative

Vijay Raghavan, Associate Professor of Law, Brooklyn Law School

Norman I. Silber, Boas-Claster Distinguished Professor in Civil Procedure, Hofstra University Maurice A. Deane School of Law; Visiting Professor of Law, Columbia Law School

Deborah Thorne, Professor of Sociology, University of Idaho

More Information

For general inquiries regarding this event, please contact the Brooklyn Law School Office of Events at events@brooklaw.edu or (718) 780-0321.

Requests for a reasonable accommodation based on a disability to attend this event should be made to the Law School’s reasonable accommodations coordinator: accommodations@brooklaw.edu. Please make your request at least 10 days before the event. We will do our best to address accommodation requests made after the 10 days.