Vexing Issues in Individual Bankruptcy Cases
November 5, 2026, at 1:00 p.m., ET
Individual bankruptcy filings (particularly under chapter 13) are on the rise. At the same time, those individual debtors face a growing number of obstacles to obtaining a fresh start under the Bankruptcy Code. This roundtable will offer a free-flowing discussion among Judge Rebecca Connelly (as moderator) and a panel of talented academics whose scholarship focuses, at least in part, on individual chapter 7 and 13 cases. It also will draw on recent articles in the ABLJ concerning, among other things, the impact of the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Bartenwerfer and the discharge of student loans in bankruptcy.
Moderator: Hon. Rebecca Connelly
Academics: Angela Littwin, Belisa Pang, Dalié Jiménez, Jason Iuliano, Matthew Bruckner
Bios:
Rebecca B. Connelly is a United States Bankruptcy Judge for the Western District of Virginia. Before joining the bench, Judge Connelly was the Standing Chapter 13 Trustee for the Western District of Virginia, and prior to that was in private practice in Virginia and in Washington, D.C.
Judge Connelly is the former Chair of the United States Judicial Conference Advisory Committee on the Federal Rules of Bankruptcy Procedure. She is a member of the National Conference of Bankruptcy Judges (NCBJ) and formerly chaired the NCBJ Federal Rules Advisory Committee. Judge Connelly is also a conferee in the National Bankruptcy Conference and a Fellow in the American College of Bankruptcy.
Judge Connelly is an adjunct professor of law at Washington and Lee University School of Law (teaching bankruptcy). In addition, she is a frequent speaker for Virginia CLE and a member of the American Bankruptcy Institute since 1994. She has served as a contributing editor and a features author for the ABI Law Journal.
Professor Angela Littwin is the Charles Sapp Chair in Banking, Financial, Commercial & Corporate Law at the University of Texas, Austin. She studies bankruptcy, consumer, and commercial law from an empirical perspective. She teaches courses in the areas of bankruptcy, commercial and consumer financial law.
Professor Littwin coined the term “coerced debt” to describe debt generated by domestic violence and recently recently completed a major research project on it, funded by the National Science Foundation. She has published in leading journals such as the Texas Law Review, University of Pennsylvania Law Review, California Law Review, American Bankruptcy Law Journal, and peer-reviewed journals focused on domestic violence.
Professor Littwin has testified several times before the Texas Senate and House of Representatives. She regularly provides expertise to groups across the country who are developing and passing laws addressing coerced debt. She has been featured in pieces in news outlets ranging from U.S.A. Today to National Public Radio.
Professor Belisa Pang’s research uses econometric methods and large-scale court and credit bureau data to examine how the consumer bankruptcy system works in practice. Her work has appeared in leading journals including the Northwestern University Law Review, the Journal of Empirical Legal Studies, the American Law and Economics Review, the Journal of Law and Economics, and the American Bankruptcy Law Journal. She holds a Ph.D. in finance from the Yale School of Management, a J.D. from Yale Law School, and a B.S. in commerce from the University of Virginia.
Dalié Jiménez is a Professor of Law at the University of California, Irvine School of Law, where directs the Student Loan Law Initiative and is co-principal investigator at the Princeton Debt Collection Lab and the Financial Distress Research Project. Her research and teaching focus on debt, student loans, consumer law, bankruptcy, and access to justice.
An elected member of the American Law Institute, Professor Jiménez is also a fellow of the American College of Consumer Financial Services Lawyers and the American Bar Foundation. She served on the American Bankruptcy Institute’s Commission on Consumer Bankruptcy and helped draft the proposed Consumer Bankruptcy Reform Act of 2020.
Before joining academia, Jiménez was a founding staffer at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, where she contributed to policy work on debt collection, debt relief, credit reporting, and student loan issues. She has testified several times before committees in the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives on debt-related issues.
Born in Cuba, Professor Jiménez emigrated to the U.S. as a teenager. She is a cum laude graduate of Harvard Law School and holds dual B.S. degrees in electrical engineering/computer science and political science from MIT.
Jason Iuliano is a Professor of Law at the University of Utah, a co-director of the Federalism, Law, and American Governance Initiative, and a co-founder of the automated bankruptcy intake platform Lexria. Professor Iuliano’s core research interests are in bankruptcy, federalism, and consumer protection. He has published extensively on student loan debt, as well as on separation of powers in the Constitution.
His articles have appeared in leading outlets, including the American Bankruptcy Law Journal, University of Pennsylvania Law Review, Duke Law Journal, and Michigan Law Review. Professor Iuliano earned a Ph.D. in Politics from Princeton University and a J.D. from Harvard Law School, where he was a co-founder and editor-in-chief of the Harvard Business Law Review.
Matthew Adam Bruckner is a Professor of Law at Howard University School of Law, where he teaches contracts & commercial law, bankruptcy, and consumer protection. His research focuses on bankruptcy and various issues in higher education, especially student loans.