Debt’s Grip, Risk and Consumer Bankruptcy
This roundtable will focus on a new book by Professors Lawless, Foohey, and Thorne; information about the book can be found at https://www.ucpress.edu/books/debts-grip/hardcover. Professors Sickler and Janger are writing reviews of the book, and the authors will write a response—all published in the December 2025 issue of the American Bankruptcy Law Journal.
Original Air Date: 10/15/2025
Moderators:
Hon. Christopher Bradley and John Rao
Speakers:
Professors Lawless, Foohey, Thorne, Sickler, and Janger
Additional Materials:
Bios:
John Rao is a senior attorney with the National Consumer Law Center, Inc. focusing on consumer credit, mortgage servicing, and bankruptcy matters. Mr. Rao has served as a panelist and instructor at numerous bankruptcy and consumer law conferences, has served as an expert witness in court cases, and has testified in Congress on consumer matters. Mr. Rao is a contributing author and editor of NCLC’s Consumer Bankruptcy Law and Practice, a co-author of NCLC’s Mortgage Servicing and Loan Modifications, and contributing author to NCLC’s Home Foreclosures. He is also a contributing author to Collier on Bankruptcy and the Collier Bankruptcy Practice Guide.
Mr. Rao served as a member of the federal Judicial Conference Advisory Committee on
Bankruptcy Rules from 2006 to 2012, appointed by Chief Justice John Roberts. He served as Commissioner on the American Bankruptcy Institute’s Commission of Consumer Bankruptcy, from 2017 to 2019. He is a conferee of the National Bankruptcy Conference, fellow of the American College of Bankruptcy, member of the editorial board of Collier on Bankruptcy, board member of the National Consumer Bankruptcy Rights Center, and former board member of the National Association of Consumer Bankruptcy Attorneys and the American Bankruptcy Institute. In 2017, Mr. Rao received the Excellence in Education Award from the National Conference of Bankruptcy Judges.
A nationally recognized expert in bankruptcy law, consumer finance, and empirical legal studies, Robert M. Lawless is the Max L. Rowe Professor of Law at the University of Illinois College of Law. He co-directs the College of Law’s Program on Law, Behavior & Social Science. Committed to bridging scholarship and real-world policy, Professor Lawless has played a key role in shaping discussions on bankruptcy reform.
Professor Lawless is a co-author of leading textbooks in the fields of secured transactions and empirical methods in law. He administers and contributes to the blog Credit Slips, a discussion on credit, finance, and bankruptcy. He is a co-principal investigator in the Consumer Bankruptcy Project, a long-term research project studying persons who file bankruptcy.
Professor Lawless has served in leadership roles in major legal organizations, including the National Bankruptcy Conference and the American College of Bankruptcy. As the reporter for the American Bankruptcy Institute’s Commission on Consumer Bankruptcy (2017–2019), he played a pivotal role in shaping its findings, earning the ABI’s 2019 Annual Service Award.
Pamela Foohey is the Allen Post Professor of Law at University of Georgia School of Law. She specializes in bankruptcy, commercial law, consumer finance, and business law. She is a co-investigator on the Consumer Bankruptcy Project, a long-term research project studying persons who file bankruptcy. Her work in business bankruptcy mainly focuses on how non-profit entities use reorganization.
Professor Foohey’s most recently has been working on two books. She is the co-author of Debt’s Grip: Risk and Consumer Bankruptcy, released in August 2025, with University of California Press. Professor Foohey’s other book, Forgive Us Our Debts: How Black Churches Use Bankruptcy to Survive, forthcoming with University of Chicago Press, draws on data from reorganization cases to tell the story of how churches have productively leveraged bankruptcy to save their spiritual homes. She also is a co-author for Secured Transactions: A Systems Approach, a leading textbook on the topic.
Professor Foohey is a member of the American College of Bankruptcy and the American Law Institute, and holds leadership roles in the Association of American Law Schools and the Law & Society Association. She is an active member of the ABI and was named an ABI “40 Under 40” Emerging Leader in Insolvency Practice.
Prior to joining UGA School of Law, Professor Foohey taught at Cardozo School of Law, Indiana University Maurer School of Law, and University of Illinois College of Law. She clerked for the Honorable Thomas L. Ambro of the Third Circuit Court of Appeals, worked as an associate in the Bankruptcy and Financial Restructuring Group of Dorsey & Whitney LLP in Minneapolis, and clerked for the Honorable Peter J. Walsh of the Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware. Professor Foohey graduated from Harvard Law School and New York University’s undergraduate Stern School of Business.
Deborah Thorne is professor of sociology at University of Idaho and co-principal investigator on the nationally recognized Consumer Bankruptcy Project (http://www.consumerbankruptcyproject.org/). For the past two decades, economic inequality generally and debt and consumer bankruptcy specifically have been at the core of her research agenda. She has authored numerous articles, book chapters, and has a forthcoming coauthored book, Debt’s Grip: Risk and Consumer Bankruptcy. She writes on a range of topics including senior bankruptcy, medical debt and bankruptcy, effects of severe debt on couples’ relationships, stigma associated with bankruptcy, financial health following bankruptcy, social mobility, gender, and financial education. As a recognized expert on the subject of consumer bankruptcy, Dr. Thorne has been interviewed by numerous media outlets such as The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Salon Magazine, USA Today, National Public Radio, CNN, and ABC World News.