Professor Robert Lawless was awarded the 2009 Editor’s Prize from the American Bankruptcy Law Journal for his co-authored article “Did Bankruptcy Law Fail? An Empirical Study of Consumer Debtors.” The article, which is based on the 2007 Consumer Bankruptcy Project and a thorough analysis of the first national, random sample of post-amendments bankruptcy filers, explores the real impact on bankruptcy filings since Congress made sweeping changes to the Bankruptcy Code three years ago, including the number of filings and the income levels of filers.

The Congressional reforms were intended to drive high-income filers away from the bankruptcy courts and to drive down the number of bankruptcy filings overall. Based on the data from the Consumer Bankruptcy Project, the award-winning paper showed that the bankruptcy reform bill actually is driving away all debtors, regardless of financial circumstances, that debtors filing for bankruptcy have even greater debt loads than ever before, and that debtors are waiting longer and accumulating more debt, the “sweat box” effect, before filing for bankruptcy. The American Bankruptcy Law Journal is a peer-reviewed journal that publishes learned articles focusing on bankruptcy law and related subjects to an audience of bankruptcy judges, bankruptcy professionals, academics, legislators and other policymakers. 

Professor Lawless is a nationally acclaimed expert in bankruptcy and corporate law. He has testified before Congress, and his work has been featured in media outlets such as CNN, CNBC, the New York Times, USA Today, the National Law Journal, the L.A. Times, the Financial Times, and Money magazine. He is one of seven regular contributors to the blog Credit Slips, a discussion on credit and bankruptcy. He also is a member of the Consumer Bankruptcy Project, a long-term empirical project studying persons who file bankruptcy.