In 1981, Professors Teresa Sullivan, Elizabeth Warren, and Jay Westbrook started the CBP. Through the efforts of co-investigators, the CBP collected data in 1981, 1991, 1999, 2001, and 2007. Across these iterations, in addition to its three founders, CBP co-investigators have included Professors Melissa Jacoby, Angela Littwin, Katherine Porter, and John A.E. Pottow. The data collected in these iterations have served as the basis for five books and dozens of articles, essays, and other publications, as highlighted at the bottom of this page.
In 2013, Professors Robert Lawless, Katherine Porter, and Deborah Thorne relaunched the CBP as a permanent, on-going data collection effort. Professor Pamela Foohey joined the CBP in 2016. In 2018, Professor Porter left the project to represent California’s 45th district in the U.S. House of Representatives. At present, since 2013, the CBP has collected data from the court records of 9,600 bankruptcy filers and surveys from about 2,200 of these filers. The data collected since 2013 have served as the basis of more than half a dozen publications, as detailed on our Publications page.
Current CBP Co-Investigators
Pamela Foohey is the Allen Post Professor of Law at the University of Georgia School of Law. Professor Foohey’s research centers on bankruptcy, business, consumer finance, and commercial law. Her work in business bankruptcy focuses on non-profit entities, with a particular emphasis on how churches and other religious organizations use bankruptcy. She joins Professors Lynn M. LoPucki, Elizabeth Warren, and Robert Lawless as a co-author for the tenth edition of Secured Transactions: A Systems Approach, a leading textbook on secured transactions. She previously served on the editorial advisory boards of the Law & Society Review and the American Bankruptcy Law Journal, a peer-reviewed academic law review published by the National Conference of Bankruptcy Judges. Professor Foohey joined the CBP in 2016. Follow Professor Foohey on Bluesky @proffoohey.bsky.social.
Robert Lawless is the Max L. Rowe Professor of Law and co-director of the Program on Law, Behavior and Social Science at the University of Illinois College of Law. Professor Lawless specializes in bankruptcy, consumer finance, and business law. He is a co-author for the tenth edition of Secured Transactions: A Systems Approach. Professor Lawless also joins Professors Jennifer K. Robbennolt and Thomas S. Ulen as the co-author of Empirical Methods in Law, a textbook on empirical methodologies. He served as the reporter for the American Bankruptcy Institute’s Commission on Consumer Bankruptcy from 2017-2019, and currently serves as an associate editor for the Law & Society Review. Professor Lawless joined the CBP in 2001. Follow Professor Lawless on Bluesky @boblawless.bsky.social.
Deborah Thorne is a Professor of Sociology at University of Idaho. Professor Thorne specializes in economic inequality generally and debt and consumer bankruptcy specifically. Her work spans issues such as stigma, reasons for elder debtors’ bankruptcy, medical debt and bankruptcy, effects of severe debt on couples’ relationships, financial health following bankruptcy, social mobility, gender and financial education. Professor Thorne joined the CBP in 2001.
Professors Foohey, Lawless, and Thorne all have contributed to Credit Slips, “a blog on all things credit, bankruptcy, consumers, and financial institutions.” On this blog, we and other academics discuss and debate issues about consumer bankruptcy (among other things). Follow Credit Slips on Bluesky @creditslipsblog.bsky.social.
Current CBP Fellows
Our work would not be possible with the research assistance of many students over the years. The current students serving as CBP Fellows are:
John Kroen
University of Illinois College of Law
Class of 2026
Genaro Mauricio
University of Illinois College of Law
Class of 2026
Claudia Sierra
University of Illinois College of Law
Class of 2027