bankruptcy law
Restructuring Bankruptcy Law Rafael Pardo
Robert T. Thompson Professor of Law
BA, Yale University, 1998 JD, New York University School of Law, 2001 Scholarly interests: bankruptcy, commercial law
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“Bankruptcy law reflects our beliefs regarding what motivates and underlies financial failure. Economic failure is often just a symptom of institutional failure.”
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emory insights
hile Professor Rafael Pardo’s scholarship includes broad empirical studies about the way bankruptcy law is administered, he’s also spent a lot of time working with people for whom debt is not an academic question, but a life-crushing challenge. A lack of effective representation affects all areas of the law, but is a particularly cruel irony for Americans facing bankruptcy, Pardo says. When you’re in acute financial distress, it’s difficult to find money to hire a lawyer. As a result, those with the most dire need for relief may have difficulty obtaining it or even pursuing it at all, he says. “As a society, we all agree that individuals, under certain circumstances, should have their debts forgiven,” Pardo says. However, “it’s an incredibly complex system that’s difficult to navigate unless you’re represented. So if you’re going to try and navigate the system and not be subject to the technicalities and pitfalls of the system, you need a lawyer — but lawyers cost money.” “Bankruptcy law reflects our beliefs regarding what motivates and underlies financial failure,” Pardo says. “Economic failure is often just a symptom of institutional failure.” Consider the case of student loan debt: Education is often cast as an investment in one’s economic future. Many, however, view private and federal student loan programs as heavily weighted in favor of financial institutions. Pardo was called as a bankruptcy expert to testify before Congress in support of amending the Bankruptcy Code, to broaden the relief available to student-loan debtors. Since the 1970s, Congress has increasingly tightened the terms under which student loans may be forgiven. If students get in over their heads, both public and private loans for college are much harder to discharge than debts such as property loans or credit card bills. Today, students seeking discharge must litigate their cases under the standard of “undue