Pamela Foohey

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Professor Pamela Foohey’s research centers on bankruptcy, commercial law, and consumer law. Her work primarily involves empirical studies of bankruptcy and related parts of the legal system, combining quantitative and qualitative, interview-based research. She is a co-investigator on the Consumer Bankruptcy Project, a long-term research project studying persons who file bankruptcy. The results of this research have been featured in top media outlets, including The New York Times, Financial Times, NPR, U.S. News & World Report, and The Washington Post. Professor Foohey’s work in business bankruptcy focuses on non-profit entities, with a particular emphasis on how churches and other religious organizations use bankruptcy. The results of this research likewise have been featured in media outlets such as Bloomberg, CBS News Moneywatch, and Reveal. She has assisted members of Congress and federal and state agencies in the areas of bankruptcy and consumer credit. Professor Foohey also is a contributor to the blog Credit Slips, a discussion on credit, finance, and bankruptcy.

Professor Foohey is the past chair of several Association of American Law Schools (AALS) sections (Commercial and Consumer Law, Creditors' and Debtors' Rights, Law and the Social Sciences, and Real Estate Transactions) and is on the executive committees of several other AALS Sections. She is a co-organizer of the Law & Society Association's Household Finance CRN, serves on the editorial advisory board of the Law & Society Review, and recently completed a three-year appointment to the editorial advisory board of the American Bankruptcy Law Journal, a peer-reviewed academic law review published by the National Conference of Bankruptcy Judges. She also is an active member of the American Bankruptcy Institute (ABI). She has served as part of the ABI Diversity Working Group since its formation. In 2019, the ABI named her a “40 Under 40” Emerging Leader in Insolvency Practice.

Professor Foohey joined the Cardozo School of Law in 2021 from the Indiana University Maurer School of Law. At the Maurer School of Law, she taught bankruptcy, contracts, corporations, and secured transactions, and chaired the Center for Law, Society & Culture’s advisory board. During her time at IU, Professor Foohey received the Gavel Award for outstanding contribution to the graduating class, the IU Trustees’ Teaching Award for excellence in teaching, and the Leon H. Wallace Teaching Award, the highest teaching honor given to Maurer School of Law faculty.

Prior to teaching, Professor Foohey 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.