April 30, 2024
The Center for Bankruptcy Studies guides the Law School’s J.D. bankruptcy law curriculum, houses the nation's leading Bankruptcy LL.M. program, and offers a wide range of programming for students, faculty, alumni, and practitioners throughout the year. Since coming on as Center Director last year, Laura Schwartz ‘90 has been hard at work building on that strong foundation of success and expanding the Center’s impact.
Thirty years ago, Creditors’ Rights was the only bankruptcy course that St. John’s Law offered. Change came in the form of motivated students who wanted to learn more about bankruptcy law and practice. Enlisting the help of the late Professor Bob Zinman, they formed the Bankruptcy Law Society. Then, together with the renowned American Bankruptcy Institute (ABI), they launched the ABI Law Review, which quickly earned a wide and influential readership. The bankruptcy offerings multiplied from there, with the addition of the annual Duberstein Bankruptcy Moot Court Competition and the LL.M. in Bankruptcy program.
“As an alumna who had moved from commercial litigation to a major bankruptcy and restructuring practice, I watched the evolution of my alma mater’s bankruptcy program with great interest,” Schwartz says. “The program flourished with strong stewardship from several faculty members. Along with Bob Zinman, Richard Lieb, Keith Sharfman, and Ray Warner built the infrastructure that became the Center for Bankruptcy Studies and then made the Center an unrivaled hub of bankruptcy legal education and scholarship. When my career path eventually led me back home to St. John’s Law, I was delighted to work closely with the Center’s faculty as a counselor in the Career Development Office.”
Over the years, Schwartz’s career counseling and adjacent roles at the Law School grew. Among other responsibilities, she advised J.D. students who were interested in bankruptcy law as well as Bankruptcy LL.M. students. She was also the primary point person for students and alumni seeking U.S. Bankruptcy Court clerkships. She helped to recruit adjunct professors to teach bankruptcy-related courses, developed new bankruptcy courses for the LL.M. program, served as co-faculty advisor for the Moot Court Honor Society with respect to the Duberstein Competition, and taught Introduction to Bankruptcy Practice: Case Analysis, a required course for ABI Law Review students.
With her depth of experience in the field and at St. John’s Law, Schwartz was well-suited to take the helm at the Center for Bankruptcy Studies last year, while retaining her career advisement and other roles. “I’m delighted to lead the Center as it continues to offer a strong and cohesive home to our bankruptcy curriculum and initiatives,” she says, noting that the Center’s offerings also include the student-led Bankruptcy Law Society and a Bankruptcy Fellowship Program.
While planning to enhance those offerings, Schwartz recognizes that the curriculum anchors the Center’s mission and work. “Our rigorous Bankruptcy LL.M., the nation’s only LL.M. degree program devoted to bankruptcy law, is taught by leading practitioners, judges, and academics,” she explains. “We expose students to the entire spectrum of bankruptcy practice, with over two dozen classes ranging from the basics of Business Reorganization and Consumer Bankruptcy to the more specialized Valuation & Remedies in Bankruptcy and Executory Contracts.”
St. John’s J.D. students reap the rewards of that unique curriculum. After completing a prerequisite, foundational course, they can take advanced LL.M. classes towards their J.D. elective requirements. The Law School also offers a joint J.D./LL.M. degree program that allows students to receive both degrees in as little as seven semesters. “Whatever degree pathway they choose, our students benefit from a program that produces leaders of the bankruptcy bar and bench,” Schwartz says. “I’m particularly proud that, year after year, several of our J.D. and LL.M. graduates are hired as clerks for influential U.S. bankruptcy judges.”
Now settled into her directorship, Schwartz is grateful for her predecessors who had the vision for the Center for Bankruptcy Studies and made that vision a reality. Having celebrated the ABI Law Review’s 30th anniversary recently, and with symposia, a speaker series, continuing legal education courses, and other programming on the agenda, she looks forward to the work ahead, sharing, “The Center for Bankruptcy Studies is thriving, but there are opportunities to do even more to benefit our students, our alumni, and the wider bankruptcy community. I’m eager to take the lead on that expansion, and can’t wait to see all we accomplish.”