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Our January 2009 Member of the Month, Professor Jean Braucher, is the Roger C. Henderson Professor of Law at the University of Arizona James E. Rogers College of Law, where she teaches bankruptcy with a consumer focus in addition to commercial law and contracts. Professor Braucher also heads up NACBA’s Amicus Project Academic Committee, comprised of law faculty who review and comment on amicus briefs prior to filing. Professor Braucher has been teaching bankruptcy law for more than 20 years. In terms of her scholarly work, Prof. Braucher notes: “I like to study how bankruptcy law is actually practiced—in other words, I am more interested in the law in action than the law on the books.”

A graduate of Brown University, A.B. (1972) and Boston University School of Law, J.D. cum laude (1978), Professor Braucher is a prolific scholar, authoring many articles on bankruptcy law, including her most recent, A Guide to Interpretation of the 2005 Bankruptcy Law, forthcoming in the American Bankruptcy Institute Law Review.

Other scholarly publications include: ‘Rash’ and Ride-Through Redux: The Terms for Holding on to Cars, Homes and Other Collateral under the 2005 Bankruptcy Act, Arizona Legal Studies Discussion Paper No. 06-03, American Bankruptcy Institute Law Review, Vol. 13, p. 457, 2005; The Challenge to the Bench and Bar Presented by the 2005 Bankruptcy Act: Resistance Need Not be Futile Arizona Legal Studies Discussion Paper No. 06-42, University of Illinois Law Review, Vol. 2007, p. 93, 2007;
A Fresh Start for Personal Bankruptcy Reform: The Need for Simplification and a Single Portal, Arizona Legal Studies Discussion Paper No. 06-22,

American University Law Review, Vol. 55, 2006; A Guide to Interpretation of the 2005 Bankruptcy Law, American Bankruptcy Institute Law Review, Vol. 16, 2008, Arizona Legal Studies Discussion Paper No. 08-28; A Law-in-Action Approach to Comparative Study of Repayment Forms of Consumer Bankruptcy, Consumer Credit, Debt And Bankruptcy: Comparative And International Perspective, Chapter 16, Hart Publishing, 2009, Arizona Legal Studies Discussion Paper No. 08-09.

Links to Professor Braucher’s scholarship can be found on her SSRN page at http://ssrn.com/author=329668.

Professor Braucher has been a panelist at several NACBA programs, primarily on issues relating to secured loans, and will be speaking at NACBA’s upcoming 17th Annual Convention in Chicago on a panel entitled “Secured Claims: Limitations and Opportunities.”

She encourages other law professors to get involved with NACBA: “I learn so much from attending NACBA meetings, both about the law and about law practice under challenging circumstances. I gain a ground level understanding of how lawyers can represent clients well under a very complex legal regime while keeping fees affordable. NACBA promotes professionalism. I find that the meetings invariably give me interesting ideas about how to present the law and practice to law students.”

Prof. Braucher currently chairs the Section on Creditors’ and Debtors’ Rights of the Association of American Law Schools and is a past president of the ACLU of Arizona. She also serves on the Board of Editors for the American Bankruptcy Institute Law Review.