Angela K Littwin

Angela K Littwin

  • Ronald D. Krist Professor in Law

Faculty Profile: Angela K Littwin

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Biography

Professor Littwin studies bankruptcy, consumer, and commercial law from an empirical perspective. Her current research includes studying the attitudes towards bankruptcy among consumers being sued by debt collectors, bankruptcy local legal culture, as well as the relationship between consumer credit and domestic violence (DV). She has published in journals such as the Texas Law Review, University of Pennsylvania Law Review, California Law Review, and American Bankruptcy Law Journal. She has recently published articles about racial disparities in bankruptcy chapter use, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's complaints process and supervision program as well as on how consumer bankruptcy attorneys adapted to the Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act. Professor Littwin has been a principal investigator for a number of empirical projects. With collaborator Adrienne Adam of Michigan State University, Professor Littwin has received funding from the National Science Foundation to study debt and domestic violence. She is working with Professor Pamela Foohey at Indiana University Maurer School of Law to study financially-distressed consumers’ knowledge of and feelings about bankruptcy and with Professor Bob Lawless at the University of Illinois to study local legal culture in consumer bankruptcy.

Professor Littwin received her undergraduate degree from Brown University and graduated from Harvard Law School in 2002. After law school, she clerked for the Honorable Rosemary Barkett of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit and founded ROAD (Reaching Out About Depression), a community-organizing project for low-income women. Prior to her appointment at the University of Texas School of Law, she was a Climenko Fellow and Lecturer on Law at Harvard Law School. She joined the UT faculty in 2008.

Professor Littwin teaches bankruptcy, secured credit, and a seminar on the regulation of credit cards.

Most Recent Media

Courses for Spring 2024

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Professional Activities

2021

March 2020

Discussant: Berkeley Center for Consumer Law and Economic Justice Academic Conference

2019

April 2019

Keynote Speaker: Central District of North Carolina Bankruptcy Bar CLE

Presented The Frequency, Nature, and Effects of Coerced Debt and Local Legal Culture from R2D2 to Big Data.

2014

November 21, 2014

Young Bankruptcy Scholars' Work-in-Progress Workshop

Brooklyn Law School

Presented An Initial Quantitative Look at Coerced Debt (co-authored with Adrienne Adams). Hosted by American Bankruptcy Institute and Brooklyn Law School.

November 20, 2014

Jay L. Westbrook Bankruptcy Conference

Four Seasons Hotel, Austin, TX

Presented Recent Developments in Student Loans.

October 24, 2014

The (Un)quiet Realist: Building and Reflecting on the Contributions of Bill Whitford / Temple Law Review Symposium

Temple University Beasley School of Law

Presented draft of Why Process Consumer Complaints? Then and Now.

September 24, 2014

Texas Council on Family Violence Statewide Conference

The Tremont House, Galveston, TX

Invited to present recent coerced debt research findings to audience of domestic violence advocates and attorneys. Presented with Adrienne Adams.

September 4, 2014

South Carolina Legal Services Webinar

Created and presented three-hour webinar for consumer and family attorneys at South Carolina Legal Services. With Adrienne Adams.

July 31, 2014

Created Video for South Carolina Legal Services' American College of Bankruptcy Video Series

Drafted and presented script for 15-minute coerced debt video for domestic violence victims.

June 27, 2014

Texas Council on Family Violence Economic Justice Summit

The Mills Building, El Paso, TX

Invited to present recent coerced debt research findings to audience of domestic violence advocates. Presented with Adrienne Adams.

April 24, 2014

Poverty Law Conference, State Bar of Texas

DoubleTree Hotel Austin, TX

Holistic Advocacy for the Long Term Stability of Domestic Violence Survivors. Invited to present at CLE session. Presented with Krista DelGallo, Policy Manager, Texas Council on Family Violence (TCFV) and Carla Sanchez-Adams, Staff Attorney, Texas Rio-Grande Legal Services. Housing & Consumer Law Task Force Meeting. Invited to present coerced debt research findings for local consumer and housing attorneys. Presented with Krista DelGallo, Policy Manager, TCFV.

2013

November 22, 2013

Jay L. Westbrook Bankruptcy Conference

Four Seasons Hotel, Austin, TX

Invited to present on Recent Developments Panel and presented Recent Developments in Empirical Consumer Bankruptcy Scholarship.

February 8, 2013

Annual Review of Insolvency Law Conference

PALAIS DES CONGRÈS DE MONTRÉAL, Montreal, Canada

Invited to present Escaping Battered Credit: A Proposal for Repairing Credit Reports Damaged by Domestic Violence.

2012

November 9, 2012

Jay L. Westbrook Bankruptcy Conference

Four Seasons Hotel, Austin, TX

Presented Escaping Battered Credit: A Proposal for Repairing Credit Reports Damaged by Domestic Violence.

April 29, 2012

National Association of Consumer Bankruptcy Attorneys Annual Convention

San Antonio, Texas

Invited to present The Affordability Paradox: How Consumer Bankruptcy’s Greatest Weakness May Account for its Surprising Success.

2011

December 6, 2011

Conference on Empirical Legal Studies

Northwestern University School of Law

Selected through peer review to present Coerced Debt: The Role of Domestic Violence in Consumer Credit.

2010

May 22, 2010

Teaching Consumer Law

University of Houston Law Center, Center for Consumer Law

Invited to present on panel entitled The Consumer Debt/Credit Crisis.

2009

September 30, 2009

National Conference of Bankruptcy Judges’ American Bar Association Panel

Paris Hotel, Las Vegas

Invited to present on panel entitled Effectively Assisting Pro Se Filers - A View from the Bench.

March 31, 2009

Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve, Community Affairs Research Conference

Innovative Financial Services for the Underserved: Opportunities and Outcomes

Selected to present Beyond Usury: A Study of Credit Card Use and Preference Among Low-Income Consumers.

February 28, 2009

University of Texas-Harvard Joint Conference on Commercial Law Realities

University of Texas School of Law

Selected to present research from the Consumer Bankruptcy Project at invitation-only conference for junior scholars in commercial law.

2008

January 31, 2008

University of Texas-Harvard Joint Conference on Commercial Law Realities

Harvard Law School

Selected to present an overview of the Bankruptcy Internet Data Project at invitation-only conference for junior scholars in commercial law. Hosted jointly by Harvard Law School and University of Texas Law School.

2007

June 30, 2007

Annual Meeting of the Law and Society Association

Berlin, Germany

Presented Beyond Usury: A Study of Credit Card Use and Preference Among Low-Income Consumers at Humboldt University, Berlin.

March 31, 2007

University of Texas-Harvard Joint Conference on Commercial Law Realities

University of Texas School of Law

Selected to present Testing the Substitution Hypothesis: Would Credit Card Regulation Force Low-Income Borrowers Into Less Desirable Lending Alternatives? at invitation-only conference for junior scholars in commercial law.

2006

September 30, 2006

Award

American Bankruptcy Law Journal Fellow

Competitively selected as an American Bankruptcy Law Journal Fellow by the National Conference of Bankruptcy Judges. Attended the Annual Meeting of the National Conference of Bankruptcy Judges as the Judges' guest.