Melissa B. Jacoby
Graham Kenan Distinguished Professor of Law
Areas of Expertise
- Bankruptcy Law
- Commercial Law
- Contracts
- Law and Social Sciences
- Secured Transactions
Biography
Melissa B. Jacoby is the Graham Kenan Professor of Law at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where she teaches commercial and bankruptcy law. From 2021-2024, Jacoby was appointed by Chief Justice of the United States John Roberts to assist the Federal Judicial Center on educational programming for bankruptcy judges. Jacoby’s book Unjust Debts was published by The New Press on June 11, 2024. It received a starred review from Publishers Weekly and was named one of the Financial Times’ best summer economics books for 2024
Jacoby has been elected to the American Law Institute, the National Bankruptcy Conference, the American College of Bankruptcy, and the American College of Commercial Finance Lawyers, and has served as the Robert M. Zinman Scholar for the American Bankruptcy Institute. She is a recipient of the Grant Gilmore Award for scholarship from the American College of Commercial Finance Lawyers and the Byrd Award for teaching, among other honors.
Jacoby held judicial clerkships with the Honorable Robert E. Ginsberg of the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Northern District of Illinois and the Honorable Marjorie O. Rendell of the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, and was a staff attorney for the National Bankruptcy Review Commission. Before joining the faculty at UNC, she taught for four years at Temple University in Philadelphia. Jacoby graduated from the University of Pennsylvania Law School, as well as from Penn’s College of Arts and Sciences, where she was a history major.
Selected Publications
Bankruptcy, Genetic Information, and Privacy
(with S. Gerke and I. G. Cohen)
, 392 N.E. J. MED. (Mar. 1, 2025).
Document Link
UNJUST DEBTS: HOW OUR BANKRUPTCY SYSTEM MAKES AMERICA MORE UNEQUAL (The New Press, 2024).
KF1501 .J33 2024
Fake and Real People in Bankruptcy, 39 EMORY BANKR. DEV. J. 497 (2023).
Westlaw | Lexis/Nexis | SSRN | Hein | BEPress
Sorting Bugs and Features of Mass Tort Bankruptcy, 101 TEX. L. REV. 1745 (2023).
Westlaw | Lexis/Nexis | SSRN | Hein
Unbundling Business Bankruptcy Law, 101 N.C. L. REV. 1703 (2023).
Westlaw | Lexis/Nexis | SSRN | Hein | BEPress
Other Judges' Cases, 78 NYU ANN. SURV. AM. L. 39 (2022).
Westlaw | Lexis/Nexis | SSRN | Hein | BEPress
Shocking Business Bankruptcy Law, 131 YALE L.J. FORUM 409 (2021).
Westlaw | Lexis/Nexis | SSRN | Hein | BEPress | Document Link
Consumer Protection After a Global Financial Crisis (with E. Balleisen), 107 GEO. L.J. 813 (2019).
Westlaw | Lexis/Nexis | SSRN | Hein | BEPress
Corporate Bankruptcy Hybridity, 166 U. PA. L. REV. 1715 (2018).
Westlaw | Lexis/Nexis | SSRN | Hein | BEPress | Document Link
Tracing Equity: Realizing and Allocating Value in Chapter 11 (with E.J. Janger), 96 TEX. L. REV. 673 (2018).
Westlaw | Lexis/Nexis | SSRN | Hein | BEPress
Federalism Form and Function in the Detroit Bankruptcy, 33 YALE J. ON REG. 55 (2016).
Westlaw | Lexis/Nexis | SSRN | Hein | BEPress
Ice Cube Bonds: Allocating the Price of Process in Chapter 11 Bankruptcy (with E. J. Janger), 123 YALE L. J. 862 (2014).
Westlaw | Lexis/Nexis | SSRN | Hein | BEPress
In the Media
- Unjust Debts was an NPR Book of the Day on November 22, 2024 (NPR)
- An Overlooked Path to a Financial Fresh Start (The Atlantic)
- American Bankruptcy Law Already Undercuts Accountability for Police Misconduct (The Nation)
- Best summer books of 2024: Economics (Financial Times)
- A judge orders Alex Jones to sell personal assets, but Infowars can continue for now (NPR)
- The case for reining in the perks of corporate bankruptcy (Marketplace)
- 'Unjust Debts' author on bankruptcy and the injustice baked in (Charlotte Talks)
- The Moral Limits of Bankruptcy Law (The New York Times)
- Fake People, Real Obligations: PW Talks with Melissa B. Jacoby (Publishers Weekly)
- Unjust Debts: How Our Bankruptcy System Makes America More Unequal Review (Publisher's Weekly)