Mrs. Laura Coordes

LAURA is an associate professor of law. Her research focuses on bankruptcy and financial distress and includes commercial law, large corporate reorganizations, and local government finance and policy. She teaches chapter 11 bankruptcy, advanced bankruptcy, secured transactions (in person and online) and contracts. She also has written at least five groundbreaking articles on municipal bankruptcy. Prior to becoming a professor, she practiced in the Business, Finance and Restructuring Department at Weil, Gotshal & Manges in New York.

Laura has presented her work both nationally and internationally and has spoken at numerous conferences and symposia, including ABI’s Winter Leadership Conference. After submitting a proposal, faculty at the University of Oslo created a one-day event and invited her to speak about environmental liability for bankrupt corporations. Her work has been published in law reviews, trade publications, magazines and newsletters, including the ABI Journal and ABI committee newsletters. Her work also has been featured on industry blogs, including the Harvard Bankruptcy Roundtable, and in The Green Bag, the Norton Journal of Bankruptcy Law and Practice and Business Credit. In 2018, she was selected as the American Bankruptcy Law Journal’s Academic Fellow, and she was recently selected to serve on its board. Last year, she and two researchers from the University of Essex were awarded a grant from INSOL International to conduct a global study of responses to distressed local public entities.

Laura serves as a volunteer editor for the ABI’s Volo project, which summarizes and disseminates bankruptcy-related circuit court opinions. She is an Honorary Master of the Arizona Bankruptcy American Inn of Court, and she serves on the Education Committee for the 2021 National Conference of Bankruptcy Judges Annual Meeting and the Education Committee for Credit Abuse Resistance Education (CARE). At ASU, she organizes and leads faculty teaching workshops and chairs the Appointments Committee, typically the most active committee at the Law School. Along with three others, she is organizing the Third International & Comparative Insolvency Symposium, where scholars from around the world will present their work. Earlier this year, she was asked to co-chair the municipalities committee of a working group exploring bankruptcy’s role in the economic fallout from COVID-19. She also has been selected for multiple leadership positions in ABI’s Young & New Members Committee.