From the announcement: Ballard Spahr is excited to host a 2L Diversity Fellowship Program in partnership with our Consumer Financial Services (CFS) group. Through this program, we will select an outstanding 2L student who will be employed by Ballard Spahr as a 2021 summer associate in the CFS group. The student will spend time during […]
Following up on Jeff's post about prez-elect Biden's plans to nominate Rohit Chopra to direct the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, take a look at reporting that is not behind a paywall: here, here, here, and here. For an large aggregation of Chopra's testimony, speeches, and articles at the Federal Trade Commission, go here.
by Jeff Sovern Report here (may be behind a paywall). FTC bio here. My first reaction is that he's an excellent choice. UPDATE: Blog co-founder and prominent Supreme Court consumer advocate Deepak Gupta on the choice: "This is a home run. There's nobody better than Rohit to take the helm of the CFPB at this […]
Although the Betsy DeVos resigned as Secretary of Education last week, the Department has continued to push ahead in the rush to the Trump Administration finish line. On Friday, ED's Office of the General Counsel published a memorandum stating that LGBTQ students are not expressly included in protections under Title IX, the law that prohibits […]
That's addressed by law prof Abbye Atkinson in her article Borrowing Equality. Here is the abstract: For the last fifty years, Congress has valorized the act of borrowing money as a catalyst for equality, embracing the proposition that equality can be bought with a loan. In a series of bedrock statutes aimed at democratizing access to […]
Tribute to Andy Spanogle, 1934-2020. By Dee Pridgen, Professor Emeritus, University of Wyoming College of Law I was very saddened to learn the news that my dear friend, and coauthor, Andy (John A.) Spanogle, had passed away in December of last year. He was a towering figure in the law, especially in the fields of […]
by Jeff Sovern Obituary here. Andy was one of the original co-authors of our casebook and I met him when I worked on the third edition of the book. Andy was larger than life, so filled with bonhomie that you almost didn't realize how brilliant he was. One way Andy will live on is through […]
by Jeff Sovern The Wall Street Journal is reporting that Representative Katie Porter may be dropped from the House Financial Services Committee. As someone who has regularly listened to House Financial Services Committee hearings on consumer matters for years, I believe that would be a huge loss. I cannot think of anyone who has been […]
From the States' press release: Attorneys general from New York, California and several other states sued on Tuesday to block the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency's recently finalized "true lender" rule, a measure that the states argue is unlawful and stands to facilitate predatory lending. In a complaint filed in New York federal […]
by Jeff Sovern The report is here. I played hooky from the AALS Financial Serices & Consumer Financial Services program to listen to the Bureau's simultaneous event to release the report (don't tell Rory Van Loo). I haven't read the voluminous report but some comments on the remarks at the event: I learned that when […]

