Credit Slips wants to welcome Professor Nathalie Martin as a guest blogger. We’re going to do something a little different. She had planned to guest blog beginning January 4, updating the world on the bankrupt happenings of the Association of American Law Schools annual meeting. Wait, that did not come out too well–adjective trouble. I meant Professor Martin was going to update us on the papers and scholarly events at the Association of American Law Schools annual meeting as they relate to credit and bankruptcy. But, she had a few timely posts on the mortgage crisis and the bankruptcy legislation pending in Congress, so I prevailed upon her to make a few posts while that subject matter was current.

Professor Martin was the American Bankruptcy Institute Scholar in Residence during the fall of 2005, when the new bankruptcy law became effective. In that capacity, she gave numerous media interviews and provided advice about the effects of the new law. Thus, with another bankruptcy law pending in Congress, Professor Martin seems particularly well positioned to offer some insights on whether the proposals in Congress would do anything to help alleviate the mortgage crisis.

Professor Martin is the Dickason Professor of Law at the University of New Mexico as well as the director of the school’s Economic Development Program. With one foot in the classroom and one foot in the real world, I always enjoy sitting down with Professor Martin to hear how the law is affecting people on the ground. Martin is a former chair of the Association of American Law Schools Section on Creditors’ and Debtors’ Rights and has written several books on bankruptcy. We look forward to her contributions.