John A.E. Pottow, the John Philip Dawson Collegiate Professor of Law, is an internationally recognized expert in the field of commercial law. His award-winning scholarship concentrates on the issues involved in the regulation of cross-border insolvencies as well as consumer financial distress, and his extensive public service work focuses on international trade and pro bono representation of bankrupt debtors.

On behalf of the United States, Pottow serves on the delegation to the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law and on the State Department’s Advisory Committee on Private International Law.

In addition, he co-authors of one of the leading bankruptcy textbooks in the country: The Law of Debtors and Creditors: Text, Cases, and Problems (Aspen Publishing, 2021, eighth edition, with the Hon. Elizabeth Warren, Professor Jay Westbrook, and the Hon. Katie Porter). Pottow has published in prominent legal journals in the United States and Canada and testified before both houses of Congress.

An oft-invited lecturer, he has presented his works at academic conferences around the world and frequently provides commentary for national and international media outlets, such as NPR, CNBC, CNN, C-SPAN, Al Jazeera America, and the BBC. His pro bono representations have ranged from bankruptcy court to the Supreme Court, where he successfully argued on behalf of the respondent in Executive Benefits Insurance Agency v. Arkison (2014).

Pottow joined the faculty in 2003. Before coming to Michigan Law, he worked at several prominent firms in private practice, including Weil, Gotshal and Manges of New York and the former Hill & Barlow of Boston. His practice focused on debtor representation in complex Chapter 11 restructurings. He also was an active litigator whose trial work included representing a gender-based asylum seeker from Afghanistan in US Immigration Court.

He is licensed as a barrister and solicitor in Ontario and as an attorney in Massachusetts and Michigan. In 2005, he was presented the L. Hart Wright Award for Excellence in Teaching and, in 2012, received a pro bono award from the US District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan. He is an elected member of the American Law Institute, American College of Bankruptcy, and International Insolvency Institute.

Related Information

Areas of Interest

Education
  • Harvard University, BA, summa cum laude, psychology
  • Harvard University, JD, magna cum laude; Harvard Law Review, treasurer

    • Recent Courses

    Clerkships

    • Supreme Court of Canada, the Hon. Beverley McLachlin
    • US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, the Hon. Guido Calabresi

    Featured Scholarship

    "Financial Toxicity Screening Preferences in Patients With Breast Cancer"

    JCO Oncology Practices
    WWW

    "Modular Bankruptcy: Toward a Consumer Scheme of Arrangement"

    Cardozo Law Review
    MLaw Repository WWW HEIN

    The Law of Debtors and Creditors: Text, Cases, and Problems

    • Corporate and Securities Law

    Bankruptcy's Universal Pragmatist: Festschrift in Honor of Professor Jay Lawrence Westbrook

    WWW
    See All Scholarship
    Activities
    December 2020

    Invited presenter at United Nations Commission on International Trade Law conference on choice of applicable law, Vienna, (virtual).

    September 2020

    Invited presenter at conference on financial resolution authorities in developing economies, Vancouver, (virtual).

    September 2020

    Invited presenter at conference by European Commission on choice of international commercial law, Zagreb, (virtual).

    November 2019

    Invited keynote speaker at International Comparative Insolvency Symposium, Miami, Florida.

    June 2019
    Invited chair of Academic Plenary Session for International Insolvency Institute Annual Conference, Barcelona, Spain.
    May 2019
    Invited commentator at Culp Colloquium for minority junior legal scholars, Durham, North Carolina.
    April 2019
    Invited chair and commentator at DebtCon conference on sovereign debt, Washington, D.C.
    March 2019
    Invited presenter at the American College of Bankruptcy panel on cross-border insolvency issues, San Diego, California.
    November 2018
    Invited keynote at the Jay L. Westbrook Annual Conference, Austin, Texas.
    October 2018
    Invited presenter at the National Conference of Bankruptcy Judges panel on international insolvency issues, San Antonio, Texas.
    March 2018
    Invited presenter for Brooklyn Journal of Commercial Financial and Commercial Law Symposium on Decision Making and Legitimacy in Public Bankruptcies, Brooklyn, New York.
    February 2018

    Convener (and presenter) of Festschrift for Professor Jay Lawrence Westbrook, possibly the largest U.S. academic bankruptcy conference ever assembled, Austin, Texas.