Professor Belisa Pang has been recognized by the American Bankruptcy Law Journal with its Editor’s Prize.
The award is presented annually by the National Conference of Bankruptcy Judges to an author or authors who demonstrated special excellence in an article published in the journal.
Pang, an assistant professor of law, was honored for the article “Parental Obligations in Bankruptcy,” which was published in 2025. Pang and her co-author, Katherine Fang, conducted a study that found that debtors with dependents are more likely to choose chapter 13 bankruptcy over the “quicker and simpler” chapter 7 bankruptcy.
Those same debtors are also more likely to have a bankruptcy court dismiss their cases without discharging their debt within three years, the study found. The article also suggests changes that could alleviate the disparities.
“I’m honored and grateful for the interest in my work,” Pang said. “I hope to continue producing scholarship that is useful not only to academics but also to practitioners and others working in the bankruptcy field.”
Pang joined the Michigan Law faculty in 2025. In addition to bankruptcy, she teaches and writes in the areas of consumer finance and empirical legal studies, and she advises the Law School’s bankruptcy moot court teams.
The award will be presented at the National Convention of Bankruptcy Judges’ annual meeting, to be held October 8 in San Diego.