Barry E. Adler

  • Lawrence King Professor of Law
  • Associate Dean, Information Systems and Technology
Assistant: Nicole Arzt
  nicole.arzt@nyu.edu       212.998.6013

AREAS OF RESEARCH

Bankruptcy, Contracts, Corporate Finance, Corporations


Barry Adler has written numerous articles on the application of corporate finance theory to issues of corporate insolvency. These articles suggest that bankruptcy law can be properly understood as an integral part of contract, property, and tort law rather than as a mere supplemental body of law applied after a financial failure. He is currently at work on a book titled The Law of Last Resort, which will elaborate on this theme. Beyond scholarship on bankruptcy, Adler has been published and continues to write in the fields of contract and corporate law. After graduating with honors in 1982 from Cornell University and graduating with honors in 1985 from the University of Chicago Law School, where he was an Olin Fellow in Law and Economics, Adler clerked for Judge Frank Easterbrook of the US Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit. Adler spent the summer of 1995 as a consultant for the Harvard Institute for International Development. He joined the NYU School of Law faculty in 1996, leaving his position as the Sullivan & Cromwell Research Professor of Law at the University of Virginia, and served as vice dean of NYU Law from 2004 to 2007.


Courses

  • 1L Reading Group: Law, Economics, and Equality

    Our group will consider how (and whether) economic analysis of law can help assess and address inequalities under the law. Among other topics, we will discuss the impact of rent control and foreclosure prohibitions on low-income communities, the consequences of affirmative-action policies, and the interpretation of evidence in civil rights litigation. We will read articles from academic journals as well as Supreme Court opinions. No prior knowledge of economics or statistics is expected and no reading will be technical.

  • Contracts

    The focus of this course is the doctrine and policy of law that governs private agreements. Topics include the capacity to contract, remedies for breach of contract, contract formation, contract interpretation, and excuse of performance, among others. Attention is given to principles of common law and equity as well as to the Uniform Commercial Code and other relevant statutes.

  • Law, Economics and Journalism Seminar

    The course, which will be cross listed with the Journalism department, is a study of how journalists, lawyers, and economists write about social issues at the intersection of their fields. Past case studies have covered topics such as political disinformation, gun regulation, affirmative action, environmental protection, financial fraud, predatory lending, and product liability. We typically conduct three studies in a semester; current events often drive the selection of topics. For each topic selected, we will read and discuss press coverage of the events as they unfolded or as they have been analyzed by journalists in longer form; we will then read and discuss academic literature on the same topic in the fields of law and economics. Following the discussion of each topic, and once at the end of the seminar, each student will write her or his own short journalistic account of an aspect of the topics covered. Each student's grade will be based primarily on these short papers but may be adjusted to reflect class participation. The course will be co-taught by Barry Adler, of the NYU Law Faculty, and adjunct professor Paul Barrett, a former writer and editor at Bloomberg Businessweek and at The Wall Street Journal who now is deputy director and senior research scholar at the Center for Business and Human Rights at the NYU Stern School of Business.

  • Torts

    Civil liability for breach of duty causing harm to persons or property. Intentional and unintentional injury; fault and no-fault theories of liability; strict products liability; theories and analysis of causation.

VIEW ALL

Publications

VIEW ALL

Education

  • JD, University of Chicago Law School, with honors, 1985
  • BS, Cornell University, with honors, 1982

© 2024 New York University School of Law. 40 Washington Sq. South, New York, NY 10012.  Tel. 212.998.6100