Laura Napoli Coordes

Prof. Laura N. Coordes is professor of law at Arizona State University’s Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law in Phoenix. Her research focuses on bankruptcy and financial distress and includes commercial law, large corporate reorganizations, and local government finance and policy. She teaches chapter 11 bankruptcy, advanced bankruptcy, secured transactions (in person and online) and contracts. Prof. Coordes is an active ABI member and was a 2020 honoree of ABI’s “40 Under 40” program. She served on the board of the American Bankruptcy Law Journal from 2019-22 and is an Honorary Master of the Arizona Bankruptcy American Inn of Court. Prof. Coordes was the Reporter for the Uniform Law Commission’s Drafting Committee on Assignments for the Benefit of Creditors. She also co-authored The Law of Bankruptcy (6th ed.) and Municipalities in Financial Distress: An ESG Critique (Edward Elgar Publishing). She also is a contributing editor for Bankruptcy Law Commentaries (formerly Bankruptcy Law Letter). Prof. Coordes is a co-founder/principal investigator of the Research Network on Public Authorities and Financial Distress, a global network examining the implications of local entity financial distress. Before coming to Arizona State University, she practiced in the Business, Finance and Restructuring Department at Weil, Gotshal & Manges in New York. Prof. Coordes received her B.A. from New York University and her J.D. with honors from The University of Chicago Law School, where she was a Bradley Fellow and served on The University of Chicago Law Review, after which she completed a legal fellowship at the Student Press Law Center.