Processor Scott Pryor will oversee
the new Bankruptcy Practicum beginning in the Spring 2014 Semester.
Through the practicum, students,
who will serve consumers filing Chapter 7 and Chapter 13 bankruptcy cases, will
apply legal concepts to real-life situations, interact with clients facing
financial hardship, and gain professional skills.
Each semester, up to four
students will be accepted into the program, and each student will spend 60
hours over the course of the semester working in mentoring relationships with
bankruptcy lawyers in Hampton Roads.
The practicum will allow law
firms to provide discounted consumer bankruptcy work for clients who cannot
afford it, helping decrease the current strain on the court system.
“Over one million people in the
United States file individual Chapter 7 bankruptcies,” Professor Pryor explains.
“To file a Chapter 7 bankruptcy, lawyer fees are about $2,500. Many people
don’t have the money, so some go online, complete the confusing forms and file
them. That’s a disaster for them and the system.”
“There is a bit of a nationwide
movement for a practicum like this because so many individuals file independently
and clog up the court system,” adds Professor Pryor. “The practicum can help solve
this problem at our local level.”
Professor Scott Pryor teaches
first-year Contracts and upper-level courses on Uniform Commercial Code and
Bankruptcy. He has served as the resident scholar of the American Bankruptcy
Institute where he worked closely with judges and leading members of the
practicing bankruptcy bar.
Read Professor Pryor’s blog, Pryor Thoughts.