Web's most comprehensive securitization resource

Steven L Schwarcz, Professor of Law, Duke Law School & Faculty Director, Duke University, Global Capital Markets Center is a leading commentator on law relating to assignments, securitization of receivables, cross-border transfer of receivables, etc. Author of a book on securitisation and several articles, Prof. Schwarcz' grip on the subject is firmed up by his industry experience having worked in two law firms for 14 years in all prior to taking up teaching.

Prof Schwarcz was a member of the expert advisory group of UNCITRAL which is currently engaged in drafting a model law on receivables transfer.

Prof Schwarcz' book on securitization, titled Structured Finance, A Guide to the Principles of Asset Securitization (2d ed. 1993) is one of the leading texts on the subject. Besides, he has several scholarly articles on the subject to his credit.

Some of articles by Prof. Schwarcz are published on this website also - see the articles section.

Detailed bio profile:

He was born and raised in the New York metropolitan area. After graduating first in his class at New York University School of Engineering and Science, majoring in aeronautics and astronautics, he worked on legislative initiatives involving science and law while attending Columbia University School of Law, where he received his J.D. in 1974.

Prior to joining the Duke faculty in 1996, Schwarcz was a partner at the law firm of Shearman & Sterling and then a partner and practice group chairman at Kaye, Scholer, Fierman, Hays & Handler, where he represented many of the world's leading banks and other financial institutions in structuring innovative capital market financing transactions, both domestic and international. As a practicing lawyer, Schwarcz pioneered the field of asset securitization, which the Securities and Exchange Commission has described as becoming one of the dominant means of capital formation in the United States and, more recently, abroad. While practicing, Schwarcz also taught courses in bankruptcy, corporate reorganization, commercial law, and structured finance at Yale, Columbia and Cardozo (Yeshiva University) Law Schools.

Professor Schwarcz's main areas of scholarship are commercial law, finance, bankruptcy, and international capital markets, where he brings the unique perspective of having been a leading practitioner as well as a scholar. In these inherently business dominated subjects, he works closely with colleagues at Duke's Fuqua School of Business. Professor Schwarcz has written numerous scholarly works and his monograph, Structured Finance, A Guide to the Principles of Asset Securitization (3d edition forthcoming), is the most widely used text in the field of inventive commercial finance. He is an adviser to the United Nations on international receivables financing, a member of the U.S. Secretary of State's Advisory Committee on Private International Law, a fellow of the American College of Commercial Finance Lawyers, and a member of both The American Law Institute and the American Law and Economics Association. He has taught in the Asia-America Institute in Transnational Law co-sponsored by Duke and the University of Hong Kong and has lectured on commercial and financial law subjects at the University of London. In recognition of his scholarship in bankruptcy law, Professor Schwarcz was selected by Hofstra University School of Law to give the 1996 Benjamin Weintraub Distinguished Professorship Lecture.

In his spare time, Schwarcz enjoys gourmet cooking, wine, poetry, and mountain biking. He also is one of the founders of, and remains active in, the effort to restore the national landmark Eldridge Street Synagogue on New York City's Lower East Side.

Main publications:

"Sovereign Debt Restructuring: A Bankruptcy Reorganization Approach," 85 Cornell L. Rev Issue #4 (forthcoming May 2000)

"Judgment Proofing: A Rejoinder," 52 Stanford L. Rev __ (1999) (forthcoming)

"The Inherent Irrationality of Judgment Proofing,"52 Stanford L. Rev. 1 (forthcoming 1999)

"Towards a Centralized Perfection System for Cross-Border Receivables Financing," 20 U. Penn. J. Int'l. Econ. L. (Fall 1999) (Symposium on Cross-Border Secured Transactions).

"The Impact on Securitization of Revised UCC Article 9," 74 Chicago-Kent L. Rev. (Summer 1999) (Symposium on Revised Uniform Commercial Code Article 9).

"Rethinking Freedom of Contract: A Bankruptcy Paradigm," 77 Texas L. Rev. 515 (1999)

"Unlocking the Mystery of Commercial Trusts as Business Organizations" [work in progress].

"Observations on the Regulation of Fairness in Private Relationships" [work in progress].

"The Universal Language of Cross-Border Finance" 8 Duke J. Comp. & Int'l L. 235 (1998) (Symposium on International Issues in Cross-Border Securitization and Structured Finance), being reprinted in The Securitization Conduit; also, distributed by the U.S. Department of State as Document # ACPIL 49/G/3 at the May 10-11, 1999 meeting of the Secretary of State's Advisory Committee on Private International Law.

"The Easy Case for the Priority of Secured Claims in Bankruptcy," 47 Duke L. J. 425 (1997).

"The Attraction of Law and Economics: Is Law An Autonomous Discipline," 21 Harvard J. L. & Public Pol'cy 85 (1997).

"Protecting Rights, Preventing Windfalls: A Model for Harmonizing State and Federal Laws on Floating Liens," 75 North Carolina L. Rev. 403 (1997).

"Rethinking the Role of Recourse in the Sale of Financial Assets," 52 Business Lawyer 159 (1996) [co-author].

"Rethinking A Corporation's Obligations to Creditors," 17 Cardozo L. Rev. 647 (1996).

"Law and Economics of Securitization," New Business Law issues 580 & 581 (1995) (in Japanese).

"A Fundamental Inquiry Into the Statutory Rulemaking Process of Private Legislatures," 29 Ga. L. Rev. 909 (1995).

"The Global Alchemy of Asset Securitization," 14 International Financial Law Review 30 (May 1995) (based on the Stanford article, but revised for an international audience).

"The Alchemy of Asset Securitization," 1 Stanford J. Law, Bus. & Finance 133 (1994). Reprinted in The Financier 53 (1994) and in 1995 UCC Bulletin 1 (August 1995).

"A New Theory of Recourse in Structured Finance," 1994 Asset Sales Report 8 (February 14, 1994).

PEB Commentary No. 14 on Uniform Commercial Code Section 9-102(1)(b) [draftsman of the Commentary].

"Civil Forfeiture: A Higher Form of Commercial Law?" 62 Fordham L. Rev. 287 (1993) [with A. Rothman]. Reprinted in both 8 White-Collar Crime Reporter 1 (January 1994) and 1994 UCC Bulletin 1 (April 1994), and also was the subject of a "Viewpoints" editorial in The New York Times (Sunday Business Section) 11 (April 3, 1994).

"The Parts Are Greater Than the Whole: How Securitization of Divisible Interests Can Revolutionize Structured Finance and Open the Capital Markets to Middle-Market Companies," 1993 Columbia Bus. L. Rev. 139 (1993)

"'Octagon Gas' Ruling Creates Turmoil for Commercial and Asset-Based Finance," 210 New York L.J. 1 (Aug. 4, 1993).

STRUCTURED FINANCE, A GUIDE TO THE PRINCIPLES OF ASSET SECURITIZATION (2d ed. 1993). [3d edition forthcoming in 1998].

"Credit Lyonnais Case Clarifies ABS Issues In Bankruptcy," 1992 Asset Sales Report 1 (Oct. 12, 1992).

"Structuring and Legal Issues of Asset Securitization in the United States," Chapter 2 in Asset Securitization: International Financial and Legal Perspectives (Basil Blackwell, 1991).

STRUCTURED FINANCE, A GUIDE TO THE FUNDAMENTALS OF ASSET SECURITIZATION (1990).

"Structured Finance: The New Way to Securitize Assets," 11 Cardozo L. Rev. 607 (1990).

"Guaranties and Other Third-Party Credit Supports," Chapter 16 in Commercial Loan Documentation Guide (1988 Matthew Bender) [with Gabe Shawn Varges].

"Sharing of Research Results in a Federally Sponsored Gene Mapping Project," 1987 Report to the Office of Technology Assessment in Congress by the Committee on Science and Law of The Association of the Bar of the City of New York, chaired by Schwarcz.

"The Impact of Fraudulent Conveyance Law on Future Advances Supported by Upstream Guaranties and Security Interests," 9 Cardozo L. Rev. 729 (1987).

"Basics of Business Reorganization in Bankruptcy," 68 J. Commercial Bank Lending 36 (1985), updated and reprinted November 1987.

"An Analysis of Proposed Changes in Substantive and Procedural Law in Response to Perceived Difficulties in Establishing Whether or Not Causation Exists in Mass Toxic Tort Litigation," 41 The Record 905, The Association of the Bar of the City of New York (December 1986) (was Chairman of Subcommittee that produced this Report).

"Leveraged Buyouts in Bankruptcy," 20 Ga. L. Rev. 73 (1985) (wrote this article jointly with Prof. David Gray Carlson, but withdrew my name prior to publication at request of prior firm).

"Repurchase Agreements and Bankruptcy Changes," National Law Journal, September 10, 1984, at 18 et seq.

"A Disturbing Decision," Scott Report (Dec. 1983) [an analysis of the effect of the Twistcap case on letters of credit].

"Dealing with Problems Faced in Bankruptcies, National Law Journal, November 7, 1983, at 15 et seq.

"Resolving Conflicts in Technological Disputes," 19 Jurimetrics Journal 424 (1979).

Peer Review Study, published in The Record (1975 New York Academy of Sciences) (was Chairman of Committee that produced the Study).

The Automobile and the Regulation of its Impact on the Environment (1975 Univ. of Oklahoma Press) (was Research Assistant).

Issues of Financial Protection in Nuclear Activities (1973 Columbia University) (was Research Assistant).

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