Robert M. Lawless is the Max L. Rowe Professor of Law and co‐director of the Program on Law, Behavior & Social Science at the University of Illinois College of Law.

In addition to numerous scholarly papers on the bankruptcy system, he is a co‐author for the eighth edition of Secured Transactions: A Systems Approach and the co‐author of Empirical Methods in Law, a textbook on empirical methodologies as applied to the study of law. Professor Lawless administers and contributes to the blog Credit Slips, a discussion on credit, finance, and bankruptcy.

He also participates in the Consumer Bankruptcy Project, a long‐ term research project studying persons who file bankruptcy. Professor Lawless is a member of the American Law Institute, the National Bankruptcy Conference, and the American College of Bankruptcy.