Virtual Conference on Income Share Agreements

As many of you know, I direct the Student Loan Law Initiative at UCI Law, a partnership with the the Student Borrower Protection Center (SBPC). We recently announced a series of grants supporting empirical work on student loan law, including Slipster Adam Levitin!

Our partner, SPBC has also been very busy. As income share agreements have become a growing fixture in the student loan law marketplace, SBPC has put on a virtual conference series taking a deep dive into the legal underpinnings of ISAs and arguing that the the existing consumer protection framework already applies to these financial products. Each week has had a 90-min panel and a paper. The final panel in the series, on ISAs and State Law, is happening today at 2pm ET/11am PT (join live by clicking on "register" at the top right).

The first panel focused on the definition of credit and tackled the question of how to classify ISAs under federal consumer financial law. Oregon Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum delivered the keynote. The paper was written by Joanna Peart and Brian Shearer. Joanna was the former Enforcement Chief of Staff and Acting Principal Deputy Enforcement Director for the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Brian is the Legal Director of Justice Catalyst.

The second panel focused on the fair lending risks inherent in ISAs. FTC Commissioner Rohit Chopra was the keynote for the day’s event and the paper was written by Stephen Hayes and Alexa Milton. Stephen Hayes is a partner and Alexa Milton is an associate at Relman Colfax.

Today's final panel focuses on the application of state consumer lending and consumer finance laws to ISAs. The accompanying paper was written by Ben Roesch, an attorney at Jensen Morse Baker. Today's panel will be moderated by Jillian Berman from Marketwatch and also include panelists from the Oregon Department of Justice and National Consumer Law Center, among others.

Even if you cannot make this week’s panel live, all the expert panel discussion and papers will be available on the conference website: emergingrisks.org. And if you're interested in more student loan law research, join our mailing list.