Melissa is on a mission to help the public understand the unexpected impact of complicated laws on real people. Having written and coauthored over fifty articles and book chapters, Melissa’s first book Unjust Debts will be published by The New Press on June 11, 2024.

Between being a law professor, and participating in events around the country and the world, Melissa has spoken with many thousands of people about debt, lending, commercial law, and bankruptcy. She is a frequent commentator in the news media on these topics. In 2021 the Chief Justice of the United States, John Roberts, appointed her to help design educational programming for the nation’s bankruptcy courts. She is a recipient of the Grant Gilmore Award for scholarship from the American College of Commercial Finance Lawyers, and the Byrd Award for creative teaching, among others. Jacoby has been elected to the American Law Institute, the American College of Commercial Finance Lawyers, the American College of Bankruptcy, and the National Bankruptcy Conference, and has served as the Robert M. Zinman Scholar for the American Bankruptcy Institute.

Melissa lives mostly in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, and sometimes in Brooklyn, New York.

Current Employment

Graham Kenan Professor of Law, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Visiting Professor of Law, Harvard Law School, Fall 2024

Congressional Testimony

Evading Corporate Accountability through Bankruptcy

Corporate Bankruptcy Forum Shopping

Hospital Billing and Collection Practices

Education

B.A. History, J.D. University of Pennsylvania

Selected Professional Service

Appointed by Chief Justice John Roberts to assist Federal Judicial Center with educational programming for bankruptcy judges (2021–2024)

National Bankruptcy Conference (elected)

American College of Bankruptcy (elected)

American College of Commercial Finance Lawyers (elected)

American Law Institute (elected)

Former consultant, Advisory Committee on Bankruptcy Rules, Judicial Conference of the U.S.

Zinman Scholar in Residence, American Bankruptcy Institute (Spring 2016)

U.S. Supreme Court Amicus Brief

Czyzewski v. Jevic Holding Corp., 15-649 (2016) (with J.C. Lipson)

Prior Jobs

• Assistant/Associate Professor of Law, Temple University

• Judicial clerkship with the Honorable Robert E. Ginsberg (U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Northern District of Illinois)

• Judicial clerkship with the Honorable Marjorie O. Rendell (U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit)

• Senior staff attorney for the National Bankruptcy Review Commission and counsel for the National Bankruptcy Conference

(full CV here)