Faculty Profile

Biographical Information

Lawrence Ponoroff is the Samuel M. Fegtly Chair in Commercial Law at the University of Arizona James E. Rogers College of Law. Prior to joining the Rogers College, Prof. Ponoroff was the dean of Tulane University Law School in New Orleans for eight years, where he also held the Mitchell Franklin Professorship in Private and Commercial Law. Prof. Ponoroff teaches courses in the business and commercial law curricula. He has been a frequent lecturer at academic and continuing legal education seminars as well as Federal Judicial Center educational programs. Formerly, Prof. Ponoroff was a partner with the Denver-based law firm of Holme Roberts & Owen (now Bryan Cave HRO) specializing in corporate and commercial litigation.

Prof. Ponoroff is the author or co-author of numerous law review articles as well as five books in the areas of business and consumer bankruptcy, contracts, and commercial law. From 1992 through 1994, he served as the Reporter to the Long-Range Planning Subcommittee of the Committee on the Administration of the Bankruptcy System of the Judicial Conference of the United States. He was Vice Dean of Tulane Law School from 1998-2001. A graduate of Stanford Law School, Prof. Ponoroff has previously taught as a visitor at the University of Michigan Law School, Wayne State University Law School in Detroit, and as a member of the faculty at the University of Toledo College of Law, where for two years, he also served as Associate Dean for Academic Affairs. He has received outstanding teaching awards from three different law schools.

Prof. Ponoroff is a member of the Colorado and Ohio Bars, as well as the Bar of the United States Supreme Court. He served by appointment of the Chief Justice of the United States on the Advisory Committee on Bankruptcy Rules to the U.S. Judicial Conference and the Bankruptcy Judges Education Committee of the Federal Judicial Center. Prof. Ponoroff is a member of the American Law Institute, the Board of Governors of the Arizona State Bar, and a Fellow of the American Bar Foundation. He is the former Chair of the Committee on Graduate Legal Education of the ABA's Section for Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar, and has previously served on the Board of Governors of the Louisiana State Bar Association, the Board of Directors of the American Board of Certification, the Board of Directors of the Louisiana Supreme Court Historical Society, and the Advisory Board of the American Bankruptcy Institute Law Review. In 2003, Prof. Ponoroff was elected as a Fellow of the American College of Bankruptcy. He is married and has four children.