TODD J. ZYWICKI is George Mason University Foundation Professor of Law at George Mason University Antonin Scalia School of Law, Research Fellow of the Law & Economics Center, and former Executive Director of the GMU Law and Economics Center. During Fall 2023 semester, Professor Zywicki will serve as the Visiting Scholar in Conservative Thought and Policy at the University of Colorado-Boulder Bruce D. Benson Center for the Study of Western Civilization. In 2020-21 he served as the Chair of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Taskforce on Federal Consumer Financial Law. In 2021 he was inducted into the American College of Consumer Financial Services Lawyers. He served as Chair of the Association of American Law Schools Section on Law & Economics in 2019. From 2003-2004, Professor Zywicki served as the Director of the Office of Policy Planning at the Federal Trade Commission. In 2009, Professor Zywicki was the recipient of the Institute for Humane Studies 2009 Charles G. Koch Outstanding IHS Alum Award. He served as Co-Editor of the Supreme Court Economic Review from 2006-2017 and as Editor from 2001-2002. He teaches in the area of Bankruptcy, Contracts, Commercial Law, Law & Economics, and Public Choice and the Law. He has also taught at Vanderbilt University Law School, Georgetown University Law Center, Boston College Law School, Mississippi College School of Law, and China University of Political Science and Law.
Professor Zywicki clerked for Judge Jerry E. Smith of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit and worked as an associate at Alston & Bird in Atlanta, Georgia, where he practiced bankruptcy and commercial law. He received his JD from the University of Virginia, where he was executive editor of the Virginia Tax Review and John M. Olin Scholar in Law and Economics. Professor Zywicki also received an MA in Economics from Clemson University and an AB cum Laude with high honors in his major from Dartmouth College.
Professor Zywicki is the author of more than 130 articles in leading law reviews and peer-reviewed economics journals. He has been one of the Top 50 Most Downloaded Law Authors at the Social Science Research Network, both All Time and during the Past 12 Months, and is currently ranked in the top 10% in total number of downloads for all fields on on SSRN. From 2016-2020, 2013-2017, and 2010-2014 he was among the ten most-cited faculty in the field of Commercial Law. From 2005-2009 was the eleventh most-highly cited law professor in the fields of Commercial Law and Bankruptcy and the most-cited Commercial Law and Bankruptcy scholar under the age of 45 (at that time). Professor Zywicki is also ranked among the Top 25 law professors on Twitter as measured by public engagement. He has testified several times before Congress on issues of consumer bankruptcy law and consumer credit and is a frequent commentator on legal issues in the print and broadcast media, including the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Washington Post, Sports Illustrated, Washington Times, Forbes, Nightline, National Review, NBC Nightly News, The Newshour with Jim Lehrer, Fox and Friends, Fox Business, CNN, CNBC, Bloomberg News, BBC, ABC