SMU Dedman School of Law

Spector, Mary

Associate Professor of Law, Co-Director of Civil Clinic and Director Consumer Law Project

Email: mspector@mail.smu.edu

Phone: 214-768-2578

Education:

B.A., 1979, Simmons College
J.D., 1986, Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law

Professor Spector joined the faculty in 1995 as Co-Director of the SMU Civil Clinic where she continues to supervise students representing clients in state and federal courts. She also teaches Consumer Law and is a recipient of the University Golden Mustang Teaching Award, the Law School’s Don Smart Directed Research Award and Women in Law’s Faculty Appreciation Award. She writes and speaks in the areas of consumer credit, landlord-tenant law and clinical legal education. For her recent project on consumer debt collection litigation published in the Virginia Law & Business Review, Professor Spector was honored with the Bellow Scholar Award from the AALS Clinical Section.

A graduate of the Cardozo School of Law with honors, Professor Spector served as a law clerk to the Honorable Jerry Buchmeyer, United States District Judge for the Northern District of Texas before joining the law firm of Akin, Gump, Strauss, Hauer & Feld as an associate. Prior to joining the law school faculty, she was an adjunct instructor of Legal Writing and Research, a visiting supervising attorney with the SMU Legal Clinic and a field instructor with the SMU/Legal Services of North Texas externship program. Outside of the Law School, Professor Spector received the Dallas Bar Association Pro Bono Award and has served on a number of university, professional and community committees and boards and is currently co-chair of the AALS Clinical Section’s Committee on Lawyering in the Public Interest.

Primary Articles

From Representation to Research: Reflections on Collecting and Using Empirical Research in our Clinics, ___ UDC/DCSL L. Rev. ___ -___ (forthcoming 2012).

Debts, Details and Defaults: Exploring the Impact of Debt Collection Litigation on Consumers and the Courts, 6 Va. L. & Bus. Rev. 257 (2011).

Taming the Beast: Payday Loans, Regulatory Efforts and Unintended Consequences, 57 DePaul L. Rev. 961-96 (2008).

Payday Loans: Unintended Consequences of American Efforts to Tame the Beast, in The Future of Consumer Credit Regulation: Creative Approaches to Emerging Problems (M. Kelly-Louw, J. Nehf & P. Rott, eds.) (Ashgate Pub. 2008) (pages 107-28).

Tenant Stories: Obstacles and Challenges Facing Tenants Today, 40 The John Marshall L. Rev. 407-23 (2007).

Speeches/Presentations

January 2012	St. Mary's University School of Law, San Antonio, Texas Faculty Enrichment Program, Speaker, Exploring the Litigation of Consumer Debt Collection Liltigation
October 2011	Clinical Law Review Writers' Workshop, New York University, New York, NY Fixing a ABroken System@: Using Data to Shape Meaningful Change in the Litigation of Consumer Debts
September 2011	5th Annual Bellow Scholar Workshop, New York University, New York, NY, Workshop Co-Chair (with Michael Gregory, Harvard Law School)
July 2011	13th Annual International Conference IACL, Brunel University, London, UK, Panelist: Protecting Consumers in Collection Litigation
May 2011	AALS, Conference on Clinical Legal Education, Seattle, WA, Moderator, Bellow Presentations
November 2010	4th Annual Bellow Scholar Workshop: Merging Access-to-Justice Work and Empirical Research, District of Columbia David Clark School of Law, Bellow Symposium Speaker: Litigation Research Update
May 2010	Conference: Teaching Consumer Law, University of Houston, Houston, Texas, Panelist, Settlement, Collection and Modification: Debt Buyer Litigation Findings
May 2010	AALS, Conference on Clinical Legal Education, Baltimore, MD, Works in Progress: Conducting an Empirical Study
May 2010	AALS, Conference on Clinical Legal Education, Baltimore, MD, Consumer Working Group Leader (with Peter Holland)
November 2009	Cardozo Alumni in Teaching, Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law, Yeshiva University, New York, NY, Debts, Defaults and Details: Exploring the Litigation of Consumer Debts
October 2009	Empirical Research Workshop, Gittis Center for Clinical Legal Studies, University of Pennsylvania Law School, Philadelphia, PA, Debts, Defaults and Details: Exploring the Impact of Debt Collection on Consumers and the Courts
July 2009	International Journal of Clinical Legal Education Conference, Murdoch University, Perth, Western Australia, Clinics and Collaboration: Exploring the Impact of Debt Collection Litigation on Consumers and the Courts
May 2009	AALS, Clinical Legal Education Workshop, Cleveland, Ohio, Bellow Scholar Presentation: Work-in-Progress: A Study of Consumer Debt Collection Litigation
February 2009	Faculty Forum, SMU Dedman School of Law, Dallas, TX, Work-in-Progress: A Study of Consumer Debt Collection Litigation
January 2009	Dallas Volunteer Attorney Program-Housing Crisis Center, Continuing Legal Education, Common Tenant Problems and the Role of the Volunteer Attorney
September 2008	Center for Dispute Resolution & Conflict Management, Southern Methodist University, Plano, TX, Collecting and Litigating Consumer Debts: A Consumer's Perspective
May 2008	Federal Trade Commission, Dallas, TX Green Lights and Red Flags: FTC/BBB Rules of the Road for Advertisers, Panel topic: Avoiding a Promotion Commotion: Prizes, Free Offers and Unsolicited Faxes and the Telemarketing Sales Rule
May 2008	Conference: Teaching Consumer Law, University of Houston, Houston, Texas, Presentation topic: Teaching Consumer Law: Consumer Law or Consumer Protection?
May 2008	Center for Law and Social Justice, Seton Hall University, Newark, NJ Emerging Issues in Subprime Lending Conference. Presentation topic: Debts, Defaults and Details: Exploring the Impact of Debt Collection Litigation on American Courts
May 2008	AALS, Clinical Legal Education Conference, Tucson, Arizona, Are We Crazy? Supervising Students in High-Risk Situations, with Professor Maureen Armour, and Professor Lori A. Nessel and Visiting Professor Bryan Lonegan of Seton Hall University
April 2008	Dallas Volunteer Attorney Program-Housing Crisis Center, Continuing Legal Education, Common Tenant Problems and the Role of the Volunteer Attorney
March 2008	Colloquium on Law and Citizenship, SMU Dedman School of Law, Commentator on Serena Mayeri=s work in progress, A New ERA or a New Era?: Amendment Advocacy and the Reconstitution of Feminism
October 2007	Federal Trade Commission, Washington, DC. Collecting Consumer Debts: The Challenge of Change, an FTC Workshop, October 10-11, 2007; Panel presentation topic: Concerns about Debt Collection: Consumers= Perspective; Written comments dated November 9, 2007, submitted to Federal Trade Commission are available at http://www.ftc.gov/os/comments/debtcollectionworkshop/529233-00056.pdf
April 2007	11^th International Conference of Consumer Law, Cape Town, South Africa. Taming the Beast: Payday Loans, Regulatory Efforts, and Unintended Consequences

Other

EPILOGUE: THEORY IN THE BASEMENT, 51 SMU Law Review 1555 (1998) (with Maureen N. Armour).