Professor Judith L. Fox Appointed to Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s Consumer Advisory Board

Judy Fox

The U.S. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) recently announced the appointment of Notre Dame Law School Professor Judith L. Fox to its Consumer Advisory Board. After being nominated by Indiana Attorney General Greg Zoeller, Fox was appointed to the board along with 11 other external experts, industry representatives, consumers, community leaders and advocates.

The CFPB helps consumer finance markets work by making rules more effective, by consistently and fairly enforcing those rules, and by empowering consumers to take more control over their economic lives. The Consumer Advisory Board helps inform the bureau about emerging practices or trends in the consumer finance industry, and shares analysis and recommendations. According to the Bureau, members are given the responsibility to identify and assess the impact of emerging products, practices, or services on consumers and other market participants.

“I hope to inform policy makers of the issues facing low- to moderate-income consumers in the heartland,” Fox, ’93 J.D., said when asked why this role is important to her. “Often policy is shaped by the experiences of those in big cities on the coasts. That is not where most of us live.”

Fox runs the NDLS Economic Justice Clinic, which provides free legal services to low-income clients on consumer law matters. Along with wanting to provide insights on the growing national student loan debt and aftermath of the home foreclosure crisis, Fox said her new role “adds to the focus of my clinic, which is to not just look to the needs of individual clients, which we do, but looks to the underlying policy or legal issues that are creating or exacerbating our client’s issues.”

“I was delighted to learn of Professor Fox’s appointment,” said Dean Nell Jessup Newton. “Her cutting-edge scholarship on predatory lending and deep experience in wrestling with economic issues on behalf of actual clients combine to give her a unique perspective that will benefit the Bureau immensely.”

Fox is a Clinical Professor at the Law School. She teaches and practices consumer law. Since joining the Notre Dame faculty in1997, Professor Fox has taught courses in consumer law, alternative dispute resolution, ethics and domestic violence.