Kathryn Judge


Biography

Kathryn Judge is the Harvey J. Goldschmid Professor of Law at Columbia Law School.

Prior to joining Columbia Law School, Professor Judge clerked for Judge Richard Posner of the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals and Justice Stephen Breyer of the Supreme Court. She also worked as a corporate associate with Latham & Watkins.

Professor Judge’s research focuses on banking, financial crises, regulatory architecture, and intermediation design beyond finance.

She currently serves as Chair of the Research Committee of the European Corporate Governance Institute, in addition to serving on its Working Paper Series Editorial Board.

She has served as Vice Dean for Intellectual Life at Columbia Law School, as an editor of the Journal of Financial Regulation, as a member of the Financial Stability Task Force co-sponsored by the Brookings Institution and Chicago Booth School of Business, and as a member of the Financial Research Advisory Committee (FRAC) to the Office of Financial Regulation. While serving on FRAC, she co-chaired the working groups on financial innovation and the London Interbank Offered Rate (LIBOR) transition.

Professor Judge’s book, Direct: The Rise of the Middleman Economy and the Power of Going to the Source, was on the long list for the Financial Times Business Book of the Year, received the Gold Medal for Business Theory from Axiom Business Book Awards, and was included among the “Top 16 Finance Books of 2022” and “Top 22 Business Books of 2022” by Next Big Idea Club.



Courses Taught

Law & Economics

Legislation & Regulation

Anti-Money Laundering Laws

Corporations

Education

J.D. Law, Stanford Law School

B.A., Wesleyan University

Institutions

Columbia Law School

Office of Financial Regulation, U.S. Treasury

Fields

Law

Finance

Topics

Banking

Corporations

Financial Institutions

Financial Regulation


“With Strategies that inform the policies of government and individuals alike, this is a blueprint for remaking the machine - and an urgent call that we get it done.” - Lawrence Lessig, Professor at Harvard Law School

Gold Medal for Business Theory - Axiom Business Book Awards

Long List for the Business Book of the Year - Financial Times

Top 16 Finance Books of 2022 - Next Big Idea Club

Top 22 Business Books of 2022 - Next Big Idea Club


Congressional Hearings

Enabling Success: Examining the Competitive Landscape for Small Businesses, before the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Small Business, Subcommittee on Economic Growth, Tax, and Capital Access, September 13, 2023

A Failure of Supervision: Bank Failures and The San Francisco Federal Reserve, before the U.S. House of Representatives Oversight Committee, Subcommittee on Health Care and Financial Services, May 24, 2023

Hearing on Federal Response to Recent Bank Failures, before the U.S. House of Representatives Financial Services Committee, Subcommittee on Financial Institutions and Monetary Policy, May 10, 2023


Articles

The Unraveling of the Federal Home Loan Banks, 41 Yale Journal of Regulation (2024)

Banking Law, the Banking System and Structure of the Economy, 133 Yale Law Journal Forum (2024)

Financial Regulation Beyond Stability, 20 The Journal of Law, Economics & Policy (2024)

The Administrative State and Financial Regulation: The Case for Commissions (with Dan Awrey), 35 Stanford Law & Policy Review (2024)

Credit, Crises and Infrastructure: The Differing Fates of Large and Small Businesses (with Todd Baker and Aaron Klein), 102 Boston University Law Review 1353 (2022)

Why Financial Regulation Keeps Falling Short (with Dan Awrey), 61 Boston College Law Review 2295 (2020)

• Governance Insight Award Honorable Distinction, Investment Wealth Institute

The New Mechanisms of MarketInefficiency, 45 Journal of Corporation Law 915 (2020) (symposium)

Judges and Judgment:In Praise o fInstigators, 86 University of Chicago Law Review 1077 (2019) (symposium)

Guarantor of Last Resort, 97 Texas Law Review 707 (2019)

Investor-Driven Financial Innovation, 8 Harvard Business Law Review 291 (2018)

The Importance of “Money”, 130 Harvard Law Review 1148 (2017)

Information Gaps and Shadow Banking, 103 Virginia Law Review 411 (2017)

  • Selected by peers as one of the top corporate and securities articles of 2017, Corporate Practice Commentator

The First Year: The Role of a Modern Lender of Last Resort, 116 Columbia Law Review 843 (2016)

The Future of Direct Finance: The Diverging Paths of Peer-to-Peer Lending and Kickstarter, 50 Wake Forest Law Review 603 (2015) (symposium)

Intermediary Influence, 82 University of Chicago Law Review 573 (2015)

• Selected by peers as one of the top corporate and securities articles of 2015, Corporate Practice Commentator

The Federal Reserve: A Study in Soft Constraints, 78 Law & Contemporary Problems 65 (2015) (symposium)

Three Discount Windows, 99 Cornell Law Review 795 (2014)

Interbank Discipline, 60 UCLA Law Review 1262 (2013)

• Awarded First Place at the Annual Junior Faculty Business and Financial Law Workshop sponsored by the GW Center for Law, Economics & Finance

Fee Effects, 98 Iowa Law Review 1517 (2013)

Fragmentation Nodes: A Case Study in Financial Innovation, Complexity and Systemic Risk, 64 Stanford Law Review 657 (2012)

Note, Rethinking Copyright Misuse, 57 Stanford Law Review 901 (2004)

  • Reprinted in Intellectual Property LawReview 2005 (Thomson/West)