The American Bankruptcy Law Journal (“ABLJ”) is honored to publish this very special In Memoriam issue of the journal, remembering the life of an incredible academic, lawyer, mentor, and friend, Juliet M. Moringiello. Juliet served brilliantly in many professional roles, including as professor and associate dean at Widener University Commonwealth Law School. She passed away much too soon on February 27, 2025.

This issue of the journal is dedicated to Juliet and the many contributions she made to the bankruptcy and commercial law fields and the profound impact she had on the people in those fields. The pages of this issue recount Juliet’s warmth, compassion, commitment to justice and the profession, and keen intellect that allowed her to seamlessly integrate her scholarship and reform efforts with the practice of law on the ground.

Juliet was also a talented teacher in the classroom, who touched the lives of many. The ABLJ’s Editorial Advisory Board member, Kara Gendron, was one of Juliet’s students when Juliet was a visiting professor at another school, and she shared this meaningful reflection:

Some lessons from law school become more meaningful with time. For me, that is true of what I learned from Juliet Moringiello in her bankruptcy and UCC classes. Her confidence and command of the classroom offered a lesson of their own: know your subject, trust your judgment, and have the confidence to contribute. That example has stayed with me throughout my career, shaping how I approach both the law and the world beyond it. When I teach or mentor others, I am reminded that the way we engage with people can leave as lasting an impression as the knowledge we share. Juliet gave me both, and I am grateful to have been her student. 

For those of you who knew or worked with Juliet, we hope this In Memoriam issue reminds you of how she impacted your life, profession, or engagement with the legal community. For those of you who did not know Juliet, we hope this issue highlights Juliet’s incredible contributions to the law and inspires you to engage with some of her work. For all, we hope this issue encourages you to follow Juliet’s many examples of mentorship and leadership in the profession.

You can read all the articles in Issue 100:3, In Memoriam to Juliet M. Moringiello, at https://www.ablj.org/.

Michelle M. Harner
Editor in Chief

IN THIS ISSUE

Professor Melissa Jacoby gives a heartfelt introduction to this In Memoriam issue of the journal, remembering Professor Juliet M. Moringiello, whose work left a lasting mark on bankruptcy and commercial law. Drawing on scholarship that ranged from property and the Uniform Commercial Code to municipal distress and digital assets, Moringiello consistently brought doctrinal fields into conversation with one another. Jacoby reflects on Moringiello’s influence as a teacher, mentor, scholar, and contributor to professional and judicial education. The issue captures both the breadth of Moringiello’s work and the central commitment that ran through it: making law serve people rather than categories.

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From private attorneys to academics and judges, serving in a law reform organization, like the Uniform Law Commission or the ABA’s Business Law Section, can be seen as difficult to add to an already-busy schedule. Yet Professor Kristen David Adams and Professor Candace M. Zierdt argue that serving in these organizations confers distinct advantages to attorneys and helps fulfill the duty lawyers have to public service, as Professor Juliet Moringiello found in her longstanding service to law reform. Professors Adams and Zierdt interview lawyers from global firms, academia, and the judiciary to understand what these opportunities offer for all kinds of lawyers.

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When a hospital enters bankruptcy, the consequences extend beyond the debtor and its creditors. Closures, sales, and restructuring can reshape access to essential health care while leaving affected communities with limited influence over those decisions. In Finding Resident Voice in Hospital Bankruptcies, Professor B. Summer Chandler draws on Juliet Moringiello’s scholarship on municipal bankruptcy to examine how a hospital’s legal form and bankruptcy chapter shape opportunities for resident participation. Comparing public, nonprofit, and for-profit hospitals, the article argues for greater attention to community voice before and during financial distress.

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Professor Laura Coordes examines Juliet Moringiello’s work on the Uniform Assignment for the Benefit of Creditors Act (UABCA) and her belief that scholars should help shape the law they study. Drawing on their work together on the Uniform Law Commission drafting committee, Coordes shows how Moringiello helped shape the UABCA, a uniform act designed to make assignments for the benefit of creditors a viable state-law alternative to bankruptcy. She explains the UABCA’s key features, its differences from bankruptcy, and its effort to bring greater uniformity to ABC law. For Coordes, Moringiello’s work on the UABCA reflected a broader commitment to bringing academic expertise into the law-reform process and encouraging other scholars to do the same. The essay carries that commitment forward by showing how scholarly ideas can be put to practical use.

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Professor Juliet Moringiello was on the scholarly forefront of addressing remote disablement of tangible collateral in consumer transactions. Professor Stacy-Ann Elvy builds on Moringiello’s explorations, highlighting privacy risks associated with these technologies. Elvy addresses consumer concerns with remote disablement and suggests a way to better the consumer situation by proposing amendments to the UCC.

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In The Incomparable Influence of Juliet Moringiello on Property Law, Professor Josh Fairfield discusses his friend and mentor, Professor Juliet Moringiello. Fairfield remembers Moringiello’s kindness and clarity and discusses her ongoing influence and scholarship. Fairfield’s essay tracks Moringiello’s career and explains how Moringiello’s work has set the stage for some of the most cutting-edge legal work of today: property treatment of digital assets. 

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Digital assets have changed the forms that property can take, but the Uniform Commercial Code still relies on concepts developed for a world of tangible assets. In Functional Possession of Digital Assets—Custody, Dominion, or Control: A Tribute to Juliet Moringiello, Professor Edward J. Janger examines how the UCC translates “possession” into “control” for intangible and digital assets. Drawing on Moringiello’s scholarship, and their unfinished conversation about the 2022 UCC Amendments, Janger argues that control captures possession’s remedial function while neglecting its role in providing notice to third parties. He traces that problem through the UCC’s treatment of intangible assets and proposes conditioning priority in digital assets on both filing and control. The essay offers both a tribute to Moringiello’s functional approach to commercial law and a critique of how the UCC governs security interests in an increasingly digital economy.

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In Between Worlds: Juliet Moringiello, Private Legislatures, and the Future of Commercial Law Education, Professor Jonathan Lipson reflects on the life of Professor Juliet M. Moringiello and her important work surrounding “private legislatures.” Lipson highlights Moringiello’s law reform efforts through organizations such the Business Law Section of the ABA, the American Law Institute, and the Uniform Law Commission, sometimes understood as “private legislatures.” Between Worlds connects the work of these institutions to an underappreciated (and perhaps unintended) decline in doctrinal legal education, a matter which was of concern to Professor Moringiello, and which should be of concern to all of us.

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Nearly two decades before digital assets transformed commercial law, Professor Juliet Moringiello challenged property law’s fixation on tangibility. Professors Christopher K. Odinet and Andrea Tosato revisit Moringiello’s prescient scholarship, tracing its influence from early debates over domain names and intangible property to the 2022 Amendments to the Uniform Commercial Code. The essay explores how Moringiello’s functional approach to possession, control, transferability, and exclusion helped lay the intellectual groundwork for modern digital-asset law, while reflecting on the collaborative process through which those ideas evolved into legal reform.

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