About SLLI
Lead by University of California-Irvine Law Professor Dalié Jiménez, the Student Loan Law Initiative (SLLI) is a partnership between the University of California, Irvine School of Law and the Student Borrower Protection Center to build a body of rigorous academic work around the future of student loans
As the student loan market expanded over the past decade, borrowers have turned to the courts, regulators, and lawmakers to protect and expand their rights and halt student loan industry abuses. However, these efforts often faltered, lacking a solid foundation of rigorous analysis and comprehensive legal research. That’s why UCI partnered with the Student Borrower Protection Center to launch SLLI -- the the nation’s first academic project focused on student debt and the law.
SLLI fosters the highest quality academic research, provides grants for research, and builds the capacity of student loan experts to shape the future of this marketplace.
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Dalié Jiménez
Director, Professor of Law
Professor Jiménez’s scholarly work focuses on contracts, bankruptcy and consumer financial distress, the regulation of financial products and its intersection with consumer protection, and access to justice. Professor Jiménez spent a year as part of the founding staff of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau where she worked on debt collection, debt relief, credit reporting, and student loan issues.
Prior to her academic career, she clerked for the Honorable Juan R. Torruella of the United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit, was a litigation associate at Ropes & Gray, L.L.P. in Boston, and worked on consumer protection issues at the Massachusetts State Senate.
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Stacy Tutt
Clinical Partner, Visiting Clinical Professor of Law
Professor Tutt is a Clinical Professor of Law and Director of Community Preservation Clinic at Illinois College of Law. Professor Tutt joined the Illinois College of Law in June 2011 to develop and direct the Community Preservation Clinic, which teaches students the skills of lawyering while exploring a community-based, non-traditional approach to poverty law. Professor Tutt teaches the Consumer Law Clinic while on a visiting appointment at UCI Law.
Meet the Team
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Mehrsa Baradaran
Professor of Law
Professor Baradaran writes about banking law, financial inclusion, inequality, and the racial wealth gap. Her scholarship includes the books How the Other Half Banks and The Color of Money: Black Banks and the Racial Wealth Gap, both published by the Harvard University Press. Prior to joining UCI Law, Professor Baradaran was the Robert Cotten Alston Chair in Corporate Law and Associate Dean for strategic initiatives with a focus on diversity and inclusion efforts and national and international faculty scholarship recognition at the University of Georgia School of Law.
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Victor Fleischer
Professor of Law
Professor Fleischer teaches and writes in the areas of corporate tax, international tax, partnership tax, tax policy, and alternative investments. He served as the Democratic Chief Tax Counsel for the U.S. Senate Finance Committee from 2016-17. Professor Fleischer was the seventh most-cited tax law professor among U.S. law schools from 2009 to 2013 per Brian Leiter’s Scholarly Impact Study. Prior to joining UCI Law, he served as professor of tax law and director of tax programs at the University of San Diego School of Law.
Faculty Affiliates
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Mike Pierce
Executive Director, SBPC
Mike Pierce is the Executive Director and co-founder of the Student Borrower Protection Center (SBPC), where he previously served as the founding Policy Director and Managing Counsel. Prior to founding SBPC, Mike was the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s lead subject-matter expert on higher education and consumer protection. He advised all aspects of the Bureau’s work related to student lending, servicing, debt collection, and oversight of for-profit colleges. He has also served as a policy advisor to Congressman John Sarbanes.
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Mark Huelsman
Student Loan Justice Fellow, SBPC
Mark Huelsman is a Student Loan Justice Fellow at SBPC, as well as the Director of Policy & Advocacy at the Hope Center for College, Community, and Justice at Temple University. Mark is a nationally recognized expert on college affordability, student debt, and racial equity in higher education, and previously served as Associate Director of Policy & Research at Demos.
SBPC Partners
