Tara Twomey

Tara Twomey is the Jeffrey and Martha Kohn Associate Professor of Clinical Law and Director of the Small Business & Community Economic Development Clinic. She previously served as a clinical instructor and fellow with the Community Enterprise Project at the WilmerHale Legal Services Center of Harvard Law School. She is a nationally recognized authority in commercial, bankruptcy, and consumer law.

Immediately before her faculty appointment at GW Law, Professor Twomey served as Director of the United States Trustee Program, the component of the Department of Justice often described as the watchdog of the nation's bankruptcy system. She has also served as Executive Director of the National Consumer Bankruptcy Rights Center and as Counsel to the National Consumer Law Center. In 2019, Professor Twomey was appointed as the Consumer Claims Trustee in the chapter 11 bankruptcy of one of the nation’s ten largest mortgage servicers, with responsibility for administering and resolving more than 5,000 consumer claims.

Professor Twomey’s scholarship has appeared in law reviews and peer-reviewed journals, including the Yale Journal on Regulation, the Utah Law Review, and the American Bankruptcy Law Journal. She previously co-led a large empirical study, funded by the National Conference of Bankruptcy Judges’ Endowment for Education, examining the intersection of homeownership and bankruptcy. The study’s findings attracted national attention and were featured in the New York Times. She has testified before Congress on multiple occasions and authored numerous amicus briefs before the U.S. Supreme Court, several of which have been cited in the Court’s opinions.

Professor Twomey serves on the Board of Editors and is a contributing author for Collier on Bankruptcy, and she co-edits Collier's International Business Insolvency Guide. She is a Conferee of the National Bankruptcy Conference and a Fellow of the American College of Bankruptcy. In 2021, Chief Justice Roberts appointed her to the Judicial Conference Advisory Committee on Bankruptcy Rules.

Professor Twomey earned her JD, summa cum laude, from Boston College Law School and her undergraduate degree from the University of California, San Diego. After law school, she clerked for Chief Justice Herbert P. Wilkins of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court. She then received a two-year Skadden Fellowship focused on community economic development in Boston's low-income neighborhoods.