Photo: Nathalie Martin

Nathalie Martin

Professor of Law

  • Frederick M. Hart Chair in Consumer and Clinical Law

Education

  • B.A. 1983, St. Olaf College
  • J.D. 1986, Syracuse University
  • L.L.M. 1998, Temple University
  • Member of the Massachusetts, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania Bar

Contact Information

 Ph.: 505-277-2810
 Office: 3239
 
  Website

Profile

Nathalie Martin joined the UNM law faculty in 1998. Her research focuses on consumer law and bankruptcy, as well as elder law. Her recent research focuses on high-cost loans, such as payday, title, and installment loans, as well as the Mindfulness in Law movement. Her high-cost loan projects include several empirical studies funded by the National Conference of Bankruptcy Judgesincluding one that funded curbside interviews of payday loan customers and another that studied the credit habits of undocumented New Mexicans. Her works have been cited by the New Mexico Supreme Court, the California Supreme Court, and the United States Supreme Court.

Yoga For Lawyers

She is the author Yoga for Lawyers: Mind Body Connections To Feel Better All The Time, as well as Lawyering from the Inside Out: Learning Professional Development through Mindfulness and Emotional Intelligence.

cover of a book called lawyering from the inside out depicting a blue flower

The author of several other books and dozens of law review articles, she holds what is thought to be the only endowed chair in the country dedicated to consumer law issues.

Professor Martin teaches commercial and consumer law, as well the Economic Development (Business and Tax) Clinic at the UNM School of Law. In addition to her other courses, she runs a program promoting financial literacy in New Mexico high schools, and teaches a two-day financial literacy course for law students and undergraduates.

Professor Martin is a member of the American Law Institute and the American College of Bankruptcy, and a former resident scholar at the American Bankruptcy Institute. In that capacity, she has appeared on CNN, ABC, CNBC and other television networks. She has been quoted in the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times and many other newspapers.

Professor Martin's passions include several long-term life goals, including helping consumers avoid the many traps and pitfalls created by the current consumer credit world, and helping lawyers maintain balance in their lives.

She routinely advises law students on managing stress while practicing law in a healthy and productive way. In addition to teaching law, she teaches meditation and yoga.

In the News

Courses

Advanced Commercial and Consumer Law

Prerequisite: One course in either Consumer Law or Commercial Law is a required prerequisite unless waived by one of the teachers.

This course will is a seminar limited to 18 students. Papers and presentations will be required, and the class is designed to meet the advanced legal writing requirement.

Topics covered will depend significantly on student interests. They may include subjects covered in the consumer law class, such as payday loans, regulation of credit cards, and payment methods, topics covered in secured transactions, sales, negotiable instrument or by any of the Article of the Uniform Commercial Code, or possibly topics involving tax issues, patents and trademarks, or other current topics related to commerce.

Students are encouraged to begin work on a paper during the Fall semester and those who do will be guaranteed a place in the course. Please Professor Martin or Professor Hart if you wish to start in the Fall.

Bankruptcy

This course explores the role of debt, credit, and debt forgiveness in a capitalist society. It begins with an overview of the state court collection procedures, and then teaches the main provisions of the three primary chapters of the Bankruptcy Code: Chapter 7 liquidation, Chapter 13 wage-earner rehabilitation, and Chapter 11 reorganization. The course is taught through the problem-based teaching method, which helps students learn both the theoretical underpinnings of the materials, as well as its direct application to the practice of law.

Business Associations I

This course will explore the various types of business relationships and organizations. Brief coverage is given to factors bearing on choice of organization, including partnership attributes, process of corporate formation, corporate privileges and powers, corporate capital structure, and limited liability. This part of the course will include an introduction to agency law, and the management and transfer of ownership interests in partnerships, limited liability companies, and corporations.

Business and Tax Clinic

Pre-requisite: Completion of first year curriculum. Pre- or co-requisite: Ethics.
Preference: Completion of Federal Income Tax and any Business Law courses.

Summer 2013--Prof. Nathalie Martin, Prof. Grace Allison
Fall 2013--Prof. James Butler, Prof. Mary Pareja
Spring 2014--Prof. James Butler, Prof. Mary Pareja

This clinic section is part of the law school's Economic Development program.  Although specific types of client matters cannot be guaranteed, the Business and Tax Clinic will emphasize the following:

  • student representation of low-income taxpayers in disputes before the IRS and the New Mexico Taxation and Revenue Department, including Tax Court litigation, audit defense, and collections matters;
  • assistance to startup and established nonprofit organizations seeking IRS recognition of tax-exempt status and other operational assistance;
  • support of community-based efforts to promote economic development; and
  • legal services to low-income, small-business clients who cannot afford to hire a lawyer.

Small-business cases will likely include the following:

  • giving advice on the choice and formation of business entities;
  • drafting organizational documents;
  • reviewing and drafting leases, purchase and licensing arrangements and other contracts; and
  • resolving business disputes.

Cases and instruction will also include matters of personal interest to a new lawyer seeking to open his or her own practice.  We strive to provide a broad-spectrum experience, including pure transactional practice (small business startup, contract drafting), dispute resolution (IRS controversy, small case business controversies) and consumer protection (bankruptcy, foreclosure defense and consumer credit dispute resolution).  

Clients of the law school’s Clinical Law Program include individuals and organizations that have multiple legal and non-legal needs and objectives.  Students of the Business and Tax Clinic often collaborate with students of the Community Lawyering Clinic or Southwest Indian Law Clinic in providing services to these clients.

Students will be required (1) to attend and actively participate in up to five classroom sessions (ten during summer’s first three weeks) during each week of the academic semester and (2) to maintain, in addition to classroom hours, a schedule of 24 (2-hours block) fixed office hours (physically present in the clinic, working on clinic matters) each week during Summer, or 16 (2-hours block) fixed office hours each week during Fall and Spring semesters.

Students having specific questions about the Business and Tax Clinic are encouraged to visit with Profs. Allison, Butler, Martin, or Pareja.

Consumer Law

This course will focus on the practical application of federal and state general consumer laws, and will cover primarily the New Mexico Unfair Practices Act and the Federal Trade Commission Act.

Some of the topics to be addressed in this course include:

  1. Credit and Collections
  2. Contracts, Warranties and Legal Rights
  3. Automobile and Mobile Home Sales
  4. Door-to-Door Sales
  5. Home Improvements and Related Services
  6. Household Products
  7. Future Service Contracts
  8. Opportunity Schemes and other "Non-sale" Transactions

Based on these topics, other federal and state laws will most likely be reviewed such as the Truth in Lending Act, the Fair Debt Collection Act, the Door-to Door Sales Act, the Home Loan Protection Act and Motor Vehicle Quality Assurance.

These interesting facets of consumer law in New Mexico will be learned, by reading New Mexico and Federal case law and by analyzing on-going consumer matters presented to public enforcement authorities and to the private bar. Our studies will focus on the causes of action and the remedies available, including attorney fees and treble damages.

The practical application of consumer law will include the development of a client-interview form to address the pertinent issues, the preparation of several model pleadings, and Power Point presentations on specific areas of consumer law. These projects, and others, will provide both a product to be used in the practice of law and a basis for grading. There will be no classroom examination.

Contracts I

In an industrial society characterized by a "free enterprise" system and notions of individual freedom, "contract" is one of the primary means by which private individuals order their affairs. The contracts course inquires into why promises are enforced as contracts, which promises are enforced, and how they are enforced. The course places emphasis on close and critical analyses of court decisions.

See Professor for course description.

Financial Literacy

This is a one credit course designed to teach students the basic rights of consumers in various forms of consumer transactions. The course focuses on money law, money management, and the regulation of consumer credit and credit reporting.

Specific topics covered include the bank-customer relationship and the legal rights of bank customers, the legal issues surrounding credit and debit cards, predatory lending such as payday loans, rent-to own, title loans, furniture store scams, yo-yo car sales, and other high-rate consumer credit. It also covers identity theft, credit reporting and scoring, mortgage lending, investing and compounding, and retirement planning. It is designed to help students and their future clients become more educated about consumer credit, saving, investing, and overall financial health.

Practicum

This class introduces you to the work and professional roles of lawyers. It investigates the meaning of professionalism; examines the role of personal and professional values in becoming and being a lawyer; and discusses various aspects of legal practice, including ways to improve your likelihood of success and happiness in your career.

As background, empirical studies show that lawyers who pick their fields carefully based upon their own strengths and needs are happier and do better in the profession overall. Other studies show that multitasking and excessive stress interfere with clear thinking. Indeed, calm focused people are better at what they do, whatever profession they enter. They are also more efficient and work better with others. Calm focused people are also happier and have a better sense of their own priorities and values. This class is designed to:

  • help you learn about the legal system and the professional role of attorneys;
  • help you create space in your life for activities that keep you balanced as a human being;
  • help you control stress and thus enhance your academic and professional success;
  • help you improve your interpersonal skills;
  • allow you to develop a support system at the law school by getting to know some of your peers in an unconventional setting; and
  • allow you to develop a relationship with a faculty member that is supportive both inside and outside the classroom.

Being a lawyer can be all you want it to be and can give you the power to bring about whatever change you want to see. This class will help prepare you to do just that.

Real Estate Planning

See Professor Martin for Course Description.

Sales of Goods

In this course we will study Article 2 of the Uniform Commercial Code, which covers the Sale of Goods. In your contracts class, you have already looked at some of the sections governing warranties and contract formation. We will expand on these topics and look at such questions as the obligations of the seller and the buyer, remedies, anticipatory breach, conditions, the parole evidence rule, etc. In addition, we will look briefly at the UN Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods. Because the United States is a signatory to that Convention, it is the law in New Mexico governing the sale of goods to Canada and Mexico, and in some circumstances, it overrides the Uniform Commercial Code.

The focus of this course will be practical and we will spend time drafting contracts for the sale of goods. The skills you learn in this context will be useful for drafting all types of contracts.

There will be a final exam.

Secured Transactions

The aim of this course is to introduce students to what is sometimes called "Code Methodology." The main purpose of the course is to help you understand various techniques in reading and interpreting the Uniform Commercial Code. The course will cover Article 9, Secured Transactions. Article 9 is, in some ways, the most difficult part of the Uniform Commercial Code. It is likely to be the only exposure most students will have to the concept of security for debts. Another advantage of working with Article 9 is that the Article is more or less self-contained and presents a system within itself.

Publications

Book & Book Chapters

Lawyering from the Inside Out: Learning Professional Identity Formation through Mindfulness and Emotional Intelligence  (Cambridge Press 2018).
Available at: Law Library

Forms and Procedures Under the UCC, 8 volumes (Matthew Bender) (updated semi-annually) (co-authored with Frederick M.Hart).
Available at: Law Library

Yoga for Lawyers: Mind-Body Techniques to Feel Better All the Time (ABA Publishing 2014) (co-authored with Hallie Love).
Available at: Your Library

Secured Transactions (2011) (co-authored with Frederick M. Hart)
Available at: UNM-DR

Inside Bankruptcy Law: What Matters and Why (2008) (co-authored with Ocean Tama).
Available at: Law Library

When Worlds Collide: Bankruptcy and Its Impact on Domestic Relations and Family Law (3rd ed. 2005). (co-authored with Michaela M. White and Marianne B. Culhane).
Available at: Law Library

J.K. Lasser's The New Bankruptcy Law and You (2005) (co-authored with Stewart Paley).
Available at: Law Library

The Glannon Guide to Bankruptcy (2005).
Available at: UNM-DR

Counseling Older Americans (2005) (co-authored with Alison Barnes and A. Frank Johns).
Available at: Law Library

Articles

Brewing Disharmony: Addressing Tribal Sovereign Immunity Claims in Bankruptcy, Am. Bankr. L. J. 149 (2022).

Reducing The Wealth Gap Through Fintech 'Advances' in Consumer Banking and Lending, 2021.2 U. ILL. L. REV. 459 (2021) (co-authored with Pamela Foohey).
Available at: UNM-DR

Shadow Credit and the Devolution of Consumer Credit Regulation, LEWIS & CLARK L. REV. (forthcoming 2021) (co-authored with Lydia Pizzonia).
Available at: SSRN

Bad Apples or a Rotten Tree: Ameliorating the Double Pandemic of COVID 19 and Racial Economic Inequality, 82 MONT. L. REV. 105 (2021).
Available at: UNM-DR

Bringing Relevance Back to Consumer Bankruptcy, 36 EMORY BANKR. DEV. J. 581 (2020).
Available at: UNM-DR

Nefarious Neighbors: How Living Near Payday Loan Stores Affects Loan Use, 88 MISS. L. J. 333 (2019) (co-authored with Younghee Lim, Aimee Moles & Trey Bickham).
Available at: UNM-DR

The Virtue of Vulnerability: Mindfulness and Well-Being in Law Schools and the Legal Profession, 49 SW. L REV. 367 (2019).
Available at: UNM-DR

The Power of Community Action: Anti-Payday Loan Ordinances in Three Metropolitan Areas (2017) (co-authored with Robert Mayer). Full Document and Executive Summary.
Available at: UNM-DR

What Communities Can Do to Rein In Payday Lending: Strategies for Successful Local Ordinance Campaigns Through a Texas Lens, 80 LAW & CONTEMP. PROBS. 147 (2017) (co-authored with Robert Mayer).
Available at: UNM-DR

Right Scholarship and the Goddesses of Commercial Law, 34 COLUM. J. GENDER & L. 124 (2017).
Available at: UNM-DR

Consumer Credit in America: Past, Present, and Future, 80 LAW & CONTEMP. PROBS. 1 (2017) (co-authored with Pamela Foohey, Jim Hawkins and Creola Johnson).
Available at: UNM-DR

Survival in the Face of Scarcity: The Undocumented Immigrant Experience, 58 ARIZ. L. REV. 103 (2016).
Available at: UNM-DR

Giving Credit Where Credit is Due: What We Can Learn from the Banking and Credit Habits of Undocumented Immigrants, 2015 MICH. ST. L. REV. 989 (2015).
Available at: UNM-DR

Think Like a (Mindful) Lawyer, 34 ULAR L. REV. 259 (2015).
Available at: UNM-DR

Public Opinion and the Limits of State Law: The Case for Federal Usury Caps, 34 N. ILL. L. REV 259 (2014).
Available at: UNM-DR

Interest Rate Caps, State Legislation, and Public Opinion: Does the law Reflect the Public’s Desires?, 89 CHI. KENT L. REV. 115 (2013) (with Timothy Goldsmith).
Available at: UNM-DR

Addressing the Foreclosure Crisis through Law School Clinics, 20 GEO. J. ON POVERTY L. & POL'Y 531 (with Max Weinstein) (2013).
Available at: UNM-DR

High-Interest Loans and Class: Do Payday and Title Loans Really Serve the Middle Classes, 24 LOY. CONSUMER L. REV. 524 (2012) (with Ernesto Longa).
Available at: UNM-DR

The Alliance Between Payday Lenders and Tribes: Are Both Tribal Sovereignty and Consumer Protection at Risk?, 69 Wash. & LEE L. REV. 751 (2012) (with Joshua Schwartz).
Available at: UNM-DR

Grand Theft Auto Loans: Repossession and Demographic Realities in Title Lending, 77 MO. L. REV. 41 (2012) (with Ozymandias Adams).
Available at: UNM-DR

Regulating Payday Loans: Why This Should Make the CFPB'S Short List, 2 HARV. BUS. L. REV. ONLINE 44 (2011).
Available at: UNM-DR

Testing Materiality Under the Unfair Practices Acts: What Information Matters When Collecting Time-Barred Debts?, 64 CONSUMER FIN. L. Q. REP. 372 (2010) (with Timothy Goldsmith).
Available at: SSRN

Double Down-and-Out: The Connection Between Payday Loans and Bankruptcy, 39 SW. L. REV. 789 (2010) (with Koo Im Tong).
Available at: UNM-DR

1,000% Interest—Good While Supplies Last: A Study of Payday Loan Practices and Solutions, 52 ARIZ. L. REV. 563 (2010).
Available at: UNM-DR

Consumer Scams and the Elderly: Preserving Independence through Shifting Default Rules, 17 ELDER L.J. 1 (2009).
Available at: UNM-DR

Winners and Losers in Bankruptcy Reform: Do Women and Children Really Come out on Top, 49 FAM. L. QUAR. 219 (2007).

Mind Games: Rethinking BAPCPA's Debtor Education Provisions, 31 S. ILL. U. L.J. 517 (2007).
Available at: UNM-DR

Poverty, Culture and the Bankruptcy Code: Narratives from the Money Law Clinic, 12 CLINICAL L. REV. 203 (2005).
Available at: UNM-DR

The Role of History and Culture in Developing Bankruptcy and Insolvency Systems: The Perils of Legal Transplantation, 28 B.C. INT'L & COMP. L. REV. 1 (2005).
Available at: UNM-DR

Common Law Bankruptcy Systems: Similarities and Differences, 11 AM. BANKR. INST. L. REV. 367 (2003).

Explorations in the Classroom: A Book Review of Secured Credit: A Systems Approach, 26 SEATTLE L. REV. 13 (2002).
Available at: UNM-DR

Panel Discussion: A Comparison of Ley de Quiebras y Suspension de Pagos with the New Ley de Concursos Mercantiles, 10 U.S.- MEX L.J. 85 (2002).
Available at: UNM-DR

Que es la Diferencia: A Comparison of the First Days of a Chapter 11 Reorganization Case in the United States and Mexico, 10 U.S.- MEX. L.J. 85 (2002).
Available at: UNM-DR

Funding Long Term Care: Is There a Way to Ensure That Our Assets Will Last Longer Than We Will?, 3 MARQUETTE ELDER'S ADVISOR 66 (2001).
Available at: UNM-DR

Les Jeux Ne Sont Pas Fait: The Right to Dignified Long-Term Care in the Face on Industry-Wide Financial Failure, 10 CORNELL J.L. & PUB. POL'Y 129 (Fall 2000) (co-authored with Elizabeth Rourke).
Available at: UNM-DR

Funding Long-Term Care: Some Risk-Spreaders Create More Risk Than They Cure, 16 J. CONTEMP. HEALTH L. & POL'Y 335 (2000).
Available at: UNM-DR

The Insolvent Life-care Provider: Who Leads the Dance Between State Continuing-Care Statutes and the Federal Bankruptcy Code, 61 OHIO ST. L.J. 267 (2000).
Available at: UNM-DR

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