After graduating from law school, Ponoroff practiced law for eight years and taught at several institutions, including the University of Michigan Law School and Wayne State University Law School. Ponoroff also worked as a staff attorney at the Administrative Office of the United States Courts and as an advisory member of the Judicial Conference of the United States. Ponoroff worked as a professor at Tulane University Law School and served as dean from 2001–2009, succeeding Edward F. Sherman. Ponoroff was also the Samuel M. Fegtly Chair in Commercial Law while at James E. Rogers College of Law, where he served as dean until 2016. Ponoroff became dean of Michigan State University College of Law in 2016. He is a leading expert on bankruptcy, and held several national appointments to bankruptcy law committees, including the Advisory Committee on Bankruptcy Rules to the Judicial Conference of the United States. He is known for authoring the Making and Doing Deals and Core Concepts of Commercial Law casebooks.
Publications
Ponoroff has authored numerous articles in bankruptcy journals and at law reviews at Tulane, NYU, Northwestern, the University of Michigan, and other institutions. He has also written several notable casebooks used by U.S. law students.
Books
Bankruptcy: Dealing with Financial Failure for Individuals and Businesses,
Making and Doing Deals: Contracts in Context,, with Teacher's Manual, LexisNexis .
Core Concepts of Commercial Law: Past, Present & Future,, with Teacher's Manual, Thompson/West.
Supplement to Basic Concepts in Commercial Law, with Revised Teacher's Manual, Thompson/West.
Basic Concepts in Commercial Law: Cases and Materials,, with Teacher's Manual, Thompson/West.
Constitutional Limitations of State-Enacted Bankruptcy Exemptions and the Long Overdue Case fore Uniform Exemptions", 88 American Bankruptcy Law Journal
Principles of Preclusion and Estoppel in Bankruptcy Cases,, 79 American Bankruptcy Law Journal 839.
The Immovable Object Versus the Irresistible Force: Rethinking the Relationship Between Secured Credit and Bankruptcy Policy,, 95 U. MICH. L. REV. 2234.
Exemption Limitations: A Tale of Two Solutions, 71 AM. BANKR. L.J. 221.
Vicarious Thrills: The Case for Application of Agency Rules in Bankruptcy Dischargeability Litigation, 70 TUL. L. REV. 2515.
Construction Claims in Bankruptcy: Making the Best of a Bad Situation, 11 BANKR. DEV. J. 343; reprinted in THE LAW OF DISTRESSED REAL ESTATE .
Debtors Who Convert Their Assets on the Eve of Bankruptcy: Villains or Victims of the Fresh Start,, 70 N.Y.U. L. Rev. 235.
Now You See It, Now You Don't: An Unceremonious Encore for Two-Transfer Thinking in the Analysis of Indirect Preferences, 69 AM. BANKR. L.J. 203.
The Implied Good Faith Filing Requirement: Sentinel of an Evolving Bankruptcy Policy,, 85 NW. U. L. REV.919, reprinted in Charles Tabb, BANKRUPTCY ANTHOLOGY.