Fred Tung

Frederick Tung

Professor of Law

Professor of Law
Howard Zhang Faculty Research Scholar

AB, cum laude, Cornell University
JD, cum laude, Harvard Law School


Biography

Fred Tung is the Howard Zhang Faculty Research Scholar and Professor of Law at Boston University School of Law. Over the course of his career, he has researched and taught courses in the areas of international business transactions, international economic relations, corporations, and bankruptcy, as well as the governance of financial institutions. Prior to joining the BU faculty, he was the Robert T. Thompson Professor of Law and Business at Emory University School of Law. He has been a visiting professor at Harvard Law School, a Professor of Law and Dean’s Fellow at Loyola Law School, a Roger T. Traynor Professor in Corporate Law at Hastings College of the Law, and a fellow at the Searle-Kauffman Institute on Law, Innovation, and Growth. Professor Tung is a member of the American Law Institute. He testified in Congress before the Congressional Oversight Panel for the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP). He has also served as a consultant on law reform for the Ministry of Justice in Ethiopia, when it sought to revamp its commercial law and court systems. In addition, he worked with the Center for Commercial Law and Economics in Indonesia, with USAID sponsorship, to design a seminar series on corporate reorganization law for Indonesian government officials, academics, and lawyers. Professor Tung has been a permanent blogger with the popular corporate law blog Conglomerate. He has been a lecturer in the law department at Peking University, and has served on the Consumer Law Task Force of the Atlanta Legal Aid Society. Proficient in Mandarin, he was an interpreter for ABC News covering the Democracy Movement in Beijing.

Before entering law teaching, Professor Tung clerked for the Honorable Stanley A. Weigel in the US District Court for the Northern District of California, and practiced corporate and bankruptcy law with Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher in Los Angeles and San Francisco. He also worked as a software engineer in Silicon Valley before going to law school.

Professor Tung is a member of the Board of Directors for Breakthrough Greater Boston (BTGB), a nonprofit organization whose mission is to prepare low-income middle- and high school students for success in college.

Publications

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  • Frederick Tung, Do Lenders Still Monitor? Leveraged Lending and the Search for Covenants 47 Journal of Corporation Law (2021)
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  • Frederick Tung, Financing Failure: Bankruptcy Lending, Credit Market Conditions, and the Financial Crisis 37 Yale Journal on Regulation (2020)
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  • Frederick Tung & Mark J. Roe, Bankruptcy and Corporate Reorganization, Legal and Financial Materials, 4th ed. (2016)
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  • Frederick Tung, Alane A. Becket, Sarah Bolling Mancini & Nick Wooten, Recent Developments in Bankruptcy Regulation: Mortgage Servicing Rules, the FDCPA, and the CFPB, 32 Emory Bankruptcy Developments Journal (2016)
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  • Frederick Tung & Krishnamurthy Subramanian, Law and Project Finance Working Paper (2014)
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  • Frederick Tung & Mark J. Roe, Breaking Bankruptcy Priority: How Rent-Seeking Upends the Creditors' Bargain 99 Virginia Law Review (2013)
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  • Frederick Tung & M Todd Henderson, Reverse Regulatory Arbitrage: An Auction Approach to Regulatory Assignments No. 12-49 Boston University School of Law, Law and Economics Research Paper Series (2012)
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  • Frederick Tung & M. Todd Henderson, Paying Bank Examiners for Performance 35 Regulation (2012)
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  • Frederick Tung & M Todd Henderson, Pay for Regulator Performance No. 11-43 Boston University School of Law, Law and Economics Research Paper Series (2011)
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  • Frederick Tung, The Puzzle of Independent Directors: New Learning 91 Boston University Law Review (2011)
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  • Frederick Tung, Pay for Banker Performance: Structuring Executive Compensation for Risk Regulation 105 Northwestern University Law Review (2011)
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  • Frederick Tung, Bonding Bankers: Notes Toward a Governance Approach to Risk Regulation 4 Entrepreneurial Business Law Journal (2010)
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  • Frederick Tung, Leverage in the Board Room: The Unsung Influence of Private Lenders in Corporate Governance 57 UCLA Law Review (2009)
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  • Frederick Tung, The Great Bailout of 2008-09 25 Emory Bankruptcy Development Journal (2009)
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  • Frederick Tung, What Else Matters for Corporate Governance?: The Case of Bank Monitoring 88 Boston University Law Review (2008)
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  • Frederick Tung, The New Death of Contract: Creeping Corporate Fiduciary Duties for Creditors 57 Emory Law Journal (2008)
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  • Joanna M. Shepherd, Frederick Tung & Albert H. Yoon, Cross-Monitoring and Corporate Governance (2007)
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  • Frederick Tung, Gap Filling in the Zone of Insolvency 1 Journal of Business and Technology Law (2007)
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  • Frederick Tung, Lost in Translation: From U.S. Corporate Charter Competition to Issuer Choice in International Securities Regulation 39 Georgia Law Review (2005)
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  • Frederick Tung, From Monopolists to Markets?: A Political Economy of Issuer Choice in International Securities Regulation 2002 Wisconsin Law Review (2002)
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  • Frederick Tung, Passports, Private Choice, and Private Interests: Regulatory Competition and Cooperation in Corporate, Securities, and Bankruptcy Law 3 Chicago Journal of International Law (2002)
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  • Frederick Tung, After Orange County: Reforming California Municipal Bankruptcy Law 53 Hastings Law Journal (2002)
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  • Frederick Tung, Fear of Commitment in International Bankruptcy 33 George Washington International Law Review (2001)
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  • Frederick Tung, Is International Bankruptcy Possible? 23 Michigan Journal of International Law (2001)
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  • Frederick Tung, The Future Claims Representative in Mass Tort Bankruptcy: A Preliminary Inquiry 3 Chapman Law Review (2000)
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  • Frederick Tung, Limited Liability and Creditors' Rights: The Limits of Risk Shifting to Creditors 34 Georgia Law Review (2000)
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  • Frederick Tung, Taking Future Claims Seriously: Future Claims and Successor Liability in Bankruptcy 49 Case Western Reserve Law Review (1999)
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  • Frederick Tung, Future Claims and Successor Liability in Bankruptcy 73 Annual Meeting of the National Conference of Bankruptcy Judges (1999)
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  • Frederick Tung, Confirmation and Claims Trading 90 Northwestern University Law Review (1996)
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Activities & Engagements

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Courses

Business Fundamentals: LAW JD 605

0 credits

Introduction to Business Fundamentals is an online, self-paced, asynchronous program forming a required part of the JD curriculum. The curriculum consists of modules covering business basics, corporate finance and financial accounting, including the following subjects: capital markets; the basics of financial reporting; balance sheets; income statements and cash flow; business forms and organizations; financing organizations; discounting; and calculating risk, return and valuation. Assessment is based on multiple choice exams. Students may opt-out of the course if they score an 84 or better on the pre-course exam. A score of 70 or better on the post-course exam, following successful completion of the course, is necessary to meet the requirement. GRADING NOTICE: This course awards no credits and is graded P/F. It is a graduation requirement for JD students. Students may enroll in the program for the fall, spring or summer semesters, but should complete the course by the conclusion of the fall semester of the 3L year.

FALL 2025: LAW JD 605 OL , Sep 2nd to Jan 6th 2025
Days Start End Credits Instructors Bldg Room
ARR 12:00 am 12:00 am 0 Frederick Tung
SPRG 2026: LAW JD 605 OL , Jan 12th to May 8th 2026
Days Start End Credits Instructors Bldg Room
ARR 12:00 am 12:00 am 0 Frederick Tung

Topics in Immigration: LAW JD 747

3 credits

In this seminar, we will take a broad multifaceted view of immigration, from perspectives including not just law, but also economics, history, business and investment, innovation, national security, and cultural vitality. In addition, we will consider episodes of transnational migration. It should not surprise us that large-scale population movements across time and/ or space affect how populations thrive or wither. Among other issues, we will concern ourselves with the 1924 National Origins Act, which established quotas based on the percentage of immigrants from each country who were already living in the U.S. in 1890. The law additionally prohibited immigrants from Asia, and also shut out most European Jews and other refugees fleeing fascism and the Holocaust. Many in Japan were also offended, and they protested the law as well. Other quota acts followed, including the Emergency Quota Act in 1921, which stipulated that new arrivals would be limited to 3% of the number of immigrants from any given country as of the 1910 census. The Act remained in effect until 1965. These quota limits exacted irreversible declines in innovation, investment, and job creation, weakening the American economy. We will investigate the effects of immigration, incorporating the perspectives listed above. UPPER-CLASS WRITING REQUIREMENT: This class may be used to satisfy the requirement. ** A student who fails to attend the initial meeting of a seminar, or to obtain permission to be absent from either the instructor or the Registrar, will be administratively dropped from the seminar. Students who waitlist for a seminar are required to attend the first seminar meeting to be considered for enrollment.

SPRG 2026: LAW JD 747 A1 , Jan 12th to May 8th 2026
Days Start End Credits Instructors Bldg Room
Tue 10:40 am 12:40 pm 3 Frederick Tung