Tom Baker • Faculty • Penn Carey Law

Tom Baker • Faculty • Penn Carey Law
Faculty
Tom Baker
Phone
2158987413
Email
tombaker@law.upenn.edu
Office
GK-234
JD
Harvard
1986
BA
Harvard
1982
Health Law
Law and Economics
Torts, Restitution, and Insurance Law
Torts| Insurance Law and Policy| Regulation of Health Insurance Markets| Risk Management| Insurance Insolvency| Liability and Insurance| Financial Regulation Law and Policy| The Fintech Challenge| Litigation Finance
Tom Baker recent resume.pdf
(PDF)
Papers on SSRN
Tom Baker
Henry R. Silverman Professor of Law
Tom Baker is a highly regarded insurance expert, a leading scholar of insurance law and policy, and a devoted law teacher.
His research explores insurance law, institutions, and markets using methods from history, economics, psychology, and sociology. His many books, articles, and reports address topics such as the impact of insurance on personal injury and securities litigation, health insurance reform, insurance underwriting and claims management, the historical development of insurance institutions, insurance company restructuring, litigation finance, and many aspects of insurance coverage. His scholarship advances our understanding of insurance as governance through studies that examine the historical development of insurance ideas and institutions and their impact on civil litigation, health care, crime, and corporate governance. He was awarded the
2024 Harry J. Kalven, Jr. Prize
by the Law and Society Association for “empirical scholarship that has contributed most effectively to the advancement of research in law and society” and the 2013
Robert B. McKay
award from the Tort Trial & Insurance Practice Section of the American Bar Association, to honor his “commitment to the advancement of justice, scholarship and the legal profession, demonstrated by outstanding contributions to the fields of tort and insurance law.”
Baker is the Reporter for the American Law Institute’s
Restatement of the Law Liability Insurance
and a member of the Board of Directors of
Bowhead Specialty Holdings
. He co-founded Picwell, a health data analytics company (acquired in 2023 by Jellyvision) that provides advanced decision support tools to health insurance exchanges, insurers, and employers. Baker created the widely cited
COVID Coverage Litigation Tracker
, which gathers data on state and federal lawsuits by businesses seeking coverage for business interruption losses stemming from the COVID-19 pandemic.  Among other current projects, he is studying and teaching about the emerging field of litigation finance and its relationship to liability insurance.
Before joining the Law School faculty in 2008, Baker served for 11 years as the inaugural Connecticut Mutual Professor and Director of the Insurance Law Center at the University of Connecticut. A graduate of Harvard Law, Baker clerked for the Honorable Juan R. Torruella of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit, practiced with the law firm of Covington & Burling, served as Associate Counsel to the Independent Counsel Iran/Contra, and entered law teaching as an associate professor at University of Miami Law.
Recent articles include “
The Government Behind Insurance Governance: Lessons for Ransomware
,” which sets out a new framework for analyzing how governments help make insurance markets work, and “
Uncertainty > Risk: Lessons for Legal Thought From the Insurance Runoff Market
,” which argues for understanding insurance markets as centrally about managing uncertainty, not predictable risks.
Featured Research
More Publications
What is Insurance for Tort Law?,
112 Vir. L. Rev. – (forthcoming 2026)
Where’s the Insurance in Mass Tort Litigation?
, 101 Tex. L. Rev. 1569 (2023)
How Crime Shapes Insurance and Insurance Shapes Crime
, 15 J. Legal Analysis 1 (2023) (with Anja Shortland)
The Government Behind Insurance Governance: Lessons for Ransomware
, Regulation and Governance (2022) (with Anja Shortland)
Uncertainty > Risk: Lessons for Legal Thought from the Insurance Runoff Market
, 62 B.C. L. Rev. 59 (2021)
Regulating Robo Advice Across the Financial Services Industry, 103 Iowa Law Review 713 (2018) (with Benedict Dellaert)
In the News
View All
Tom Baker Discusses Risks of PA Proposal Requiring Third-Party Litigation Funding Disclosure
March 6, 2026
Tom Baker On Meta Insurance Ruling: “This is a Standard That Isn’t Just About Lawsuits Against Rich Corporations”
March 4, 2026
Tom Baker Warns Insurers’ Litigation Funding Disclosure Proposal Could Undermine Fairness
December 30, 2025
Jotwell Reviews Prof. Tom Baker’s “What Is Insurance for Tort Law?”
November 3, 2025
Publications
Articles
Articles
Jackpot Justice and the American Tort System: Thinking Beyond Junk Science
(Co-authored),
Working Paper
What Is Insurance for Tort Law?
Virginia Law Review
(forthcoming)
The Forfeiture of Coverage Defenses Rule: An Economic Analysis
(Co-authored),
Working Paper
What Litigation Funders Can Learn about Settlement Rights from the Law of Liability Insurance
Theoretical Inquiries in Law
(2025)
Don't Go Chasing Litigation Funding Waterfalls
(Co-authored),
Utah Law Review
(2025)
Regulating Robo Advice for Consumers' Financial Decisions: The Interplay between AI Algorithm Quality and Digital Choice Architecture
(Co-authored),
Behavioral Science and Policy
(2024)
How Crime Shapes Insurance and Insurance Shapes Crime
(Co-authored),
Journal of Legal Analysis
(2023)
Where's the Insurance in Mass Tort Litigation?
Texas Law Review
(2023)
Insurance and Enterprise: Cyber Insurance for Ransomware
(Co-authored),
Geneva Papers on Risk and Insurance - Issues and Practice
(2022)
The Government Behind Insurance Governance: Lessons for Ransomware
(Co-authored),
Regulation & Governance
(2022)
Choice Architecture for Healthier Insurance Decisions: Ordering and Partitioning Together Can Improve Consumer Choice
Journal of Marketing
(2022)
What History Can Tell Us About the Future of Insurance and Litigation After COVID-19
(Co-authored),
DePaul Law Review
(2022)
Uncertainty > Risk: Lessons for Legal Thought from the Insurance Runoff Market
Boston College Law Review
(2021)
How Liability Insurers Protect Patients and Improve Safety
(Co-authored),
DePaul Law Review
(2019)
Back to the Future of Cyber Insurance
PLUS Journal
(2019)
Regulating Robo Advice Across the Financial Services Industry
(Co-authored),
Iowa Law Review
(2018)
Mutually Assured Protection Among Large U.S. Law Firms
(Co-authored),
Connecticut Insurance Law Journal
(2017)
In Defense of the Restatement of Liability Insurance Law
(Co-authored),
George Mason Law Review
(2017)
Everything’s Bigger in Texas: Except the Medmal Settlements
(Co-authored),
Connecticut Insurance Law Journal
(2016)
Liability Insurer Data as a Window on Lawyers’ Professional Liability
(Co-authored),
U.C. Irvine Law Review
(2015)
Putting Health Back Into Health Insurance Choice
(Co-authored),
Medical Care Research and Review
(2014)
Can Consumers Make Affordable Care Affordable? The value of choice architecture
(Co-authored),
PLOS One
(2013)
Regulation by Liability Insurance: From Auto to Lawyers Professional Liability
(Co-authored),
UCLA Law Review
(2013)
“You Want Insurance with That?” Using Behavioral Economics to Protect Consumers from Add-on Insurance Products
(Co-authored),
Connecticut Insurance Law Journal
(2013)
Predicting Securities Fraud Settlements and Amounts: A Hierarchical Bayesian Model of Federal Securities Class Action Lawsuits
(Co-authored),
Journal of Empirical Legal Studies
(2012)
Review of Eugene McCann's Mobile Urbanism: Cities and Policymaking in the Global Age
Urban Affairs Review
(2012)
The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act and the Regulation of Health Insurance
(Co-authored),
Journal of the American College of Radiology
(2012)
The Economics of Health Insurance
(Co-authored),
Journal of the American College of Radiology
(2012)
The Shifting Terrain of Risk and Uncertainty on the Liability Insurance Field
DePaul Law Review
(2011)
Health Insurance, Risk, and Responsibility after the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act
University of Pennsylvania Law Review
(2011)
Book Review: Edward Z. Zelinsky, The Ownership Society
Journal of Pension Economics and Finance
(2010)
Insurance in Sociolegal Research
Annual Review of Law and Social Science
(2010)
Liability Risks for After-Hours Use of Public School Property to Reduce Obesity
(Co-authored),
Journal of School Health
(2010)
Tontines for the Invincibles: Enticing Low Risks Into the Health-Insurance Pool With an Idea from Insurance History and Behavioral Economics
(Co-authored),
Wisconsin Law Review
(2010)
Allowing Patients to Waive the Right to Sue for Medical Malpractice: A Response to Thaler and Sunstein
(Co-authored),
Northwestern University Law Review
(2010)
The Effects of Tort Reform on Medical Malpractice Insurers’ Ultimate Losses
(Co-authored),
Journal of Risk & Insurance
(2009)
How the Merits Matter: Directors' and Officers' Insurance and Securities Settlements
(Co-authored),
University of Pennsylvania Law Review
(2009)
Book Review: Kenneth S. Abraham, The Liability Century: Insurance and Tort Law from the Progressive Era to 9/11 (Harvard U. P. 2008)
Business History Review
(2009)
Embracing Risk, Sharing Responsibility
Drake Law Review
(2008)
Liability Insurance, Moral Luck, and Auto Accidents
Theoretical Inquiries in Law
(2008)
The Missing Monitor in Corporate Governance: The Directors' and Officers' Liability Insurer
(Co-authored),
Georgetown Law Journal
(2007)
Predicting Corporate Governance Risk: Evidence from the Directors' & Officers' Liability Insurance Market
(Co-authored),
University of Chicago Law Review
(2007)
Qualitative and Quantitative Research on Tort Law Topics: A Comment on Helland & Klick and Kritzer
Journal of Tort Law
(2007)
Offer-of-Judgment Rules and Civil Litigation: An Empirical Study of Automobile Insurance Litigation in the East
(Co-authored),
Vanderbilt Law Review
(2006)
Review: Richard Ericson and Aaron Doyle, Uncertain Business: Risk, Insurance and the Limits of Knowledge
Journal of Law and Society
(2005)
Reconsidering the Harvard Medical Practice Study Conclusions about the Validity of Medical Malpractice Claims
Journal of Law, Medicine & Ethics
(2005)
Medical Malpractice and the Insurance Underwriting Cycle
DePaul Law Review
(2005)
Liability Insurance as Tort Regulation: Six Ways that Liability Insurance Shapes Tort Law in Action
Connecticut Insurance Law Journal
(2005)
Insuring Liability Risks
Geneva Papers on Risk & Insurance
(2004)
Meet Your New Insured: Successors’ Rights to Insurance Assets in Corporate Transactions
(Co-authored),
Coverage
(2004)
The Virtues of Uncertainty in Law: An Experimental Approach
(Co-authored),
Iowa Law Review
(2004)
Containing the Promise of Insurance: Adverse Selection and Risk Classification
Connecticut Insurance Law Journal
(2003)
Teaching Real Torts: Using Barry Werth's Damages in the Law School Classroom
Nevada Law Journal
(2002)
Liability and Insurance After September 11th: Embracing Risk Meets the Precautionary Principle
Geneva Papers on Risk & Insurance
(2002)
Blood Money, New Money and the Moral Economy of Tort Law in Action
Law & Society Review
(2001)
Insuring Morality
Economics & Society
(2000)
Reconsidering Insurance for Punitive Damages
Wisconsin Law Review
(1998)
Transforming Punishment into Compensation: In the Shadow of Punitive Damages
Wisconsin Law Review
(1998)
Conflicts and Defense Lawyers: From Triangles to Tetrahedrons
Connecticut Insurance Law Journal
(1997)
Whose Safety Net? Home Insurance and Inequality
(Co-authored),
Law & Social Inquiry
(1996)
On the Genealogy of Moral Hazard
Texas Law Review
(1996)
Constructing the Insurance Relationship: Sales Stories, Claims Stories, and Insurance Contract Damages
Texas Law Review
(1994)
The Application of Per Occurrence Limits from Successive Policies
(Co-authored),
Environmental Claims Journal
(1991)
Show 12 more...
View all 63
Books
Books
Insurance Law and Policy: Cases and Materials, 5th Edition
(Co-authored), Wolters Kluwer (2021)
Restatement of the Law, Liability Insurance
(Co-authored), American Law Institute (2019)
Ensuring Corporate Misconduct: How Liability Insurance Undermines Shareholder Litigation
(Co-authored), University of Chicago Press (2010)
The Medical Malpractice Myth
, University of Chicago Press (2005)
Embracing Risk: The Changing Culture of Insurance and Responsibility
(Co-authored), University of Chicago Press (2002)
Chapters
Chapters
Behavioral Finance, Decumulation, and the Regulatory Strategy for Robo Advice
(Co-authored) in
The Disruptive Impact of FinTech on Retirement Systems
(2019)
Mandatory Rules and Default Rules in Insurance Contracts
(Co-authored) in
Research Handbook on the Economics of Insurance Law
(2015)
Behavioral Economics and Insurance Law: The Importance of Equilibrium Analysis
(Co-authored) in
The Oxford Handbook of Behavioral Economics and the Law
(2014)
The Law and Economics of Liability Insurance: A Theoretical and Empirical Review
(Co-authored) in
Research Handbook on the Economics of Torts
(2013)
Transparency through Insurance: Mandates Dominate Discretion
in
Confidentiality, Transparency, and the U.S. Civil Justice System
(2012)
Liability Insurance at the Tort-Crime Boundary
in
Fault Lines: Tort Law as Cultural Practice
(2009)
Bonded Import Safety Warranties
in
Import Safety: Regulatory Governance in the Global Economy
(2009)
Government as Risk Manager
(Co-authored) in
Principles of Regulation
(2009)
Medical Malpractice Insurance Reform: “Enterprise Insurance" and Some Alternatives
in
Medical Malpractice and the U.S. Health Care System
(2006)
Insurance as Tort Regulation: Six Ways that Liability Insurance Shapes Tort Law
in
Tort Law and Liability Insurance
(2006)
Liability Insurance and the Regulation of Firearms
(Co-authored) in
Suing the Gun Industry: A Battle at the Crossroads of Gun Control and Mass Torts
(2005)
Risk, Insurance and the Social Construction of Responsibility
in
Embracing Risk: The Changing Culture of Insurance and Responsibility
(2002)
Insurance Claims Discrimination
(Co-authored) in
Insurance Redlining: Disinvestment, Reinvestment, and the Evolving Role of Financial Institutions
(1997)
Show 4 more...
View all 13
Other
Other
Online Article,
Judgment Protection Insurance Is Viable Even in a Hard Market
, Bloomberg Law (2024)
Podcast,
Litigation Finance – An Academic Perspective from Penn Carey Law School
, Alternative Litigation Strategies (2024)
Panel,
European Law Institute Webinar on Third Party Funding of Litigation
, European Law Institute (2024)
Video,
What Litigation Funders Can Learn About Settlement Rights from the Law of Liability Insurance
, Faculti (2024)
Web Resource,
D&O Insurance Case Tracker
, Other (2024)
Web Resource,
Covid Coverage Litigation Tracker
, Other (2024)
Related Links
ALI Restatement of the Law, Liability Insurance
Covid Coverage Litigation Tracker
Leonard Davis Institute for Health Economics
SSRN Author’s Page
Wharton Business Economics and Public Policy Department