During the late-1970s, the 1980s, and the 1990s, Warren taught law at several universities throughout the country, while researching issues related to bankruptcy and middle-class personal finance. Warren taught at the Rutgers School of Law--Newark during 1977--1978, the University of Houston Law Center from 1978 to 1983, and the University of Texas School of Law from 1981 to 1987, in addition to teaching at the University of Michigan as a visiting professor in 1985 and as a research associate at the University of Texas at Austin from 1983 to 1987.
She joined the University of Pennsylvania Law School in 1987 and became a tenured professor. She began teaching at Harvard Law School in 1992, as a visiting professor, and began a permanent position as Leo Gottlieb Professor of Law in 1995.[16]
In 1995 Warren was asked to advise the National Bankruptcy Review Commission.[17] She helped to draft the commission's report and worked for several years to oppose legislation intended to severely restrict the right of consumers to file for bankruptcy. Warren and others opposing the legislation were not successful; in 2005 Congress passed the Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act of 2005.[18]
From November 2006 to November 2010, Warren was a member of the FDIC Advisory Committee on Economic Inclusion.[19] She is a member of the National Bankruptcy Conference, an independent organization which advises the U.S. Congress on bankruptcy law.[20] She is a former Vice-President of the American Law Institute and a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.[21]
Warren has had a high public profile; she has appeared in the documentary films, Maxed Out and Michael Moore's Capitalism: A Love Story.[22] She has appeared numerous times on television programs including Dr. Phil and The Daily Show,[23] and has been interviewed frequently on cable news networks, radio programs, and websites.
Warren has written several books, including All Your Worth: The Ultimate Lifetime Money Plan, coauthored with her daughter, Amelia Tyagi.
Warren and Tyagi wrote The Two-Income Trap: Why Middle-Class Mothers and Fathers Are Going Broke. Warren and Tyagi point out that a fully employed worker today earns less inflation-adjusted income than a fully employed worker did 30 years ago. Although families spend less today on clothing, appliances, and other consumption, the costs of core expenses such as mortgages, health care, transportation, and child care have increased dramatically. The result is, that even with two income-earners, families are no longer able to save and they have incurred greater and greater debt.[24]
In an article in The New York Times, Jeff Madrick said of Warren's book: The authors find that it is not the free-spending young or the incapacitated elderly who are declaring bankruptcy so much as families with children ... their main thesis is undeniable. Typical families often cannot afford the high-quality education, health care, and neighborhoods required to be middle class today. More clearly than anyone else, I think, Ms. Warren and Ms. Tyagi have shown how little attention the nation and our government have paid to the way Americans really live.[25]
Writing in Time magazine, Maryanna Murray Buechner said of Warren's book: For families looking for ways to cope, Warren and Tyagi mainly offer palliatives: Buy a cheaper house. Squirrel away a six-month cash cushion. Yeah, right. But they also know that there are no easy solutions. Readers who are already committed to a house and parenthood will find little to mitigate the deflating sense that they have nowhere to go but down.[26]
In 2005, Warren and David Himmelstein published a study on bankruptcy and medical bills,[27] which found that half of all families filing for bankruptcy did so in the aftermath of a serious medical problem. They say that three quarters of such families had medical insurance.[28] This study was widely cited in policy debates, although some have challenged the study's methods and offered alternative interpretations of the data, suggesting that only seventeen percent of bankruptcies are directly attributable to medical expenses.
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