William Birdthistle joined the Law School in April 2024. His scholarship focuses on investment funds, financial regulation, and corporate governance.

Before joining the Law School, he served as Director of the Division of Investment Management at the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission from 2021-2024. He is the author of Empire of the Fund: The Way We Save Now (Oxford University Press, 2016) and co-editor of the Research Handbook on the Regulation of Mutual Funds (Elgar, 2018).

Prior to the SEC, Birdthistle was Professor of Law at Chicago-Kent College of Law. Earlier in his career, Birdthistle clerked for the Honorable Diarmuid O'Scannlain on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit and practiced law at Ropes & Gray in Boston for five years as an attorney in the firm’s investment management practice.

He received his JD from Harvard Law School in 1999, where he served as managing editor of the Harvard Law Review; an MA in history from the University of Chicago in 2021; and a BA summa cum laude in English and psychology from Duke University in 1995.