Randal C. “Randy” Picker, ’85, the James Parker Hall Distinguished Service Professor of Law and a beloved teacher, influential scholar, and deeply committed citizen of the University of Chicago, died unexpectedly on August 15.

Picker, who joined the Law School faculty in 1989, helped shape the intellectual and institutional life of the Law School and the wider University. A leading scholar of antitrust, intellectual property, competition policy, and regulated industries, he was a highly popular teacher known for his intellectual curiosity, enthusiasm, humor, and willingness to experiment with new ways of engaging students.

“Randy Picker was an influential scholar, a dedicated teacher, and one of the Law School’s and University of Chicago’s most devoted institutional citizens,” said Dean Adam Chilton. “Randy personified the best of our values. He was always willing to give his time generously to his students and colleagues, and he was uniquely committed to protecting what makes this University special.”

Chilton also pointed to the extraordinary trust that colleagues across the University placed in Picker’s judgment.

“For decades, Randy was asked to serve on or chair nearly every important committee across our institution, from the faculty senate to dean searches to presidential searches,” Chilton said. “When a high-stakes decision had to be made about the future of the Law School or the University, the only thing that seemingly everyone agreed on was that Randy Picker needed to be in the room.” 

Picker’s connection to the University of Chicago stretched back nearly five decades. He earned his bachelor’s degree in economics from the College in 1980, a master’s degree in economics in 1982, and his JD, with honors, from the Law School in 1985. As a law student, he was an associate editor of the University of Chicago Law Review and was elected to the Order of the Coif.

After graduation, Picker clerked for legendary Judge Richard A. Posner of the US Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit and practiced at Sidley & Austin in Chicago, working on debt restructuring and corporate reorganizations in bankruptcy. He returned to Hyde Park in 1989 to join the Law School faculty and served as associate dean from 1994 to 1996.

Geoffrey R. Stone, '71, the Edward H. Levi Distinguished Service Professor of Law, who got to know Picker while Picker was a student and later  as Dean hired him to join the faculty, said, “Randy was a dedicated and terrific teacher and scholar, and a wonderful colleague.

For decades their offices were near each other, and Stone recalled regularly talking with Picker about the Law School, his courses, and his many professional and personal pursuits. “Randy was in so many ways a special person,” Stone said, “and I shall miss him every day.”

A Scholar and Teacher of Extraordinary Range

Picker built an influential and wide-ranging scholarly career spanning private law, law and economics, antitrust, and the legal implications of technological change. 

Douglas G. Baird, the Harry A. Bigelow Distinguished Service Professor of Law and a former Dean of the Law School, pointed in particular to Picker's role in bringing insights from game theory into law and economics.

“Randy Picker was responsible for incorporating the lessons of game theory into the standard account of law and economics, first in the context of secured transactions, then bankruptcy, and finally the law of contract and torts more generally,” said Baird.

Picker, along with Baird and Robert H. Gertner, coauthored the foundational 1994 book Game Theory and the Law, which applied game theory and information economics to legal rules and institutions.

Picker also had a significant influence on the development of the law itself. As a member of the National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws, he played an important role in the 2001 overhaul of Article 9 of the Uniform Commercial Code. While he served as vice chair of the National Bankruptcy Conference, Congress adopted the organization’s recommended reforms of small-business bankruptcy, which Baird described as the most significant change in Chapter 11 since the Bankruptcy Code was adopted in 1978. Baird also described Picker's paper with Michael McConnell on municipal bankruptcy as “the canonical work in the field.”

Picker's later scholarship increasingly explored technology, competition, and the evolution of the computer industry. His forthcoming book The Quest for Next: A Competitive History of the Computer Industry explores how law and antitrust shaped competition, innovation, computers, and chips. The book, a sweeping history of how law has shaped the computing and technology industry, is widely expected to be a field-defining work. When he signed the contract for the book with Princeton University Press last year, Picker proclaimed, “I don't know what it means to be pleased as punch, but I am that and more.”

Professor M. Todd Henderson, ’98, recalled frequently bringing Picker provocative court decisions involving American technology companies and trying to persuade him to take a side. Picker invariably resisted.

“He’d pull out his own copy, already full of tabs and scribbles,” Henderson said. “He’d patiently lead me through the details—it was always about the details—showing how the issues were more complex and nuanced than I suspected. He took things seriously but with a joy and curiosity that was absolutely infectious.”

Generations of UChicago Law students knew Picker through his antitrust courses, but his teaching ranged widely, encompassing network industries, technology policy, copyright, secured transactions, bankruptcy, and corporate reorganizations. He also taught business law at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business.

For Picker, teaching was itself a subject for experimentation and discovery. He incorporated new technologies into the classroom and in 2015 became the first Law School professor to offer a massive open online course (MOOC), “Internet Giants: The Law and Economics of Media Platforms,” which reached thousands of students around the world. He approached the project with characteristic commitment: spending dozens of hours filming and even taking a filmmaking course as he thought about how best to teach in a new medium.

Picker's influence as a teacher extended well beyond the students in his classroom. Henderson credits Picker with inspiring his own academic career.

“I became an academic because of Randy Picker,” Henderson said. Returning to campus for his fifth reunion, Henderson attended a lecture Picker gave to alumni. “Watching him take apart a complex issue with characteristic analytical rigor, boyish enthusiasm, and intellectual clarity was spellbinding. I knew I had to do this.”

“Over the past decades, I turned to Randy more than anyone else for how to teach, how to write, how to approach a problem, and, more than I'd like to admit, how to be a husband, father, and friend,” Henderson said. “He always had time for me, whether it was to talk about ideas or life. He also made my thinking better.”

Former Dean Thomas J. Miles, the Richard A. Posner Distinguished Service Professor of Law in the Wallman Society of Fellows, recalled the important role Picker played in the everyday intellectual life of the Law School. 

“Randy was present at the Law School—in workshops, at the faculty lunch table, and every day in his office with the door wide open, inviting conversation,” Miles said. “He was always eager to discuss new legal developments, and he elevated the conversation with his incisive questions, his analytical mind, and his good humor. He set a shining example of what it is to be a faculty member: to be present with colleagues for learning.”

Picker brought that same curiosity and willingness to experiment to his life outside the classroom. He took improvisational theater classes at The Second City and later performed and organized an improv group that performed publicly—an experience he saw not simply as a hobby but as another opportunity to be a student, encounter new people and ideas, and challenge himself in unfamiliar ways.

Stone experienced that side of Picker firsthand when Picker invited him to be the special guest at one of his improv shows. “I was quite daunted, but he made it delightful,” Stone said.

A Devoted University Citizen

Picker’s impact extended far beyond his scholarship and teaching. Over more than three decades, he became one of the University’s most dedicated institutional citizens, serving in numerous leadership and governance roles across the Law School and University.

“In every administrative responsibility he undertook, Randy showed a tireless dedication to finding ways to make our University better,” Miles said. “Randy’s legacy in strengthening our Law School and University—from faculty appointments and use of technology in our classrooms to innovating our curriculum and championing free expression—is far-reaching and enduring.”

Among his most significant contributions, Picker chaired the University committee that produced the highly influential 2017 report that became widely known as the “Picker Report.” The report addressed the relationship between disruptive conduct and freedom of expression and remains an important part of the University’s approach to protecting free inquiry and expression while ensuring that members of the community can speak and be heard.

Picker also served as a member of numerous key Law School committees, including chairing appointments committees, dean search committees, and most recently as a member of the Law School’s AI committee. Across the University, Randy’s institutional service included serving as Spokesperson for the Council of the University Senate, serving on the Laboratory Schools board, chairing the Library Board, and serving on the faculty advisory committee to the Board of Trustees during the presidential search that led to the appointment of President Paul Alivisatos.

This summer, Picker became Vice Provost for Academic Affairs. In the role, he took on responsibilities involving faculty hiring and promotion, the Kalven tradition, and faculty governance. The position brought together many of the qualities that had defined his career: intellectual seriousness, an instinct for solving complicated institutional problems, an abiding interest in how institutions work, and a deep commitment to the University he had called home since he was an undergraduate.

Shortly before his death, while reflecting publicly on the career of Richard Posner, Picker described one of his mentor's qualities that he particularly admired: his belief that one could learn ideas from anyone and that each encounter could be a “learning moment.” It was an observation that also captured much about Picker himself.

For three and a half decades, Randy Picker brought that spirit to the Law School as a scholar, teacher, alumnus, colleague, mentor, and friend. His loss will be felt profoundly throughout the Law School and University communities. 

A memorial service for Professor Picker will be held at Rockefeller Memorial Chapel on Friday, September 18 at 11:00 a.m., followed by a reception at the Law School. RSVP here.