Seven Law School Faculty Members to Receive Chairs and Designations
The University of Chicago Law School is proud to recognize seven members of the faculty with new appointments to chairs and scholar designations. Two faculty members will become Distinguished Service Professors, a designation given to faculty members whose long service at the Law School has been marked by extraordinary productivity in scholarship, excellence in teaching, and substantial service to the Law School and University community. Four other faculty members will receive new chairs and one will receive the designation of Teaching Scholar.
“It is one of the great joys of being a dean that I get to recognize these incredible professors this way,” said Michael H. Schill, Dean and Harry N. Wyatt Professor of Law. “Every day I am surrounded by excellence on our faculty. These seven scholars represent a wide range of experience here at the Law School, but each one is a truly amazing scholar and teacher, and each one brings great honor to our Law School. I could not be prouder to serve on this faculty with these people, and I look forward to all the great things they will do in their new roles.”
Omri Ben-Shahar will become the Leo and Eileen Herzel Professor of Law. He is also currently, and will remain, the Kearney Director of the University of Chicago Institute for Law and Economics. Professor Ben-Shahar earned his PhD in economics and SJD from Harvard and his BA and LLB from the Hebrew University. Before coming to Chicago, he was the Kirkland & Ellis Professor of Law and Economics at the University of Michigan. Prior to that he taught at Tel-Aviv University, was a member of Israel's Antitrust Court, and clerked at the Supreme Court of Israel. He writes in the fields of contract law and consumer law. Professor Ben-Shahar is the Director of the Institute for Law and Economics, and the Editor of the Journal of Legal Studies. Professor Ben-Shahar is currently Frank and Bernice J. Greenberg Professor of Law.
M. Todd Henderson will become the Aaron Director Teaching Scholar, in addition to his current title of Professor of Law. Professor Henderson received an engineering degree cum laude from Princeton University. He graduated magna cum laude from the Law School and was elected to the Order of the Coif. Following law school, Professor Henderson served as a law clerk to the Hon. Dennis Jacobs of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. He then practiced appellate litigation at Kirkland & Ellis and was an engagement manager at McKinsey & Company. His research interests include corporations, securities regulation, bankruptcy, law and economics, and intellectual property.
Thomas Miles will become the Clifton R. Musser Professor of Law and Economics. He received his BA in political science and economics summa cum laude from Tufts University. Professor Miles received his PhD in economics from the University of Chicago and his JD cum laude from Harvard Law School. Professor Miles served as a law clerk to the Hon. Jay S. Bybee of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. Before joining the faculty, he was the Olin Fellow in Law and Economics at the Law School. He has taught federal criminal law, federal regulation of securities, torts, economic analysis of law, the seminar on empirical law and economics, and the workshop on crime and punishment. He is a co-editor of the Journal of Legal Studies.
Edward Morrison will become the Paul H. & Theo Leffmann Professor of Commercial Law. Professor Morrison joined the Law School in the fall of 2012 after spending a decade at Columbia Law School, where he was the Harvey R. Miller Professor of Law and Economics. Prior to entering teaching he serves as a law clerk to for Hon. Richard Posner of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit and Hon. Antonin Scalia of the Supreme Court of the United States. He received his JD with High Honors from the Law School, his MA and PhD in economics from the University of Chicago, and his BS summa cum laude from the University of Utah. Morrison’s research explores the causes and consequences of insolvency, both consumer and corporate.
Eduardo Peñalver will become the John P. Wilson Professor of Law when he joins the Law School on January 1, 2013. Professor Peñalver was most recently a Professor of Law at Cornell University Law School. He received his BA from Cornell University and his law degree from Yale Law School. Upon completing law school, he clerked for Judge Guido Calabresi of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit and at the Supreme Court for Justice John Paul Stevens. His research interests focus on property and land use, as well as law and religion.
Randal C. Picker will become the James Parker Hall Distinguished Service Professor of Law. He is also Senior Fellow at the Computation Institute of the University of Chicago and Argonne National Laboratory and will retain that appointment. Professor Picker graduated from the College of the University cum laude with a BA in economics and was elected to Phi Beta Kappa. He completed his doctoral course work and exams in the Department of Economics at the University, receiving a master's degree, then graduated cum laude from the Law School. After graduation, Professor Picker clerked for Judge Richard A. Posner of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit and spent three years with Sidley & Austin. Professor Picker's primary areas of interest are the laws relating to intellectual property, competition policy and regulated industries, and applications of game theory and agent-based computer simulations to the law. Professor Picker is currently the Paul H. and Theo Leffmann Professor of Commercial Law.
Eric Posner will become the Kirkland & Ellis Distinguished Service Professor of Law. Professor Posner received his BA and MA from Yale University in philosophy summa cum laude, and his JD magna cum laude from Harvard Law School. Prior to coming to the Law School, he was a law clerk to the Hon. Stephen F. Williams of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, and Attorney Advisor at the Office of Legal Counsel, and on the faculty of the University of Pennsylvania. He has published articles on bankruptcy law, contract law, international law, cost-benefit analysis, constitutional law, and administrative law, and has taught courses on international law, foreign relations law, contracts, employment law, bankruptcy law, secured transactions, and game theory and the law. He is a co-editor of the Journal of Legal Studies.
The University of Chicago Law School was founded in 1902 with the objective of creating a new kind of law school, professional in its purpose, but with a broader outlook than was then prevalent in the leading American law schools. Located on a residential campus in one of America's great cities, Chicago offers a rigorous and interdisciplinary professional education that blends the study of law with the humanities, the social sciences and the natural sciences.