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Speaker Biographies

Richard Booth is the Marbury Research Professor of Law at the University of Maryland School of Law, where his specialties include business law and corporate finance. Prior to joining the University of Maryland faculty in 1990, Professor Booth practiced in New York with Donovan Leisure Newton & Irvine, primarily in the area of corporate and securities litigation. He also held visiting positions at Chicago-Kent, the University of Aberdeen (Scotland), and George Washington University. Professor Booth has published extensively in scholarly journals and for the popular press, as well as authoring Financing the Corporation (West, 1993–2003), and (with Robert Hamilton) Business Basics for Law Students (Aspen Publishers, 3d ed., 2002), Fundamentals of Modern Business (Aspen Publishers, 1994–2004), Cases and Materials on Corporation Finance (West, 3d ed. 2001), and Corporations (West, 5th ed. 2005).

Henry N. Butler is the James Farley Professor of Economics in the George L. Argyros School of Business and Economics at Chapman University in Orange, California, as well as director of the Judicial Education Program at the AEI-Brookings Joint Center for Regulatory Studies. He has been active in the development of law and economics as an academic discipline throughout his professional career. In addition to his extensive academic credentials, Professor Butler has dedicated much of his career to improving our nation’s civil justice system through judicial education programs. His articles have appeared in leading economics journals and law reviews. His casebook, Economic Analysis for Lawyers (CAP Press, 2006), is the primary casebook for the Economics Institute for State Judges. Professor Butler serves on the legal advisory council of the National Legal Center for the Public Interest and the advisory board of the Atlantic Legal Foundation.

Alex J. Pollock joined AEI as a resident fellow in July 2004. From 1991 until 2004, Mr. Pollock served as president and chief executive officer of the Federal Home Loan Bank (FHLB) of Chicago, a $90-billion housing government-sponsored enterprise. At the Chicago FHLB, he was the architect of the innovative Mortgage Partnership Finance Program, which successfully created direct competition for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac on a national basis. Mr. Pollock is a past president of the International Union for Housing Finance and the Bankers Club of Chicago; a director of Allied Capital Corporation, the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, the Great Lakes Higher Education Corporation, and the Great Books Foundation; and the author of numerous articles on banking, financial systems, and management.

Larry E. Ribstein is the Richard W. and Marie L. Corman Professor of Law at the University of Illinois College of Law, where his specialties are unincorporated business entities, partnerships, limited liability companies, and corporate and securities law. Professor Ribstein, who also works in the areas of bankruptcy, choice of law, ethical rules, and uniform laws, among others, was instrumental in shaping the curriculum and programs of George Mason University School of Law during his fifteen-year tenure there. Professor Ribstein has written leading treatises and casebooks on partnership and corporate law, served as an editor of the Supreme Court Economic Review from 1998–2001, and published extensively in many leading law and business journals. He is also the author of the popular business law blog, Ideoblog.

Peter J. Wallison joined AEI in January 1999 as a resident fellow and as co-director of AEI’s program on financial market deregulation. He previously practiced banking, corporate, and financial law at Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher in Washington, D.C. and New York. From June 1981 to January 1985, Mr. Wallison was general counsel of the United States Treasury Department, where he had a significant role in the development of the Reagan administration's proposals for deregulation in the financial-services industry. During 1986 and 1987, Mr. Wallison was White House counsel to President Ronald Reagan. Between 1972 and 1976, Mr. Wallison served first as special assistant to Governor Nelson A. Rockefeller and, subsequently, as counsel to Mr. Rockefeller when he was vice president of the United States.

Ted Frank is a resident fellow at AEI and director of the AEI Liability Project, managing the Institute's research about liability reform proposals, tort law, class actions and civil procedure, and other related issues. Before joining AEI, Mr. Frank worked at law firms in Los Angeles and Washington, D.C., and clerked for Judge Frank H. Easterbrook. His litigation work included Vioxx and automobile product liability cases, class action defense, and antitrust and patent cases.

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