Speaker biographies

James Copland is the director of the Manhattan Institute's Center for Legal Policy. At the Manhattan Institute, he is the managing editor of PointOfLaw.com, a web magazine that brings together information and opinion on the U.S. litigation system, and is the project manager for Trial Lawyers, Inc., a series of publications that examines America's lawsuit industry. Mr. Copland has published opinion columns in national, local, and online newspapers, including the Wall Street Journal and National Review Online. He has appeared on various television and radio shows, including programs on MSNBC, CNBC, C-SPAN, and NPR. Prior to joining the Manhattan Institute, Mr. Copland consulted for McKinsey and Company and clerked for Judge Ralph K. Winter on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit.

Theodore Eisenberg is the Henry Allen Mark Professor of Law at Cornell University School of Law, where he teaches bankruptcy and debtor-creditor law, constitutional law, and federal income taxation. He is one of the foremost authorities on the use of empirical analysis in legal scholarship, and researches bankruptcy, civil rights, and the death penalty. Prior to teaching at Cornell, Mr. Eisenberg taught at UCLA after spending three years in private practice. He clerked for both the District of Columbia Circuit of the U.S. Court of Appeals, and Chief Justice Earl Warren of the U.S. Supreme Court.

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.

Jonathan Klick is an adjunct scholar for AEI's Liability Project. He is also the Jeffrey A. Stoops Professor of Law and a courtesy professor of economics at Florida State University. Mr. Klick's research focuses on statistical analyses of the effects of legal changes on individual behavior. He has published academic articles in The Journal of Law and Economics, The Journal of Economic Perspectives, and The Journal of Legal Studies, as well as numerous medical journals and law reviews. Trained both as a lawyer and an economist, he has also served as a research fellow and economist for the Department of Defense, President’s Council of Economic Advisors, Bureau of Economic Analysis, and the Mercatus Center.

Alexander Tabarrok is an associate professor of economics at George Mason University. He is also the research director for the Independent Institute and a research fellow with the Mercatus Center. Mr. Tabarrok researches empirical law and economics, tort reform, voting theory, and health economics. He is the coauthor, along with Eric Helland, of Judge and Jury: American Tort Law on Trial (Independent Institute, 2006) and Two Cheers for Contingent Fees (AEI Press, 2005). He is also the editor of a number of other books about economics.

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