I, like many law professors, recently returned from the annual meeting of the Association of American Law Schools. I attended a number of interesting presentations, but the highlight of the conference for me was the opportunity to hear Frank Easterbrook speak on “The Corporate Law and Economics Revolution.”

I assume that most of our readers are familiar with Judge Easterbrook. He was a prominent corporate law scholar prior to (and after) being appointed to the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals by President Reagan.

I have never met Judge Easterbrook. He left the academy two years before I began teaching. But I am certainly familiar with his writing. I have read several of his articles, and a well-used copy of his book (with Daniel Fischel) The Economic Structure of Corporate Law sits on my office bookshelf. And we do have a connection of sorts: my first citation ever came from him. He was kind enough to cite my very first article in one of his opinions, Amanda Acquisition Corp. v. Universal Foods Corp., 877 F.2d 496 (7th Cir. 1989).

At the conference session I attended, Judge Easterbrook’s views on law and economics were forcefully challenged by one of the other panelists. I learned two things from his response:

    1. Judge Easterbrook has definitely kept up with the economic and legal scholarship even though, by his own admission, he only sees a couple of corporate law cases a year. He may no longer be part of the academy (except as a senior lecturer at Chicago), but he’s fully aware of what we’re writing.

    2. I don’t ever want to have to argue a case before him. His grasp of the issues and the scholarship was intimidating and he gives no quarter, although he’s polite about it as he shreds you.

It’s always interesting to see in person someone whose scholarship I admire. Sometimes, I’m disappointed. The live version doesn’t live up to the writing. But that definitely wasn’t the case this time.