April 12, 2007

Public policy leader Butler will head law Searle Center

Henry N. Butler, a leading public policy analyst and law and economics specialist who has devoted much of his career to improving the country’s civil justice system through judicial education programs, has been named the first executive director of the Searle Center at the School of Law.

Established last year, the Searle Center is designed to research how government regulation and interpretation of laws and regulations by the courts affect business and economic growth.

Butler, who comes to Northwestern from Chapman University where he is the James Farley Professor of Economics in the George L. Argyros School of Business and Economics and a professor of law, organized the Searle Center’s first major event, an all-day Litigation and Tort Reform Conference held Friday, March 30, at the School of Law.

Leading scholars, practitioners and judges weighed in on the current state of litigation and tort reform, offering an in-depth look at the consequences of the tug-of-war between the business community, recently successful in limiting lawsuits, and trial lawyers, who are pushing back through lobbying, communications efforts and public studies.

“The leadership that Henry Butler provided in organizing the tort reform conference and other Searle Center events this year offers a preview of the optimal blend of talents and interests that he will call upon in leading the Searle Center,” said David Van Zandt, dean, Northwestern University School of Law.

Butler has published numerous articles in leading journals and books on a variety of topics, including economic analyses of laws regarding corporations, antitrust issues and government regulation. His book “Economic Analysis for Lawyers” is the primary casebook for the AEI-Brookings Economics Institute for Judges.

Butler serves as the director of the Judicial Education Program of the AEI-Brookings Joint Center for Regulatory Studies and is a member of the boards of advisors for the National Legal Center for the Public Interest, the Washington Legal Foundation and the Atlantic Legal Foundation.

“Henry is a lawyer, an economist, a theoretician and an empiricist,” said Fred McChesney, interim director of the Searle Center since its establishment last year and professor of law. “He is a scholar in several areas of law and economics, and his experience fits perfectly with the mission of the Searle Center.”

Prior to his tenure at Chapman, Butler was the Fred C. and Mary R. Koch Distinguished Professor of Law and Economics at the University of Kansas. Before that he was a professor at George Mason University School of Law, and he spent one year as a John M. Olin Fellow at the University of Chicago Law School. He received a Ph.D. in economics from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University and a J.D. from the University of Miami School of Law. He received a bachelor’s degree in economics from the University of Richmond, Virginia.

Funded by a gift from Daniel C. Searle, long-time philanthropist and Northwestern trustee, the Searle Center draws upon the expertise of scholars in the areas of law, business and economics to offer rigorous interdisciplinary research on topics such as environmental protection, eminent domain and corporate governance.

Faculty members and scholars working with the Searle Center produce scholarship and research that explores empirically the working of government regulation and its effect on economic growth and activity. It also seeks to disseminate its research findings to public policy makers and the public in general.