Larry Ribstein
Larry E. Ribstein (1946–2011) was the Mildred Van Voorhis Jones Chair, associate dean for research, and co-director of the Illinois Business Law and Policy Program at the University of Illinois College of Law. He died Dec. 24, 2011.
Ribstein’s scholarship focused on corporate and securities law, partnerships and limited-liability companies, unincorporated business entities, financial regulation, choice of law, white-collar crime, legal ethics, and the legal profession. He was a leading figure in law & economics approaches to business associations and the structure of the firm.
Before joining the University of Illinois, Ribstein served on the faculty of George Mason University School of Law, where he was the George Mason University Foundation Professor of Law. He began his academic career at Mercer University School of Law.
Earlier, he practiced as an associate at McDermott, Will & Emery in Chicago.
He also held visiting professorships at New York University School of Law, the University of Texas School of Law, Washington University School of Law, and Saint Louis University School of Law.
Ribstein authored and co-authored numerous influential books, including “The Rise of the Uncorporation,” “The Law Market” (with Erin A. O’Hara), “The Sarbanes-Oxley Debacle” (with Henry N. Butler), and “The Constitution and the Corporation” (with Henry N. Butler). He also co-authored “Business Associations” (with Peter V. Letsou) and “Unincorporated Business Entities” (with Jeffrey M. Lipshaw), and contributed to the treatises “Ribstein & Keatinge on Limited Liability Companies” and “Bromberg & Ribstein on Partnerships.”
Beyond his scholarship, Ribstein served on the executive committee of the American Association of Law Schools Section on Securities Regulation and chaired the AALS Section on Agency, Partnership and LLCs. He was an editor and co-editor of The Supreme Court Economic Review. He founded the Ideoblog and was a leading contributor to the Truth on the Market blog.
Ribstein earned a bachelor’s from The Johns Hopkins University and a J.D. from the University of Chicago Law School.
