Max M. Schanzenbach
Seigle Family Professor of Law
Phone
(312) 503-4425
SSRN Author Page | Curriculum Vitae (pdf)
Related Links
American Law and Economics Review
Assistant
Yarixa Calvillo
Assistant Phone
(312) 503-2088
Assistant Email
yarixa.calvillo@law.northwestern.edu
Biography
Max Schanzenbach is the Seigle Family Professor of Law at Northwestern University School of Law. He received his J.D. from Yale Law School and his Ph.D. (economics) from Yale University. Schanzenbach joined Northwestern as an assistant professor of law in 2003 after finishing a clerkship on the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals with Judge Alan E. Norris and was promoted to full professor in 2006. From 2010 to 2013, Schanzenbach was Director of the Searle Center on Law, Regulation, and Economic Growth at Northwestern University. In 2015, he was named the Seigle Family Professor of Law at Northwestern University. From 2011 to 2016 Schanzenbach was the co-editor-in-chief of the American Law and Economics Review.
Schanzenbach’s research, which is in the law-and-economics tradition, uses economic theory and statistical methods to assess the real-world effects of law and legal institutions. His work has ranged across such fields as trusts and estates, employee compensation, criminal sentencing, judicial behavior, and tort reform. His work has appeared in leading law reviews such as the Yale Law Journal, Stanford Law Review, and University of Chicago Law Review, as well as economics journals such as American Economic Journal: Economic Policy; American Law and Economics Review, Journal of Legal Studies, Journal of Law and Economics, Journal of Health Economics, and Journal of Law, Economics, & Organization.
Areas of Expertise
- Business Associations
- Criminal Justice
- Estates and Trusts
- Tort Reform
Selected Publications
- Divesting University Endowments, __ Harvard Business Law Review __ , Northwestern Public Law Research Paper No. 26-06, Harvard Public Law Working Paper, European Corporate Governance Institute - Law Working Paper No. 907/2026 (forthcoming 2026) (Co-authored by: Robert H. Sitkoff).
- University Trustees Should Say No to Divestment, __ George Mason University Law Review __ , Northwestern Public Law Research Paper No. 26-07, European Corporate Governance Institute - Law Working Paper No. 908/2026 (forthcoming 2026) (Co-authored by: Robert H. Sitkoff).
- Promising the First Amendment: (De)Regulating Speech in Higher Education, 120 Northwestern University Law Review 365 (2025) (Co-authored by: Kimberly A. Yuracko).
- What Is the University—Student Contract?, 65 Arizona Law Review 965 (2023) (Co-authored by: Kimberly A. Yuracko).
- Does Discipline Decrease Police Misconduct? Evidence from Chicago Civilian Allegations, 15 American Economic Journal: Applied Economics 80 (2023) (Co-authored by: Kyle Rozema).
- Policing the Police: Personnel Management and Police Misconduct, 75 Vanderbilt Law Review 1523 (2022).
Education
- BA, University of Oklahoma
- JD, Yale University
- PhD, Yale University
Prior Appointments
- Professor of Business Law, Management & Strategy, Kellogg School of Management (Courtesy), Kellogg School of Management
- Professor of Law, Northwestern University School of Law
- Director of the Searle Center on Law, Regulation, and Economic Growth, Northwestern University School of Law
- Law Clerk, 2002-2003, Hon. Alan E. Norris of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit