De Alessi, Louis

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The John M. Olin Fellowship Program in Law and Economics

Case Western Reserve University School of Law

Case Western Reserve Law ReviewVolume 50 | Issue 21999The John M. Olin Fellowship Program in Law andEconomicsLouis De AlessiFollow this and additional works at: https://scholarlycommons.law.case.edu/caselrevPart of the Law CommonsThis Symposium is brought to you for free and open access by the Student Journals at Case Western Reserve University School of Law ScholarlyCommons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Case Western Reserve Law Review by an authorized administrator of Case Western Reserve UniversitySchool of Law Scholarly Commons.Recommended CitationLouis De Alessi, The John M. Olin Fellowship Program in Law and Economics, 50 Case W. Res. L. Rev. 341 (1999)Available at: https://scholarlycommons.law.case.edu/caselrev/vol50/iss2/17THE JOHN M. OLIN FELLOWSHIPPROGRAM IN LAW AND ECONOMICSLouis De AlessitThe John M. Olin Fellowship Program in Law and Economicswas designed to train economists as lawyers. The expectation wasthat at least some graduates would gravitate toward teaching and re-search in the field. The addition of more fully trained academicswould thereby improve the quality of legal debate and court decisionsas well as our understanding of the economic consequences of alter-native laws. The observation that Henry Butler and Fred McChesney,two of the three organizers of this splendid Symposium, were OlinFellows suggests that the program was successful. To capture the fullflavor of the program, I will ease into my comments by tracing someof the events leading to its birth and evolution.I. PRECURSORS OF THE OLIN FELLOWSHIP PROGRAMBy the summer of 1966, Manne, then at George WashingtonUniversity (hereinafter GW), was ready to salt the curriculum of hisLaw School with a modest program in law and economics. To thisend, he searched for a lawyer-economist or just plain economist tojoin him on the faculty. Gordon Tullock tossed my name into the pot,Manne and I met, and we hit it off. At that time I was a visitingscholar at the Institute for Defense Analyses in Washington, D.C.,while on leave from the Economics Department at Duke University.Thus, Manne and I had ample opportunity to meet and discuss topicsin law and economics in addition to prospects at GW.Manne's plan was straightforward. I would offer an introductorycourse in economics tailored for law students and he would upgradethe economics content of his courses. In addition, we would findsomething interesting to teach jointly.In the fall of 1967 I was back at Duke and Manne was nailingdown the administrative details of my offer from GW, which entailedan appointment in the Department of Economics with release time tothe Law School. Concurrently, Manne was exploring his own moveto the University of Rochester, where Allen Wallis wanted him toestablish and become the dean of a new type of law school with at Professor Emeritus of Economics, University of Miami. I benefited from comments byFred S. McChesney.CASE WESTERN RESERVE LAW REVIEWstrong component in law and economics. Manne kept me informed ofprogress on both fronts. By the time I had to decide whether to go toGW, I knew that Manne was migrating to Rochester and that, withouthim, GW's program in law and economics was doomed. AlthoughGW became a lot less attractive, Duke was enmeshed in internalsquabbling and I missed sailing on the Chesapeake. I went to GW.During the summer of 1968, Manne and I overlapped in Wash-ington D.C., providing more opportunities to talk about law, eco-nomics, and especially about Manne's plans for the law school atRochester. Manne argued that students acquired most of their legaleducation during their first year, the second and third years beinglargely a device to limit entry into the profession. To train betterlawyers within the constraints imposed by accreditation agencies,Manne's law school would require students to take the standard pro-gram during the first year and then allocate the bulk of the next twoyears to specializing in one of a half-dozen fields, including patents aswell as law and economics. The faculty teaching these specializedcourses would have Ph.D.s in their respective fields, such as eco-nomics, and would be housed in their own departments within the lawschool.Over the following years, I commiserated with Manne as theplans for the law school slowly faded and cheered as his project for alaw and economics center took shape. After considering various lo-cations, in August 1974 Manne opened the Law & Economics Center(hereinafter LEC) at the University of Miami (hereinafter UM), whereJim Mofsky had been busy paving the way. Jim, then a young UMlaw professor, completed his J.D. at GW under Manne's supervision,and had tried ever since to bring him-and law and economics-toMiami.Manne hit the ground running. During the first year, LEC of-fered two Liberty Fund conferences and three Economics Institutes,including the fifth Economics Institute for Law Professors carriedover from Rochester. Moreover, Manne's fund raising efforts withRoger Leroy Miller, a University of Chicago Ph.D. in economics whohad earlier joined him at LEC, were successful beyond their most op-timistic projections. Within a few months, Manne was ready to im-plement more activities, including the John M. Olin Fellowship Pro-gram in Law and Economics.II. THE JOHN M. OLIN FELLOWSHIP PROGRAM IN LAW ANDECONOMICSManne immediately revealed his good taste by staffing the pro-gram with three UCLA Ph.D.s in economics: Ken Clarkson and DonMartin, both lured from the University of Virginia, and myself. Thethree of us were to offer specialized courses in law and economics[Vol. 50:341JOHNM. OLIN FELLOWSHIP PROGRAMwhile Jim Mofsky and I coordinated the program. Manne also suc-ceeded in attracting Fred McChesney and Roger Meiners, two of theprogram's most successful graduates, as the first Olin Fellows.Manne's staffing efforts were less successful with law profes-sors. Part of the problem was that they, unlike the economists whowere full-time within the Center, were recruited jointly with the lawschool whose faculty and Dean could be difficult. Although in timeTim Mudis, Keith Rosenn, and David Ladd joined the staff, during theearly years George Priest and Warren Schwartz, among others, re-sisted UM's blandishments.During the fall of 1975, the LEC picked up steam. On the Olinfront, Clarkson, Martin, and I gained a better understanding of theprogram by attending two first-year law classes, Torts and Civil Pro-cedure. With Manne peering over our shoulders, we also started theLaw and Economics Workshop, worked out the details of the cur-riculum, designed the specialized courses and seminars in law andeconomics, had them approved by the law school, and began recruit-ing the next class of Fellows.According to the original brochure, the Olin Program "preparesFellows for scholarly research, teaching, legal practice, or govern-ment work in the various fields of Law and Economics ... and is de-signed for highly motivated individuals with a strong graduate foun-dation in micro-economics." 1 We sought four or five people annuallywho had, or were finishing, their Ph.D.s in economics and we activelyencouraged the latter to complete the degree requirements, typicallythe dissertation, during the fellowship period. We certainly hopedthat graduates would gravitate toward legal teaching and research.The Olin Program was as close as Manne could get to the lawand economics component of his ideal law school. Indeed, in at leastone respect it was better: Fellows came with a far stronger back-ground in economics than a law school could provide. FollowingManne's blueprint, Fellows spent the first year taking the standard setof required law school courses. In addition, they attended a weeklyLaw and Economics Workshop.During the second and third year, Fellows allocated about half oftheir curriculum to courses, seminars, workshops, and tutorials in lawand economics offered by LEC's teaching staff. The faculty includeda stream of outstanding visitors, typically law professors, who camefor periods varying from a few weeks to a year and offered short aswell as regular courses. Warren Schwartz was one of the early visi-tors who helped get the program underway.I LAW AND ECONOMICS CENTER OF THE UNIVERSITY OF MIAMI, THE JOHN M. OLINFELLOWSHIP PROGRAM IN LAW AND ECONOMICS 1.1999]CASE WESTERN RESERVE LAWREVIEWThe program was very successful in recruiting candidates withthe desired qualifications. Over the six-year period from 1975through 1980, when the program moved to Emory University, we re-cruited twenty-six Fellows (twenty-seven, including a Fellow fromMontana who melted away in Miami's heat shortly after he arrived).Of these twenty-six, eight had Ph.D.s in economics, fifteen hadpassed the preliminary examinations for the Ph.D.-several com-pleted the requirements for the Ph.D. during the Fellowship period-two had masters, and one a bachelor's degree. Possibly reflecting JimBuchanan's influence, five Fellows came from the University of Vir-ginia and four from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State Univer-sity. Two each came from the University of Chicago and the Univer-sity of Michigan, and one each from various academic institutionsincluding Claremont, Columbia, Rice, Rochester, UCLA, and Yale.All twenty-one Fellows who began their legal education at UM-thefive recruited in the last cycle transferred to Emory--completed theprogram; a substantial number made law review and graduated in thetop ten-percent of their law school classes. At least six eventuallygravitated into academic positions; the bulk of the remainder joinedlaw firms.The program was also quite successful in furthering the devel-opment of law and economics. Perhaps the most obvious contribu-tions are those to teaching and research. Looking at its graduates, theMiami years helped produce David Baumer, Henry Butler, FredMcChesney, Roger Meiners, and Bob Staaf. The span of their profes-sional work-teaching, participation at professional meetings, publi-cations, etc.-includes corporation law, environmental law, commonlaw, antitrust, and government regulation of business. The Olin Pro-gram, however, also re-oriented the teaching and research interests ofthe faculty to topics more closely identified with law and economics.For example, Clarkson, Martin, Miller, and I all published papersstimulated by Olin courses and workshops; about twenty of my publi-cations, several co-authored with Bob Staaf, can be traced directly tothe program's influence. On the basis of publications alone, the pro-gram established an enviable record.Less visible and quantifiable are the contributions of the Fellowswho went into law practice. Although several former Fellows spe-cialized in fields where they could apply their training in law andeconomics, I have no evidence regarding their impact on the welfareof their clients, the level of legal debate, or the quality of court deci-sions.The Olin Program, however, also made a substantial contributionthrough the Law and Economics Workshop, which encouraged re-search and helped develop an intellectual community in law and eco-nomics.(Vol. 50:341JOHN M. OLIN FELLOWSHIP PROGRAMI1. THE OLIN PROGRAM'S LAW AND EcONOMICS WORKSHOPThe workshop was the core of the Olin Program. It exposedFellows to interesting research topics, kept first-year students in touchwith economics during their initial immersion in law school, gavethose working on dissertations or research papers an opportunity toobtain criticism, and nurtured a strong feeling of camaraderie.Moreover, it forced Fellows to sharpen their thinking and articulatetheir ideas in a scholarly atmosphere of give and take involving notonly colleagues and staff but also visiting scholars, who brought dif-ferent perspectives and techniques to the debate.The workshop performed a comparable function for LEC's fac-ulty. Indeed, workshop papers and discussions stimulated severalfaculty publications.The special contribution of the workshop, however, was to pro-vide a thread connecting all those doing or considering research inlaw and economics. Whether Clarkson, Martin, or I were running theseminar, the criteria were the same: We sought scholars who wereadvancing the economic analysis of legal issues at either the theoreti-cal or empirical level, with emphasis on the latter; we were particu-larly interested in practical applications of microeconomic theory.Although some of the speakers were well-established academicians,many were at the beginning of their careers, often at academic insti-tutions with little tradition or interest in law and economics. Theywere delighted and encouraged to find an audience eager to listen totheir ideas and offer useful criticisms. Over the six-year period, morethan 100 scholars in law and economics passed through the work-shop; some of their papers were better for it.The high quality of speakers and discussion attracted a livelyaudience, making additional converts to law and economics. By1976, when the workshop reached its peak, participants typically in-cluded a dozen Fellows; about eight LEC academics, including PeterAranson and John Moore; a couple of visiting scholars; half a dozencolleagues, mostly young faculty members, from UM's School ofLaw; and several others, including some outside the academic com-munity, interested in the particular topic.I did not monitor the Olin Program after it moved to Emory Uni-versity. My understanding, however, is that it enjoyed comparablesuccess under Henry Manne's guidance.IV. CONCLUSIONThe John M. Olin Fellowship Program filled an important nicheat a time when scholarship in law and economics was in its infancy.How important it is difficult to tell-Maine's concurrent economicinstitutes for lawyers, law institutes for economists, Liberty Fund con-1999]346 CASE WESTERN RESERVE LAW REVIEW [Vol. 50:341ferences, research projects, and other activities all furthered the de-velopment of the field as an academic discipline. The synergy be-tween the Olin Program and other LEC activities, however, contrib-uted to the success of the individual programs and of Henry Manne'sefforts to foster law and economics.

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The John M. Olin Fellowship Program in Law and Economics

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