Law's Drobak installed into Madill professorship

By Jessica N. Roberts

John N. Drobak, J.D., was installed as the George Alexander Madill Professor of Law Feb. 27 in Anheuser-Busch Hall.

"John Drobak is a truly outstanding faculty member," Chancellor Mark S. Wrighton said. "I appreciate very much his leadership role in teaching and in building interdisciplinary scholarly activities through his directorship of the Center for Interdisciplinary Studies in the School of Law. John has excelled in scholarship and service to the community, and I am pleased that he has been selected for appointment to the Madill professorship."

Photo by Mary Butkus

John N. Drobak, J.D., professor of law and of economics in Arts & Sciences, and his wife, Mary, celebrate Drobak's Feb. 27 installation as the George Alexander Madill Professor of Law.

Joel Seligman, J.D., law school dean and the Ethan A.H. Shepley University Professor, said: "John Drobak's wide-ranging activities as a scholar and an outstanding teacher have made the University a more interdisciplinary and more global institution. I can think of no one more deserving to serve in this chaired professorship."

Drobak joined the University's law faculty in 1979 and served as associate dean from 1986-1990. He now holds appointments in both the School of Law and the Department of Economics in Arts & Sciences.

He is the director of the Center for Interdisciplinary Studies in the School of Law, a fellow of the Center in Political Economy in Arts & Sciences and former co-director of the Business, Law and Economics Center in the Olin School of Business.

In 1997, he joined a group of economists and political scientists to found the International Society for New Institutional Economics, of which he now serves as secretary/treasurer.

Drobak also is the chair of the Executive Committee of the Center for New Institutional Social Sciences at the University. Since 1991, he has annually taught a law and economics course in a master of business administration program for Central and Eastern Europeans at the United States Business School in Prague, Czech Republic.

In his pro bono work, he consulted with Czechoslovakia in connection with its voucher privatization of large government enterprises and with the Republic of Georgia in connection with the drafting of a new constitution.

The students at the law school named him Teacher of the Year on three separate occasions. In 2000, the University honored Drobak with its Distinguished Faculty Award at Founders Day.

George Alexander Madill joined the School of Law faculty in 1869 and was widely praised by his students as an outstanding instructor. His rise in the St. Louis legal profession was rapid, and in 1870 he was elected judge of the Circuit Court.

Madill was one of the greatest supporters of the School of Law. His gifts established two endowed chairs, one in real property and the other in contracts and commercial law.

Some of the first individuals to be honored with a Madill chair include: Arthur B. Shepley, Rhodes E. Cave, William Hughes Allen, Tyrrell Williams, Ernest B. Conant, Arno C. Becht and Wayne L. Townsend.