Henry N. Butler is the Executive Director of the Searle Center on Law, Regulation, and Economic Growth at Northwestern University School of Law.  As the Searle Center's inaugural Executive Director, Dr. Butler has built the Searle Center into a dynamic center for research and education on the impact of judicial decisions and government regulations on economic growth.  In 2009, the Searle Center sponsored over 25 conferences -- over 230 professors participated in Searle Center research programs.   Dr. Butler joined Northwestern from Chapman University where he was the James Farley Professor of Economics in the George L. Argyros School of Business and Economics and Professor of Law (courtesy appointment).  After three years as an assistant professor of management at Texas A&M University, Dr. Butler spent one year as a John M. Olin Fellow at the University of Chicago Law School. He then joined George Mason University as a professor of law, where he also served as Associate Dean and Director of the Law and Economics Center.  Dr. Butler was the Fred C. and Mary R. Koch Distinguished Professor of Law and Economics at the University of Kansas from 1993 to 2001.

Dr. Butler has dedicated much of his career to improving the country’s civil justice system through judicial education programs.  He is an expert in public policy analysis, and has published numerous articles and books on government regulation.  Dr. Butler serves on the Legal Advisory Council of the AEI Legal Center for the Public Interest, the Advisory Council of Atlantic Legal Foundation, and the Legal Policy Advisory Board of the Washington Legal Foundation.

He received his PhD in economics from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and his JD from the University of Miami School of Law in 1982.  He was a John M. Olin Fellow in Law and Economics while at the University of Miami.

Professor Goodenough received his B.A. degree, magna cum laude, from Harvard University in 1975 and his J.D. degree, cum laude, from the University of Pennsylvania in 1978.  His wide-ranging research and writing at the intersection of law, economics, neuroscience and behavioral biology make him a leading authority on the impact of the new neuroscience on the law.  He has participated in experiments using fMRI brain scanning techniques to explore the neurological basis of moral reasoning in conjunction with the Humboldt University in Berlin and with the University of London.  His academic appointments reflect the breadth of his studies; he is currently a Professor of Law and the Director of Scholarship at the Vermont Law School, a Faculty Fellow at The Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University where he is co-director of the Law Lab project, a Research Fellow of the Gruter Institute for Law and Behavioral Research, and an Adjunct Professor at Dartmouth’s Thayer School of Engineering.

Feb. 26th, Ryan Oprea, Ph.D. - A Continuous Dilemma- Reception to follow

Mar. 26th - John Rust, Ph.D. - Information will be posted at a later date - Reception to follow

Mar. 13th, 2009 Gregory Waymire Ph.D. - Transaction Records, Impersonal Exchange, and Division of Labor. Click here to watch lecture 

Mar. 6th, 2009 James Murphy Ph.D. – Rent Dissipation in Competitive Fisheries: An Experimental Analysis. Click here to watch lecture

Feb. 27th, 2009 Amnon Rapoport Ph.D. - Coordination in Large-scale Networks under Two different Information Structures: A Laboratory Study. Click here to watch lecture