William A. Birdthistle Assistant Professor of Law

William A. Birdthistle joined the faculty of Chicago-Kent in 2006.  Previously, he practiced for five years at Ropes & Gray in Boston, where he was a corporate associate in the investment management division. While at the firm, Professor Birdthistle worked primarily on matters involving mutual funds and hedge funds, focusing specifically on governmental investigations into allegations of malfeasance in the mutual fund industry.

Professor Birdthistle is a graduate of Harvard Law School, where he served as managing editor of the Harvard Law Review. He received his B.A. summa cum laude in English and psychology from Duke University in 1995. Following law school, Professor Birdthistle clerked for Judge Diarmuid F. O’Scannlain of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. 

Professor Birdthistle has published pieces in the Wall Street Journal, Chicago Tribune and Christian Science Monitor, as well as in the University of Chicago Law Review, Harvard Law Review, Green Bag, Loyola of Los Angeles Entertainment Law Review and Tulane Law Review. His article on exchange-traded funds published in the Delaware Journal of Corporate Law has been selected for inclusion in the Securities Law Review anthology of the top 10 securities law review articles of 2008. He is a citizen of the Republic of Ireland and spent eight years living in Marsa el-Brega, Libya, and nine years living in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, before coming to the United States in 1991 for his undergraduate studies. At Chicago-Kent, he teaches business organizations, securities regulation, investment funds, and international business transactions.