Rate My Professor Richard Brooks

Richard R. W. Brooks is the Emilie M. Bullowa Professor of Law at New York University School of Law, where he joined the faculty in 2018. He previously held the Leighton Homer Surbeck Professorship of Law at Yale Law School and the Charles Keller Beekman Professorship of Law at Columbia Law School, joining the latter in 2013 from Yale. Earlier appointments include faculty positions at Northwestern University School of Law and Cornell University's Department of Policy Analysis and Management. Brooks has also served as a visiting researcher at the Center in Law, Economics and Organization at the University of Southern California Law School, on an advisory committee to the Social, Behavioral and Economics Sciences Division of the National Science Foundation, and as a research specialist in the Antitrust Division of the Department of Justice. He earned a B.A. from Cornell University, an M.A. and Ph.D. in economics from the University of California, Berkeley, and a J.D. from the University of Chicago Law School.

Brooks focuses his scholarship on contracts and agency, among other forms of business and social organization. Employing economics, game theory, and legal analytical methods from fields such as contract, property, fiduciary, and corporate law, his work features a strong empirical dimension, including studies of racial interactions in public spaces and the influence of forms of address on social relations. Major publications include the book Saving the Neighborhood: Racially Restrictive Covenants, Law, and Social Norms (Harvard University Press, 2013, co-authored with Carol M. Rose), "The Efficient Performance Hypothesis" (116 Yale Law Journal 568, 2006), editorial contributions to Economics of Environmental Law, and co-authorship of a traditional contracts casebook. His research has shaped discourse in law and economics, contract theory, environmental law, and perceptions of fairness in the legal system. Honors include election to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2022, election as an Elected Member of the American Law Institute Council, the 2025 NYU Law School Distinguished Teaching Award, and service as President of the American Law and Economics Association for 2024-2025.