Sharpening generations of legal and business minds

How do you make the law easier to understand? For Kent Barnett, JD, dean of Ohio State’s Moritz College of Law, it starts with imagination. 

To begin explaining administrative law, Barnett has students picture themselves striking down policies they don’t favor — like chopping through kudzu with a sharp machete. But he cautions, the tool you choose may change when you realize, one day, you will have to hand it to your adversary who will cut through your preferred policies.  

This gets students thinking critically about the process behind creating laws that will control how government agencies operate in the long term.  

“You have to consider both when you're in power and when you're out of power. What will be the best way of governing ourselves? That's where I spend most of my research time,” Barnett says. 

A separation of powers and administrative law scholar, Barnett’s work has been cited by leading administrative law casebooks, federal district and appellate courts, and the U.S. Supreme Court. As dean, he focuses on strategic efforts in and out of the classroom while continuing to advance the college’s reputation and rankings.  

Shaping future legal scholars 

From his viewpoint as a college leader, Barnett sees that securing the most sought-after faculty with endowed chair positions in turn empowers generations of students. He also understands from firsthand experience, as the J. Gilbert Reese Chair in Contract Law, created for a faculty member with a national reputation for excellence. 

“I love teaching contract law. You get to show students it’s not just reading dusty, dry documents,” Barnett says. “Contracts are all about human interactions and relationships, which can get very messy and interesting. Moreover, contract law has informed my understanding of administrative law, despite lawyers rarely connecting the two fields.” 

Second-year Moritz student Collin Kavanaugh had the opportunity to assist Barnett in his research for an administrative law presentation to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit. Throughout the entire process, Barnett was not only willing but eager to discuss the subject matter with him. 

“I was honored to be working for an academic who is an expert in his field. Seeing Dean Barnett's passion for the study of law and genuine interest in connecting with his students, I look forward to all the wonderful things he will continue to bring to the Moritz community,” Kavanaugh says. 

Part of what drew Barnett to Ohio State is the institution’s shared responsibility to help students thrive. “I am proud to say our goal is to bring you in, and bring you up,” he says. He also recognizes that donor support for endowed chairs is key to attracting and retaining the type of talented faculty who will deeply engage more students.  

“It really is a chain of support,” Barnett shares. “To have a strong Ohio State, you have to have strong faculty and to have strong faculty, you have to have strong philanthropic support. This is where the Reese family comes in.”  

Continuing a legacy of educational opportunity 

Early in Barnett’s tenure, Sarah Reese Wallace invited him to her offices in Newark, Ohio. His first impression: “Gib” Reese — Sarah’s father and the namesake of the chair he holds — and the whole family have been key to Newark’s progress and strong sense of community.  

“Sarah was so welcoming and encouraging,” Barnett says. “Given her prominence in banking and in Newark, it meant a lot that she would give so much time to talk with me about different objectives we are trying to achieve at the law school, to help me learn about her family's relationship with the university and share her insights into leadership.” 

Wallace is determined to carry on her family’s history of paying forward and creating opportunities for others. A prominent part of that legacy is Ohio State’s Newark campus and its co-located partner, Central Ohio Technical College. Gib Reese was the founder of both. 

“My dad, like my grandfather, wanted place-bound kids from Newark, Licking County and surrounding areas to be able to live at home while pursuing education after high school, making it affordable,” Wallace says. “As a Moritz graduate, he really cared about making sure that business was always an area of law emphasized within the college.” This led to the chair in contract law. 

Wallace’s grandfather, Everett “Ev” Reese, also wanted to keep business education front and center. 

Creating a compounding effect 

The Everett D. Reese Chair of Banking and Monetary Economics in Ohio State’s Fisher College of Business is one of the university’s oldest endowed positions. Professor René Stulz is only the third individual in this role — and has been for four decades.  

“Everett Reese was president of the holding company that became Bank One and played an extremely important role in banking both locally and nationally. His family has been supportive of the chair through its history,” Stulz says. 

Stulz was introduced to Reese’s descendants by his predecessor in the chair position, Ed Kane. He also followed in Kane’s footsteps as president of the American Finance Association. One of the most-cited finance researchers in the world, Stulz has been widely influential to business, policy and finance academics. He has furthered the evolution of the risk management profession.  

As director of Ohio State’s Charles A. Dice Center for Research in Financial Economics, Stulz is driving top-notch research, especially work that is important to the financial community in Ohio and the nation. 

“Top private universities have more in the way of resources, but with the center, we manage to be highly ranked, including through a rating from the University of Texas at Dallas that has us as the top finance department among public schools,” he shares. “It has made it possible for faculty to conduct path-breaking research. For instance, early on we helped with research that literally changed how the Nasdaq market works.”  

Stulz notes that fellow faculty members in finance at Ohio State are highly collegial and supportive. Further, his students, with whom he has published extensively, have been intrinsic to his success — just as he’s been vital to theirs. His efforts have a compounding effect, as his students become professionals and professors, and make an ever-growing impact. 

“I take huge pride in having more than 60 PhD students, so far, who have done very well in their careers. I am also proud of the MBA students I have taught. Some have done well in Ohio and created jobs, including one who founded a well-known financial services firm in Columbus,” Stulz says. “Several former PhD students are chaired professors at well-known universities in the U.S.”  

Stulz’s students, even those from different classes, maintain strong connections and regularly have gatherings with Stulz. In August 2022, his former PhD students organized a special conference to celebrate his 40-plus years in academia. 

One of those students is Rohan Williamson, a professor of finance at Georgetown University and the Bolton Sullivan and Thomas A. Dean Chair of International Business. “René set such a high standard for us of research excellence and engagement,” Williamson says. “I made it a goal to have an endowed chair, to reach the level of success he had. Now, 27 years later, I still strive to maintain that standard: a total commitment to helping students and young faculty and to impacting the field.”