Dean Spitzer to formally dedicate three USC Law professors

Professors Edward McCaffery, Elizabeth Garrett and Eric Talley will be appointed to named chairs or professorships on April 18.

Chairs and professorships provide a permanent endowment or perpetual grant to support the work of renowned professors and their successors thereafter for generations to come.

In sixteenth century England, a chair, complete with arms, legs and back, was a rare — and therefore prized — article of furniture. Most people sat on three-legged stools or wooden benches; the gentry used cushions on the floor; monarchs and high clergy sat on impressive chairs and thrones. When a worthy teacher was accorded the rank of professor, he or she also received an actual chair, with arms, back and legs, as a symbol of his or her status in the world of learning. The early academic chair was established by a king or bishop whose generosity was recognized in the title of the professorship.

Today’s holders of academic chairs and named professorships are therefore part of a centuries old international community of eminent scholars.

Professor Edward McCaffery will be appointed the Robert C. Packard Trustee Chair in Law and Politics Science, and Visiting Professor of Law and Economics, California Institute of Technology. McCaffery joined the USC law faculty in 1989. An internationally recognized expert in tax law, he studies tax policies, tax structures, and law and economics. He teaches Income Taxation, Public Finance, Property, and Tax Law and Policy at USC and Law and Economics and Law and Technology at the California Institute of Technology.

Robert C. Packard ’47 was a widely respected trial attorney and steadfast supporter of the University of Southern California. During his nearly 50-year career with the prestigious law firm of Kirtland & Packard, he became one of the nation’s leading airline defense attorneys and a model of professionalism. He also was a model of generosity; he contributed more than $16 million to the University of Southern California and established both the Robert C. Packard Trustee Professorship at USC Law and the Robert C. Packard President’s Chair, held by USC President Steven B. Sample.

Professor Elizabeth Garrett will be appointed the Sydney M. Irmas Professor of Public Interest Law, Legal Ethics and Political Science. Garrett joined the USC Law faculty in 2003. A widely respected expert on the legislative process, direct democracy, the law of the political process, the federal budget process and administrative law, she is director of the USC-Caltech Center for the Study of Law and Politics and a member of the board of directors of the Initiative and Referendum Institute at USC. She holds a joint appointment with USC’s Department of Political Science.

Sydney M. Irmas, a 1955 graduate of USC Law, was a respected attorney and philanthropist. A longtime supporter of USC Law, Mr. Irmas served as president of Legion Lex and as a member of USC Law Board of Councilors, among other positions. In 1990, Mr. Irmas and his wife, Audrey, established the school’s Public Interest Endowment. Mrs. Irmas continues to be closely involved in public interest activities at USC, and the school’s prestigious yearlong post-graduate fellowship is named in recognition of the couple’s dedication to serving the community and USC Law.

Professor Eric Talley will be appointed the Ivadelle and Theodore Johnson Professor of Law and Business, and Senior Economist, RAND Corporation. Talley joined the USC Law faculty in 1995. A widely respected expert on contracts, corporations, and law and strategic behavior, he teaches courses in Corporate and Commercial Law, Law and Economics, Quantitative Methods in the Law, Behavioral Law and Economics, and Law and Game Theory. A senior economist with the RAND Corp. (where he holds a half-time appointment), Professor Talley studies stockholder rights, corporate litigation and securities.

Ivadelle and Theodore Johnson were staunch supporters and neighbors of the University of Southern California throughout their lives. Theodore Johnson, who passed away in 1968, grew up in the shadow of the university, in a home in the area now occupied by USC’s Bovard Field. A successful businessman, Mr. Johnson ultimately served as senior vice president of Security First National Bank. Throughout his life, he maintained close ties to the university, helping to fund construction of USC’s Heritage Hall. He and his wife lived for many years in a home in the USC neighborhood.