John H. Langbein joined the Law School faculty in 1990, after teaching at the University of Chicago. He is a preeminent authority on American trust, probate, pension, and investment law. His 1976 article, Market Funds and Trust Investment Law, coauthored with Richard Posner, introduced the portfolio theory of investments into trust law.

Langbein is also a distinguished legal historian, focusing on Anglo-American and European legal history. Langbein’s highly influential scholarship on modern comparative law has contended that European-style non-adversarial justice is fairer, more accurate, and more economical than Anglo-American procedures. And in 2006, his book, The Origins of Adversary Criminal Trial, received the Coif Biennial Book Award as the outstanding American book on law for 2003-04.

Langbein has complemented his scholarship by participating extensively in law reform. He has served continuously as a Uniform Law Commissioner under gubernatorial appointment since 1984. Langbein was also the reporter and drafter of the Uniform Prudent Investor Act (1994), which governs fiduciary investing in most American states.