Robert J. Jackson, Jr. is Associate Professor of Law at Columbia Law School, where his research projects emphasize the empirical study of corporate governance.
Before joining the Columbia faculty in July 2010, Professor Jackson served as an advisor on executive compensation and corporate governance to senior officials at the United States Department of the Treasury and to the Special Master for TARP Executive Compensation. Prior to his service at the Treasury, Professor Jackson practiced in the Executive Compensation Department at Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz.
Professor Jackson's work has been the subject of rulemaking commentary before several federal agencies, including the Securities and Exchange Commission and Federal Reserve, and he has testified about his work before the United States Senate. He is a frequent commentator on executive pay and corporate governance, and his work has been noted in the New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and on National Public Radio. His most recent project, published in May 2012 in the Columbia Law Review, provides the first empirical assessment of incentives throughout the management of a large investment bank. His previous work has appeared in the Harvard Law Review and the Virginia Law Review. In 2012, Columbia Law School awarded him the Willis L.M. Reese Prize for Excellence in Teaching.
Professor Jackson has previously worked in investment banking and as a consultant to financial institutions. He also served as a Law Clerk to the Hon. Amalya L. Kearse on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, and as Articles Co-Chair of the Harvard Law Review. He received his J.D. from Harvard Law School; an M.A. in Public Policy from Harvard's Kennedy School of Government; an M.B.A. from the Wharton School; and a Bachelor of Arts in politics, philosophy, and economics, and Bachelor of Science in economics, from the University of Pennsylvania, after studying at Pembroke College at Oxford University.