Richard Booth, Marion High School Class of 1969, is Professor of Law and Martin G. McGuinn Chair in Business Law at Villanova Law School, where he teaches Corporate Finance, Business Planning, and Securities Litigation. He is an internationally recognized expert and author in business law and finance.

Booth was Valedictorian of the MHS Class of 1969 together with John Jarrett and John Daily. While at MHS, Booth was a member of the tennis team, the swim team, and the debate team, and an officer of the M Club.

Booth earned his AB with high distinction in 1973 from the University of Michigan, where he was president of the University Activities Center and the Michigan Union and a member of Phi Beta Kappa, Phi Gamma Delta (Fiji), Sphinx (junior honorary), and Michigamua (senior honorary). In 1976, he earned his JD from Yale Law School, where he served on the Yale Co-Op Board of Directors and as a student attorney with the International Project at the Center for Law & Social Policy in Washington, D.C.

Following law school, he practiced in New York City with the law firm Donovan Leisure Newton & Irvine in the areas of corporate and securities litigation as well as entertainment law, representing Disney and Capitol Records. Among other adventures in practice, he was tapped to handle the depositions of Grand Funk Railroad and Gardner Cowles, the founder of Look Magazine.

In 1982, he joined the faculty at Southern Methodist University, later moving to Case Western Reserve University, and then to the University of Maryland, where he was the Marbury Research Professor of Law and president of the faculty senate. In addition, he has taught at the University of Aberdeen (Scotland), George Washington University, the Wharton School, and the University of Pennsylvania Law School.

He is a life member of the American Law Institute, a fellow of the American Bar Foundation, a life member of Clare Hall, University of Cambridge, and a research member of the European Corporate Governance Institute. He has been admitted to the bars of New York, Texas, and United States Supreme Court.

He is the author or co-author of numerous books, including Financing the Corporation (Clark Boardman Callahan), Business Basics for Law Students (Aspen), Cases and Materials on Corporation Finance, and Black Letter Outlines - Corporations (both West). He has published more than 80 articles in scholarly journals and many pieces in the popular press, including the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, Barron’s, the National Law Journal, Regulation (Cato) and Bloomberg’s SCOTUS Blog. Booth’s recent scholarship has focused on securities fraud class actions, executive compensation, and business valuation.