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USD Professor Partnoy's Work Lands on Book of the Year Award Shortlist

San Diego (September 29, 2009) — University of San Diego School of Law Professor Frank Partnoy’s book, The Match King: The Ivar Kreuger, The Financial Genius Behind a Century of Wall Street Scandals, has been placed on the shortlist for the Financial Times and Goldman Sachs Business Book of the Year Award. The Match King is Partnoy’s retelling of the almost forgotten story of Ivar Krueger, the businessman who smooth-talked Wall Street and Europe in the 1920s before his empire collapsed amid allegations of fraud.

The panel of judges for the annual book award gathered earlier in September at Goldman’s New York headquarters to identify six finalists from a longlist of 15.  The judges were united in praise for the quality of this year’s shortlist.  Lionel Barber, editor of the Financial Times, called the list “outstanding” and Lloyd Blankfein, Goldman’s chief executive—echoing the mission of the award—said all the books were “both compelling and enjoyable.”

“It is not a surprise in a year in which some of the world’s best academics, journalists and management and business writers applied their expertise to the roots and consequences of the global credit crunch,” says a spokesperson for the Financial Times. The six books place on this year’s shortlist together sum up what went wrong in the financial crisis and may provide a route map away from the error-strewn past.

Partnoy’s expertise has landed him several high profile media interviews this year, including multiple interviews on CBS’s 60 Minutes, PBS’s NewsHour with Jim Lehrer and Comedy Central’s The Daily Show with John Stewart. Partnoy’s release of The Match King further solidified his position in both academia and the financial business world as a leading expert in securities law and fraud.

Along with the distinction as being named the best business book of the year by one of the world’s leading business publication, the winner also receives a £30,000 prize. The finalist will be announced on October 29, 2009, at the awards dinner in London.

Professor Partnoy teaches and writes in the areas of corporate law, corporate finance and financial market regulation at the University of San Diego School of Law. He is also the director of the school's new Center for Corporate and Securities Law. His other publications include Infectious Greed: How Deceit and Risk Corrupted the Financial Markets (Henry Holt), F.I.A.S.C.O.: Blood in the Water on Wall Street (W.W. Norton) and more than 20 articles on various topics related to financial market regulation. Before joining the USD faculty in 1997, Partnoy worked as an investment banker at CS First Boston and Morgan Stanley in New York, and as an attorney at Covington and Burling in Washington, D.C. He was co-recipient of the 1999 Thorsnes Prize for Excellence in Teaching and is the 2004 Herzog Endowed Scholar.

About the Center for Corporate and Securities Law at USD School of Law
The Center for Corporate and Securities Law helps enrich scholarly and popular debate on a wide range of issues related to corporate governance, financial regulation and other business law topics. The center hosts academic and public conferences, publishes papers and discussions from those conferences, provides point-of-contact for popular and business media on issues of broad public interest, supports faculty and student research, and sponsors public lectures.

About the University of San Diego School of Law
The University of San Diego School of Law is a center of academic excellence focused on preparing its students for legal practice in the new century.  One of the most selective law schools in the country, the School of Law’s nationally recognized faculty create a demanding, yet welcoming environment that emphasizes individualized education.  USD law school graduates consistently score higher than the state average on the California Bar Exam and go on to practice law throughout the country and abroad, forming an influential network of alumni.  The USD School of Law is one of only 81 law schools in the country to have a chapter of the Order of the Coif, the most distinguished rank of American law schools. The school is accredited by the American Bar Association and is a member of the Association of American Law Schools.  Founded in 1954, the law school is part of the University of San Diego, a private, nonprofit, independent, Roman Catholic university chartered in 1949.

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