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USD Law Professor Frank Partnoy's New Book Receiving Early Praise

San Diego (June 27, 2012) – Frank Partnoy, the University of San Diego School of Law's George E. Barrett Professor of Law and Finance, has released a new book titled Wait: The Art and Science of Delay (PublicAffairs, 2012).

If you are curious what Bill Clinton, the Chicago Daily Tribune, Buster Keaton, Wall Street, and a little girl throwing back a foul ball her father caught at a major league baseball game all have in common, watch the final version of the book trailer on YouTube.

National press coverage of the book began this week on CBS This Morning, where Partnoy was interviewed by Charlie Rose, Erica Hill and Gayle King about the new book. Watch the interview online.

A book review by a leading author and psychology researcher Christopher Chabris ran in The Wall Street Journal this past weekend, and the first major UK review also is in, a light-hearted one focused on procrastination from the Daily Mail.

Partnoy ran two adapted excerpts this past weekend as well. One in the Financial Times on how watching tennis returns at Wimbledon can help us make better decisions, and the other in The Wall Street Journal on the pernicious effects of billing by the hour.

Some early praise for WAIT is below:

• Kirkus STARRED REVIEW: “Partnoy’s results are groundbreaking …. A fascinating addition to the study of decision-making. File alongside Malcolm Gladwell, Dan Ariely, Jonah Lehrer.”
• CBS News MoneyWatch: “marvelous … WAIT is an impassioned and thought-provoking book” (Margaret Heffernan)
• Strategy + Business: “Gladwell-esque … Procrastinators everywhere will rejoice.” (Justin Pettit)
• Publishers Weekly: “Entertaining and provocative”
• Washington Post Express: “Citing fascinating studies in tennis serves and first dates, he deftly makes a case for exercising something we could all use more of: patience. Plus, you gotta love a guy who dedicates his book to his golden retriever.” (Holley Simmons) [NOTE: Fletch is a lab, not a golden, but otherwise this review is perfect.]
• Roger Lowenstein, author of The End of Wall Street and When Genius Failed: “a beguilingly readable treatise … WAIT will naturally and rightly be compared to Daniel Kahneman’s Thinking, Fast and Slow as a trail-blazing book exploring the hidden crannies and the treacherous pitfalls of human decision-making. I whole-heartedly recommend it.”
• Bethany McLean, co-author of The Smartest Guys in the Room and All the Devils Are Here: “Wait is one of those rare books that will change not just the way you think, but the way you act. The book is full of ideas that are fascinating, useful—and at times mind-blowing. I was captivated.”
• Daniel H. Pink, author of Drive and A Whole New Mind: “Frank Partnoy turns conventional wisdom on its head with this counterintuitive approach to decision-making …. WAIT is a great read, chock full of fascinating insights.”

Partnoy will be writing and speaking a lot during the upcoming weeks, and will post updates on his website. Follow Professor Partnoy on Twitter or subscribe to his Facebook posts.

About Frank Partnoy

Professor Frank Partnoy is the director of USD School of Law's new Center for Corporate and Securities Law. He teaches and writes in the areas of corporate law, corporate finance and financial market regulation. Partnoy's other publications include The Match King: Ivar Kreuger, The Financial Genius Behind a Century of Wall Street Scandals (PublicAffairs, 2009); Infectious Greed: How Deceit and Risk Corrupted the Financial Markets (Henry Holt, 2003), and FIASCO: Blood In The Water On Wall Street (W.W. Norton, 1997) as well as 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 was the 2004 Herzog Endowed Scholar.

About USD 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 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.