Marion Rice Kirkwood Professor of Law Lawrence M. Friedman received a 2016 Professional Achievement Award from the University of Chicago. The award, presented at a dinner held November 4 at the Drake Hotel in Chicago, honored five exceptional University of Chicago alumni for their achievements and benefits bestowed on their communities.

Friedman was recognized for leadership in the law and society movement, a scholarly enterprise that explains legal phenomena in social terms, and also for his ability to make these important issues accessible to lay audiences. A world renowned scholar with a career spanning some five decades, Friedman is the most-cited law professor in the field of legal history and is the author of many books, most recently Impact: How Law Affects Behavior (2016). His books A History of American Law (3rd edition, 2005) and American Law in the 20th Century (2002) have become classics in legal education. He holds six honorary law degrees and is a fellow in the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Before joining the Stanford Law School faculty in 1968, he was a professor of law at the University of Wisconsin Law School and at Saint Louis University School of Law. Professor Friedman has an appointment (by courtesy) with the Stanford University Department of History and the Department of Political Science.