John R. Raben/Sullivan & Cromwell Fellow Lecture
The John R. Raben/Sullivan & Cromwell Fellowship Fund brings to the Law School leading experts in economics and business law to deliver a lecture that is open to the entire Yale community.
The Fund was established to honor John R. Raben '39 a Partner at Sullivan & Cromwell LLP upon his death in 1975.
2025-2026 Lecture
Josh Lerner, the Jacob H. Schiff Professor at Harvard Business School, speaking on “The Government as Investor in an Era of Great Power Competition.” Professor Lerner focuses his research on venture capital and private equity organizations, as well as innovation policy. He co-directs the Harvard Business School Private Capital Project, and has been recently recognized as among the forty most influential economists worldwide by ScholarGPS and research.com. Professor Lerner previously co-directed the National Bureau of Economic Research’s (NBER) Productivity, Innovation, and Entrepreneurship program and currently acts as co-editor of NBER’s journal, Entrepreneurship and Innovation Policy and the Economy. In addition, he is the founding director of the Private Capital Research Institute, a nonprofit devoted to encouraging access to data and research, and he serves as a frequent leader of and participant in World Economic Forum projects and events.
All Raben Lectures
Alphabetical Index
Bebchuk, Lucian (Harvard Law) (2004-2005)
Bloom, Nicholas (Stanford University) (2023-2024)
Coffee, John C. Jr. '69 (Columbia Law) (2000-2001)
Cohen, H. Rodgin (Sullivan & Cromwell LLP) (2011-2012)
Dell, Melissa (Harvard) (2024-2025)
Ferguson, Niall (Harvard) (2015-2016)
Gibbons, Robert (MIT Sloan) (2017-2018)
Gilson, Ronald J. '71 (Stanford and Columbia Law) (2001-2002)
Hart, Oliver (Harvard) (2005-2006)
Holmstrom, Bengt (MIT) (2006-2007)
Lerner, Josh (Harvard) (2025-2026)
Levin, Simon (Princeton) (2016-2017)
Lo, Andrew W. (MIT Sloan) (2013-2014)
Mahoney, Paul G. '84 (UVA Law) (2002-2003)
Mokyr, Joel (Northwestern) (2018-2019)
Mullainathan, Sendhil (Harvard) (2014-2015)
Rajan, Raghuram G. (U. of Chicago Booth) (2007-2008)
Ramseyer, J. Mark (Harvard Law School) (2003-2004)
Rauh, Joshua D. (Stanford GSAS) (2022-2023)
Reinhart, Carmen (World Bank) (2021-2022)
Schoar, Antoinette (MIT Sloan) (2012-2013)
Thaler, Richard H. (U. of Chicago Booth) (2010-2011)
Zingales, Luigi (U. of Chicago Booth) (2008-2009)
Past Raben Lecture Highlights
2025-2026 Raben Lecture: John Raben, Marianna Ayres, YLS Dean Cristina Rodríguez '00, Harvard Bus. Prof. Josh Lerner, YLS Prof. & Ctr. Co-Dir. Roberta Romano '80, Nancy Liao '05, and YLS Prof. & Ctr. Co-Dir. Sarath Sanga '14
2025-2026 Raben Lecture: Harvard Bus. Prof. Josh Lerner and audience
2024-2025 Raben Lecture: Harvard Econ. Prof. Melissa Dell
2023-2024 Raben Lecture: Stanford Econ. Prof. Nicholas Bloom
2022-2023 Raben Lecture: YLS Deputy Dean Yair Listokin '05, Stanford Bus. Prof. Joshua D. Rauh, YLS Prof. & Ctr. Dir. Roberta Romano '80, and Nancy Liao '05
2021-2022 Raben Lecture: World Bank Group SVP and Chief Economist Carmen Reinhart
2018-2019 Raben Lecture: Northwestern Prof. of Arts and Sciences Joel Mokyr
2017-2018 Raben Lecture: MIT Sloan Prof. Robert Gibbons and audience
2016-2017 Raben Lecture: Princeton Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Prof. Simon Levin
2015-2016 Raben Lecture: Harvard History Prof. Niall Ferguson
2014-2015 Raben Lecture: Harvard Econ. Prof. Sendhil Mullainathan
2013-2014 Raben Lecture: MIT Sloan Prof. Andrew W. Lo and audience
2012-2013 Raben Lecture: MIT Sloan Prof. Antoinette Schoar
2011-2012 Raben Lecture: H. Rodgin Cohen, Partner and Senior Chairman, Sullivan & Cromwell LLP
2010-2011 Raben Lecture: U. of Chicago Booth Prof. Richard H. Thaler
2008-2009 Raben Lecture: U. of Chicago Booth Prof. Luigi Zingales and YLS Prof. & Ctr. Dir. Roberta Romano '80
2007-2008 Raben Lecture: U. of Chicago Booth Prof. Raghuram Rajan
2006-2007 Raben Lecture: MIT Econ. Prof. Bengt Holmstrom
2005-2006 Raben Lecture: Then YLS Dean Harold Koh, Harvard Econ. Prof. Oliver Hart, and YLS Prof. & Ctr. Dir. Roberta Romano '80
2004-2005 Raben Lecture: Harvard Law Prof. Lucian Bebchuk
John R. Raben ’39
John R. Raben '39 was a partner of the Sullivan & Cromwell law firm. He was counsel to investment banking and accounting firms and associations, including the Financial Accounting Standards Board, and counsel to the industry task force that helped draft the Securities Investor Protection Corporation Legislation. Upon his death in 1975, Sullivan & Cromwell established a fellowship fund in his honor at the Law School, which was augmented by his friends.
“No chronicle of any length could capture how potent a figure John’s character, intellect and spirit made him with his clients and those with whom he dealt on behalf of his clients, and with his partners, associates and other co-workers at Sullivan & Cromwell… For all of John’s intensity and rigor as a lawyer, he never confused anyone for very long about what the man was like; warm and thoughtful, generous and forgiving. And in spite of the strength and confidence he projected, there was a boyish element, a shyness in him, a paradox with roots, one judges, in his awareness that his great gifts were, after all, gifts.”
— John F. Cannon, then a younger partner at Sullivan & Cromwell, speaking of John R. Raben for a firm history.