Prof. Michael Heller
“ There’s only a handful of simple stories, six of them, that everyone uses to claim everything in the world. Savvy governments and businesses mix and match those very small handful of stories to steer you to do what they want. ”
Michael Heller is the Lawrence A. Wien Professor of Real Estate Law at Columbia Law School. He writes and teaches about who gets what and why. His writings range over innovation and entrepreneurship, corporate governance, biomedical research policy, real estate development, African-American and Native American land ownership, and post-socialist economic transition. Before joining Columbia Law in 2002, Heller taught at the University of Michigan Law School where he received the L. Hart Wright Award for excellence in teaching. He has taught at NYU, UCLA, and Yale Law Schools and was a fellow at the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences. Prior to entering academia, he worked at the World Bank on post-socialist legal transition. Heller served as a law clerk for Judge James Browning of the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals. Heller has authored numerous articles in leading law journals and widely reviewed books. He is the co-author of Mine! How the Hidden Rules of Ownership Control Our Lives and author of The Gridlock Economy: How Too Much Ownership Wrecks Markets, Stops Innovation, and Costs Lives.
