Panel discussion at Chicago-Kent to focus on retirement savings

Chicago-Kent College of Law at Illinois Tech will host a panel discussion on Professor William Birdthistle's new book, Empire of the Fund: The Way We Save Now (Oxford University Press 2016), on October 24 from 5 to 6:30 p.m. at 565 West Adams Street in Chicago.

In his new book, Professor Birdthistle exposes and critiques what he calls the richest and riskiest experiment in our nation's financial history: to change the way we save money. The experiment's hypothesis is that millions of ordinary, untrained, and busy citizens can successfully manage trillions of dollars in a financial system governed by powerful financial institutions. The book explores the obstacles that individual investors face when using mutual funds to save and offers solutions for how Americans can safeguard their individual financial destinies as well as the nation's fiscal strength.

Panelists include Professor Lori Andrews, director of the Institute for Science, Law and Technology at Chicago-Kent; Chicago-Kent Professor William Birdthistle; and Steven Davidoff Solomon, New York Times columnist and professor of law and co-director of the Berkeley Center for Law, Business and the Economy at the University of California, Berkeley, School of Law.

The conference is free and open to the public, but attendees are asked to register at alumni.kentlaw.iit.edu/empire_of_the_fund.

Founded in 1888, Chicago-Kent College of Law is the law school of Illinois Institute of Technology, also known as Illinois Tech, a private, technology-focused, research university offering undergraduate and graduate degrees in engineering, science, architecture, business, design, human sciences, applied technology, and law.