The University of Arizona James E. Rogers College of Law has created a new endowed professorship in honor of Shearman & Sterling of counsel Bob Mundheim. The Robert H. Mundheim Professorship of Law and Business was established through a gift made by a group of his colleagues, friends and former students.

“I am truly honored that donors have created this professorship, particularly since it was made possible by the many people who I know personally and professionally,” said Bob Mundheim. “I thank them for investing in faculty excellence and thank the University of Arizona Law for honoring me with this professorship.”

Bob joined University of Arizona Law in 2011 as a professor of corporate law and finance where, each spring, he teaches the popular annual seminar on Corporate Governance. As part of the seminar, Bob moderates conversations with national leaders in business and law, relating their experiences in and perspectives about corporate governance, markets, ethics and career development.

Praised by University of Arizona Law for being “a leader across the worlds of law and business building an astonishing career that spans more than six decades,” Bob is deeply committed to education and advancing the legal profession and has influenced countless law students and legal peers.

Among his many influential roles, he has served as the University Professor of Law and Finance and Dean at the University of Pennsylvania Law School (‘Penn Law’); as general counsel of the U.S. Treasury Department, where he played a substantial role in successfully negotiating the release of the U.S. hostages in Iran; as special counsel to the Securities and Exchange Commission; and as executive vice president and general counsel for Salomon Inc. Since 1999, he has been of counsel at Shearman & Sterling.

While Dean at Penn Law, Bob contributed to raising the profile of professionalism, ethics and public service at the Law School and made a number of innovations in the teaching of professional responsibility, including: helped organize the experimental first year mandatory intensive course in Professional Responsibility – a unique program meant to emphasize the importance of ethics and professional responsibility in the legal profession – and the institution of a mandatory public service requirement for graduation, making Penn Law the first top-ranked law school to establish such a requirement.

Beyond his distinguished law career, Bob has also had an extraordinary record of service to the community with many organizations benefitting from his leadership. Today, he is a trustee of the New School; a trustee of the Curtis Institute of Music; a trustee of the American College of Governance Counsel; and a director of the Salzburg Global Seminar. He was the President of the American Academy in Berlin for six years and received the Officer's Cross of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany in recognition of his service to the Academy. He has also chaired the American Bar Association's Standing Committee on Ethics and Professional Responsibility and in 2020 received the ABA’s Michael Franck Professional Responsibility Award. He also served on the Council of the American Law Institute (ALI) for nearly 30 years and is the recipient of the ALI’s Distinguished Service Award.

The inaugural Mundheim Professorship of Law and Business was awarded to Barak Orbach who serves as the founding director of the Business Law program at University of Arizona Law.