The Role of Law in Celebrity Economist Ben Stein’s Career

Editor’s Note: This post is written by the head of Shearman & Sterling’s global intellectual property and technology transactions group. It is part of a contributor series that expands on interviews he conducts on his site, Hsu Untied , which look at the human side of lawyers.

By Richard Hsu, Partner and Global Head of Intellectual Property and Technology Transactions, Shearman & Sterling

Today, my special guest isBen Stein , economist, movie actor, author, novelist, screenwriter, law school professor, television show host and comedian.

A graduate of Columbia University and Yale Law School, Ben never had any aspirations to be a lawyer; but instead stumbled into a series of jobs that ultimately led to him to serving in the Nixon and Ford administrations and achieving overnight fame in the iconic movie Ferris Bueller’s Day Off .

Ben was kind enough to take time from his busy speaking schedule to talk with me from one of his many vacation homes around the world.

[Scroll below to listen to the full interview]

Here are some key highlights:

• Why he went to law school . When he graduated from Columbia University, his brother-in-law, a successful lawyer and Harvard Law School graduate, told Ben that he should go to Yale Law School because it was like a “country club.” Instead, however, he found it extremely difficult and had to drop out from illness — he subsequently recovered and successfully graduated.

• Working as a Lawyer . Ben never wanted to work as a lawyer, but when he graduated from Yale Law School, he worked as a trial lawyer at the Federal Trade Commission and was assigned what he describes as “an impossible case” which he said “Perry Mason himself could not have won.”

• White House Speech Writer . Ben worked as a speechwriter for President Nixon while his father was the Chairman of the President’s Economic Advisors and then went on to work for President Ford.

• Career as Economist . After getting a job as an economist at the Department of Commerce, Ben went on to teach Law and Economics at Pepperdine Law School Law and then moved back to New York to write columns and editorials for Barron’s and The Wall Street Journal.

• Film and Acting Career . While at The Wall Street Journal, he was sent to Los Angeles to cover Hollywood stories, so he started writing screenplays. He got his first movie role in “The Wild Life” (sequel to “Fast Times at Ridgement High”) and was then asked to be a voice in “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off.” During the filming of that movie, John Hughes, the director, asked him to ad lib a couple of scenes on screen and he became an overnight star on the lot of Paramount’s Stage 15.

• His Favorite Experience . While he was at Yale Law School, Ben took a course from the world famous film critic Stanley Kauffmann , who got him a part-time job teaching film at American University.

• Other Accomplishments . Ben wrote many screenplays, novels and investment books, some of which were endorsed by Warren Buffett.

• What he’s doing now . Ben is a frequent speaker and commentator on television, while traveling around the world in his many vacation homes.

• Best advice he’s ever gotten . When he was 42, Ben asked a friend “what should be my life goal?” and his friend said “live to 43.

https://soundcloud.com/hsu-untied/bstein