Ronald Mann is a professor of law at Columbia, where he teaches courses in commercial finance and electronic commerce. He graduated from the University of Texas in 1985, and after clerking on the Ninth Circuit (Judge Sneed) and the Supreme Court (Justice Powell), he worked in the Solicitor General’s office under Kenneth Starr and Drew Days. He has written extensively about credit cards and other electronic payments systems, the role of patents in financing innovation, and related topics. He will cover the Court’s cases in the areas of banking and intellectual property.