He practiced for three years as an associate at McDermott, Will & Emery in Chicago.
He joined the faculty of the University of Illinois College of Law in 2002 and became the Mildred Van Voorhis Jones Chair, Associate Dean for Research, and Co-Director of the Illinois Business Law and Policy Program.
His interests included partnerships and limited liability companies, corporate and securities law, choice of law, financial regulation, white-collar crime, legal ethics, and the legal profession.
His publications include: He served the legal-academic community in a variety of capacities, including on the Executive Committee of the American Association of Law Schools (AALS) Section on Securities Regulation, as chair of the AALS Section on Agency, Partnership and LLCs, and as editor and co-editor of The Supreme Court Economic Review.
Ribstein was the founder of Ideoblog (www.ideoblog.org) and the leading contributor to the Truth on the Market blog (www.truthonthemarket.com).