Larry D. Soderquist – Captain, United States Army

Larry D. Soderquist (B.S. Eastern Michigan 1966; J.D. Harvard 1969; D.Min. Trinity 1998) joined the Vanderbilt faculty following distinguished tenure on the law faculty at Notre Dame. He came to teaching after decorated service as an Army Captain during the Vietnam War and after practicing law on Wall Street with Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy. During the Cold War, he was a Fulbright Scholar at Moscow State University. He has held numerous military positions, including as chief intelligence officer on a General’s staff.

Professor Soderquist is one of the best known and most respected corporate and securities law professors in America. He has authored a multitude of books and articles on these subjects, as well as two novels set on a university campus. Understanding the Securities Laws, the most widely distributed book of its kind, is about to have its influence expanded further by publication in the People’s Republic of China. Professor Soderquist is the Director of Vanderbilt’s Corporate and Securities Law Institute, and he edits the Practicing Law Institute’s Corporate and Securities Law Library and moderates its Securities Law Listserv. He is a frequent speaker on securities law, and his expertise and opinions are sought often by national media, such as the Wall Street Journal and the Dow Jones News Service.

Professor Soderquist’s distinction was recognized in 1999 by Harvard Law School when it appointed him the inaugural holder of the Joseph Flom Visiting Chair in Law and Business. In addition to his career in law, Professor Soderquist is an ordained minister who has been active in many religious pursuits.

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Larry Soderquist has authored ten books, The Iraqi Provocation being his second Eric Berg Mystery. He filled  the
Joseph Flom Visiting Chair at Harvard and is frequently interviewed by The Wall Street Journal and other national media. He has held a variety of military positions, including chief intelligence officer on a general’s staff, and has lived many places, including Moscow during the Cold War. He teaches law at Vanderbilt and consults with Dinsmore & Shohl, and he now splits his time between Nashville and a farm in the Tennessee hills.

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2 September 2005:

Memorial set September 10, 2005 for VU’s Soderquist
Law professor, author, minister dies at 61 from complications of injuries from crash

Vanderbilt law professor and author Larry Soderquist was remembered yesterday as an individual with many talents and “contrasting” interests who wrote novels and always had time for his students.

“Larry always had a winning smile and a gentle demeanor that endeared him to his students,” said Nashville lawyer and friend Bob Tuke, who taught with him as an adjunct professor at Vanderbilt. “He was one of those people who was always positive.”

Mr. Soderquist, 61, a former Army captain and one-time Wall Street lawyer, died August 20, 2005, of complications from injuries he received in a July 3, 2005, automobile accident.

A memorial service is scheduled for 11 a.m. Sept. 10 at Westminster Presbyterian Church, 3900 West End Ave.

Visitation will be 4-7 p.m. Sept. 9 at the church and after the service on Saturday. His ashes will be buried September 21, 2005, at Arlington National Cemetery.

“He was a man of many talents and contrasting interests,” said Ann Soderquist, his wife of 37 years. “He was a minister. He rode motorcycles, flew airplanes and wrote books.”

“He was a kind person. The thing I’ve heard most from students and former students since Larry’s death is that he was exceedingly generous with his time for students,” she said.

Mr. Soderquist was one of the nation’s most respected securities law scholars and was director of the Corporate and Securities Law Institute at Vanderbilt.

He also taught Soviet law and had been a Fulbright Scholar at Moscow State University during the Cold War.

An ordained minister, he served as volunteer chaplain at the Department of Veterans Affairs Hospital and to the Belle Meade Police Department. He also conducted services for indigents buried by Metro Social Services.

He had been a professor of law at the University of Notre Dame when he joined the Vanderbilt faculty in 1981. Before that, he had spent five years at the Wall Street law firm of Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy. He was counsel to the national law firm Baker, Donelson, Bearman, Caldwell & Berkowitz PC.

Since 1988, Mr. Soderquist had edited the Practising Law Institute’s Corporate and Securities Law Library.

A native of Ypsilanti, Mich., he was a graduate of Eastern Michigan University. He earned his law degree from Harvard in 1969 and a doctor of ministry degree from Trinity Theological Seminary in Newburgh, Ind., in 1998.

In addition to his wife, other survivors include two sons, Hans Soderquist of New York and Lars Söderkvist of Chicago; his mother, Emma Soderquist of Zephyrhills, Fla., and a sister, Delores Brehm of McLean, Va.

The Vanderbilt Law School has established the Larry Soderquist Memorial Fund to establish a student award or scholarship in his name. Contributions can be sent to Development & Alumni Relations, VU Law School, 131 21st Ave. S., Suite 291, Nashville, Tenn. 37203-1181.

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