Clinical Professor of Accounting, Booth School of Business, The University of Chicago; BS 1977, University of Illinois at Urbana, MBA 1981, Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University, Ph.D. 1991, University of California at Berkeley.
Leonard Soffer rejoined the faculty of the University of Chicago in 2007. He was previously an Associate Professor of Accounting and Associate Dean of the Honors College at the University of Illinois at Chicago, where he was named the Accounting Professor of the Year. He also has served on the faculty of Northwestern University's Kellogg School of Management.
Professor Soffer has taught financial reporting, managerial accounting, and corporate valuation courses to both MBAs and Executive MBAs. He previously taught the consolidations and foreign currency translation modules of a nationally recognized CPA review course. He also teaches a financial reporting course to executive education students.
Professor Soffer's research focuses on the use of accounting information and analyst reports, particularly in the context of corporate valuation. His research has been published in The Journal of Accounting Research, The Review of Accounting Studies, Contemporary Accounting Research, Accounting Horizons, Managerial Finance, and The Review of Accounting and Finance. He is a co-author of the book Financial Statement Analysis: A Valuation Approach.
Professor Soffer is a member of the American Accounting Association, The American Institute of Certified Public Accountants, and the Illinois CPA Society. He served for 12 years on the Accounting Principles Committee of the Illinois CPA Society, and chaired or cochaired the committee for three years. Before entering academia, Professor Soffer worked in accounting and finance positions, most recently in the Mergers and Acquisitions group of USG Corporation. He was a winner of the prestigious Elijah Watt Sells Award for his performance on the Uniform CPA Exam.
