Ray Campbell
Assistant Professor, Peking University School of Transnational Law
Ray Campbell has worked successfully as a journalist, big firm partner, Internet entrepreneur, and law professor. He currently serves as an assistant professor at Peking University School of Transnational Law in Shenzhen, China, where his teaching includes Civil Procedure and Professional Responsibility. His current scholarship in progress focuses on the changing legal profession.
After graduating from Yale, Ray worked for two years for the Nashville Banner, covering the state politics and federal courts beats. He then attended law school at the University of Virginia, which led to clerkships for Judge Malcolm Wilkey on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit and Chief Justice Warren Burger on the United States Supreme Court.
Following law school, Ray became a partner at Kirkland & Ellis and then Jenner & Block in Chicago, handling large scale commercial litigation matters. In 1996, he started an internet retailer of musical instruments and recording gear, zZounds.com, and resigned from Jenner & Block at the start of 1997 to devote full time to the enterprise. In 1999 zZounds was merged into HarmonyCentral.com, the largest content and community site for rock musicians, and Ray became Chairman and CEO of the combined, venture funded enterprise. After an exhilarating (sometimes terrifying) up and down ride through the dotcom economy, Ray sold the zZounds part in 2000 and Harmony Central in 2005. zZounds remains the largest pure play internet retailer of musical instruments and recording gear, and Harmony Central the largest community site for musicians. After his entrepreneurial stint, Ray began teaching law school, first as a visitor at Penn State University’s Dickinson School of Law and now at Peking University’s School of Transnational Law.
