Vorenberg Resigns as Law School Dean

After Law School Dean James Vorenberg '49 announced in April that he would resign from the deanship after next year, his colleagues at the Law School and around the nation praised him for his handling of a faculty plagued by deep ideological differences.

But to some of Vorenberg's peers, his tenure was a Pyrrhic victory at best. Because when the faculty became deadlocked over tenure decisions, it was President Bok who twice in recent years breached the Law School's traditional autonomy and stepped in to make the final decision.

And Bok--who will appoint Vorenberg's successor has said the next dean will have to do more than just keep order. In a recent interview, the president said Vorenberg's successor will have to be able to fashion faculty consensus to make improvements on important educational issues.

"There are a substantial number of problems that involve the quality of education, the quality of student life at the school, the future of the library, financial resources, building needs, that should not be deferred," Bok said. "The faculty must be able to put aside its divisive discussions which have focused on controversial tenure appointments and direct its concerns toward this other range of issues."

Bok, a former dean of the Law School, said he hopes Vorenberg's successor will force the faculty to change its focus.

"This range of issues needs to be addressed, and has been put to the side in the recent preoccupation with appointments matters," Bok said. "I would hope that the next dean would engage the faculty in a harmonious and productive discussion and resolution of these issues."

The faculty's narrow denial of tenure last year to Assistant Professor of Law Clare Dalton--upheld by Bok in February--showed just how difficult it was for Vorenberg to build consensus within the faculty.

Dalton's case was the latest chapter in the Law School's struggle over Critical Legal Studies (CLS), a radical school of legal thought which holds that the law reflects social and economic values, and not abstract principles.

Dalton, a CLS adherent, received support from a majority of the faculty, including Vorenberg, but not the two-thirds she needed for tenure. Eighteen professors subsequently petitioned Bok for a review, charging the Law School faculty with political bias.

Bok's decision to deny Dalton's appeal--based on the advice of a five-member committee of outside legal experts--reopened old wounds. More than 50 members of the Women's Law Students Association abruptly confronted Bok at a private Quincy House dinner two days after his decision, and in the most unusual episode of the debate, Professor of Law Charles Nesson made his views known through a tape recorded message distributed to the Law School faculty. They all said Bok's committee was prejudiced against Dalton's political beliefs.

But according to Vorenberg and other professors, the turmoil has been limited to tenure issues. The deadlocks over appointments, they say, have not impaired other faculty functions.

"The disputes had to do exclusively with specific appointments," Vorenberg said. "I don't think that's kept the faculty from experimenting with new aspects of legal education. If one looks at the 1980s, and asks whether it was a period of change or a period of standing still, I think the former is a fairer characterization."

Associate Dean and Bussey Professor of Law Frank E. A. Sander agrees with Vorenberg's view, saying, "I think the politics have not been a serious distraction."

But Sander did say that the new dean will have to continue to unify the Law School's diverse faculty, a job he said he thought Vorenberg had done well. "One of the challenges for the new dean--which was also a challenge for the old dean--will be to harness that diverse group and make it function together," Sander said.

Deans at other law schools have said that Vorenberg's handling of the conflicts over appointments was as good as anyone's could have been.

"I would say he found himself in the worst possible situation and handled it in an excellent way," Geoffrey Stone, dean of the University of Chicago Law School, said after Vorenberg's resignation. "It was one of the biggest problems any dean in American law schools has faced in recent years. He handled it in a way that was much to his credit."

But nagging concerns over the political divisions within the faculty have made the search for Vorenberg's successor a more crucial issue for the faculty.

"I think the selection of the new dean may be the most important issue [for the faculty]," Visiting Professor of Law Charles J. Ogletree said, calling the dean search "the most important time for Harvard Law School since the retirement of Dean [Erwin] Griswold."

In May, the search for Vorenberg's successor became potentially divisive in itself when the faculty for the first time in Law School history elected the committee to advise the president on his dean selection. Professors expressed concern' that the six-member committee, which includes members from both sides of the politically divided faculty, might have trouble narrowing down the field of candidates.

The committee consists of Professor of Law Gerald E. Frug, a CLS adherent; Professor of Law David Kennedy and Tyler Professor of Constitutional Law Laurence H. Tribe '62, active supporters of Dalton's tenure; Professor of Law Robert C. Clark, one of the Law School's most vocal opponents of CLS; Cromwell Professor of Law David L. Shapiro '54; and Fessenden Professor of Law Bernard Wolfman.

But after the preliminary meetings, Tribe, who was elected to chair the six-member panel, said that he did not foresee any difficulties working with the different factions and expected to make progress through the summer.

"We've made a great deal of progress and I don't anticipate any problems," Tribe said.

Although Tribe and the committee would not discuss their deliberations, Bok said that he would look for administrative ability in a candidate for the post, but not necessarily prior experience.

"We are still primarily seeking academic leadership for the school, and we will look for academic qualities," Bok said.

Bok also said he would consider departing with Law School tradition and appoint a professor from outside the Law School to take the dean's post.

"I don't think one can start this process with a prediction of inside or out," Bok said. "It would be a big mistake not to pay attention to any potential source of candidates, since it is a difficult job. We do not want to overlook outside possibilities any more than inside ones."

Yet the presence of a new dean might not bridge the political rifts, professors say, in a Law School where all important issues are decided by faculty vote.

"Who knows, the dean is powerful and not powerful," Associate Dean and Professor of Law Andrew L. Kaufman '51 said. "He is the administrative head of the school and he has a big leadership role. But the faculty is not changing all at once."

While politics continued to be a source of controversy at the Law School, Vorenberg was able to look ahead to the Law School's academic future, presiding over the start in October of the first long-range planning process and internal review the Law School has conducted in over 25 years.

Kaufman, who is helping lead the special planning committee, said that future evaluations of the Law School would "be looking at the education program at this school and the long range planning," and not at the political problems of CLS.

The review, which will likely be followed by a large fundraising campaign, will examine the schools academic and financial programs, as well as programs with crowded facilities. Bok said Vorenberg timed his resignation so that his successor would be able to begin and conduct the capital fund drive--the first in 20 years--which the internal review is expected to spark.

And while Vorenberg led the Law School in its extensive examination of its education process and its facilities, professors said Vorenberg's legacy would include reforms in the curriculum. Colleagues credited Vorenberg with helping enlarge the Law School's clinical program and encouraging more students to pursue careers in public service law.

"This is an exciting time at the Law School," Kaufman said. "It's a rather different school than it was 15 years ago."