Wassersteins Endow Law Professorship

Dean of the Law School Robert C. Clark yesterday announced the creation of a new professorship in public interest law.

The new position, named for New York entrepreneur Morris Wasserstein, will be funded by a $2.3 million grant from Wasserstein's family.

"Harvard Law School's leadership in the area of public interest law will continue through the generous assistance of the family of Morris Wasserstein," Clark said in a press release. "The Wasserstein professorship will support valuable teaching and research in this important area of law, benefiting students and society at large."

According to Michael Chmura, news director at the law school, the new professor will likely help to direct students' practical experience in clinical courses.

The coursework in the department of public interest law at the Law School centers mainly on clinical work, but students also take classes covering topics including human rights and discrimination law, Professor Christopher Edley Jr. said.

Through the department, more than 50 percent of second- and third-year law students work in "real-world practice" situations, including three local teaching clinics, according to the press release.

The grant for the new professorship is the third major gift Wasserstein has made to the Law School since 1990.

The Morris Wasserstein Public Interest Summer Fellowship Program, established in 1992, helps support students exploring public interest law during the summer semester. The Morris Wasserstein Public Interest Fellowship Program funds the visits of public interest practitioners.

Past fellows include Neal Kravitz, principal Democratic deputy special counsel to the Senate Whitewater investigation; Victor Bolden, NAACP Legal Defense Fund assistant counsel; and Sally Goldfarb, NOW Legal Defense and Education Fund senior staff attorney.

"Those fellowships have had an important impact on student career choices," Edley said yesterday.

Wasserstein's son, Bruce J. Wasserstein, who graduated from the Law School in 1970, is a member of the six-member executive committee for the school's newly-completed fundraising effort.

Wendy Wasserstein, his daughter, is the Tony- and Pulitzer-winning playwright who wrote "The Heidi Chronicles."