Law School Names Dean

A woman will lead Harvard Law School (HLS) for the first time in its 186-year history, the University announced yesterday.

Elena Kagan, who received tenure in 2001 after only two years as a visiting professor at HLS, has been chosen to replace current HLS Dean Robert C. Clark when he steps down this June, after 14 years at the helm.

“This is a historic day for Harvard Law School,” University President Lawrence H. Summers said to a crowd of cheering HLS students, faculty and administrators yesterday as he officially announced Kagan as the next dean. “I am absolutely confident that she will be a great dean of Harvard Law School.”

Kagan came to Harvard from Washington, D.C., where she worked in the Clinton Administration with Summers as the deputy director of the Domestic Policy Council. She was also nominated to serve on the U.S. Appeals Court for Washington, D.C.—the most coveted judicial appointment after the Supreme Court—but the Senate failed to act on her nomination before it expired in 2000.

The appointment of Kagan to the deanship marks a new beginning in the history of the traditionally staid Law School, which only began admitting women 50 years ago.

“I loved this law school since the moment I arrived here as a student,” Kagan, told faculty and students yesterday. “I’ve always regarded Harvard Law School as a kind of metropolis, the New York City of all law schools—and to be able to have a job in which I think about how to improve this school—that is a dream.”

After graduating from HLS in 1986, Kagan clerked for former U.S. Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall and briefly worked as a practicing lawyer with Williams & Connelly, one of the toughtest litigation firms in Washington—and the firm that defended Clinton during his impeachment hearings—before accepting a teaching position at the University of Chicago’s Law School.

“At Chicago, I learned that no one should be embarassed to use the word community” Kagan said. “At Harvard Law School...building community is a prerequisite to accomplishing many of our most important goals in the future.”

In the next few months, Kagan said she plans to meet with all HLS faculty individually, as well as groups of students, to discuss their needs and their own goals.

She says she plans to use this time as “a listening and learning period. I want to hear concerns and familiarize myself.”

But Kagan is hardly unfamiliar with the administrative challenges presented daily at HLS.

On the Fast Track

After just three years on the faculty, she successfully headed up the Law School’s Locational Options Committee, compiling a comprehensive report that was praised for its balanced examination of options for the school’s expansion—in Cambridge and across the river in Allston.

“Her report left literally not a single stone unturned,” said HLS Professor Martha L. Minow, who served on the Dean Selection Committee.

Faculty and students also praised her teaching and research, which is primarily on constitutional and administrative law, as well as civil procedure.

While in the White House, Kagan worked closely with Clinton to draft the tobacco legislation introduced by Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz, in 1996.

“She’s just so vibrantly bright and so terrifically engaged,” said Benificial Professor of Law Charles Fried, who also served on the selection committee. “And she’s a terrific teacher.”

Among the topics Kagan said she wants to tackle are faculty appointments, gender and race equality, public-interest law, student life, and locational planning—including the future of HLS’ campus.

The Law School faculty, known for their contentious and divisive nature, presented an almost unanimously enthuasiastic opinion of the appointment.

“She is a superb choice,” Story Professor of Law Daniel J. Meltzer ’72 said yesterday after the announcement. “I couldn’t be happier. Elena is acknowledged by everyone as the best choice, and she will do an outstanding job exploring different options...for the Law School.”

“She’s going to be a remarkably effective dean,” said Tyler Professor of Law Lawrence H. Tribe ’62, who was on the selection committee.

Williston Professor of Law Robert H. Mnookin ’64, who sources said was the top internal candidate after Kagan, said he was “delighted that Kagan was appointed. Of course, the job of the dean is tough and challenging, but I wish her the very best.”

The appointment is an unprecendented one in that Kagan is such a young member of the HLS faculty, having only spent four years teaching in Cambridge—two of which as a visiting professor. At age 42, she is the youngest of the last three HLS Deans—Albert M. Sacks who was 50 when appointed, James Vorenberg who was 52, and Clark who was 42.

“She’s only been here for four years as a faculty member, but she was also a student here and is friends with a tremendous amount of the faculty,” said Clark, who was Kagan’s teacher when she was a third-year at HLS. “And in her case, she’s so bright and such a fast learner that you have to multiply all the time she’s spent here to make it equivalent to anyone else.”

Climenko Professor of Law Charles J. Ogletree said that he thought Kagan’s fresh perspective would challenge the Law School to move in a more progressive direction—confronting issues of race, gender, and the lack of attention to public interest law.

“She is a really bold and inspiring choice,” Ogletree said yesterday. “Her progressive perspective, as well as her experience working in diverse settings, enables her to be able to unify people with different ideological viewpoints,” he added.

In Washington, Kagan encountered such ideological battles when she clerked for the liberal Judge Abner Mikva on the D.C. Circuit, who clashed regularly with the leading conservative Circuit Judge Lawrence Silberman.

Ogletree said that the Law School was lucky to secure someone so experienced, especially considering the administrative challenges the upcoming Capital Campaign that was recently launched to raise money for the school’s strategic plan.

“Her experience fighting in Washington certainly prepared her for mediating ideological battles here in Washington,” Ogletree added.

“When I worked with her down in Washington, D.C. for government administration, there was no one who was a sharper and clearer thinker on a whole range of legal issues,” Summers said.

Many say Summers’ Washington connection with Kagan came into play in the selection process.

“He’s known her better and worked with her longer than anyone else here, and I’m sure their history helped Summers gain the confidence he needed to appoint her,” Fried said.

Wearing the Pants at HLS

Kagan’s appointment marks the first time a woman will take the helm at HLS.

“It’s a symbolic event, but also a very natural event in that this institution has changed so much over the past 50 years since we started admitting women. It is definitely time we had a woman lead us,” Clark said.

“Her appointment is certainly a statement of our progress,” Minow said. “Not only are women a dominant force on the faculty now, but they are leading the faculty.”

“She is going to be the best dean ever, she is a visionary,” said HLS third-year Rebecca D. Onie ’97. “She’s just what Harvard Law Schools needs—someone at the helm who will listen to the voices of women here.”

“As dean, it’s essential to be cognisant of all such race and gender issues, and I am fully committed to ensuring that all students here have equivalent opportunities,” Kagan said yesterday.

Students, who have in the past criticized current Dean Clark for not paying enough attention to student life, diversity and public interest law, said they are pleased with the selection.

The Selection

After a nearly half-year search, the appointment does not come as a surprise to many at HLS.

“I think everyone on this faculty was fairly certain that Elena was on the short-list,” Clark said yesterday.

“I would have bet on her long before it was announced,” said Fried.

But other members of the search committee said the search was not so predictable.

“There was no certainty at any time,” said Minow. “We never even discussed the internal candidates as a full group with President Summers.”

Minow added that this search marked “the first time in the school’s history that outside candidates were under serious consideration.”

Stanford Law Dean Kathleen M. Sullivan and University of Chicago Law Professor Richard A. Posner were among the names floated as plausible external candidates.

“We didn’t construct short-lists or rankings when we worked with President Summers,” Fried said. “He used us more as a sounding board for information, he made all the decisions.”

“There was a remarkable degree of excitement when Kagan was announced,” said Minow. “There is a widespread, if not unanimous, view that she is an incredible lawyer, administrator and teacher, and has an ability to inspire trust across a community.”

“Many students and faculty wrote me several hundred e-mails and notes about the dean search,” Summers told students and faculty when he announced Kagan’s selection. “And I took those very seriously,” he said.

Looking Back, Looking Forward

Kagan lauded Clark in front of students and faculty yesterday for making great strides for the Law School during his tenure by reducing class sizes into “seven sections” and appointing over half of the current faculty.

“Bob has done more for this Law School than anyone will ever do, and he has worked harder than anyone will ever work,” she said. “He took on a law school that had serious problems and in the past 14 years, he has made those problems disappear.”

Summers asked students to “be grateful for all that Dean Clark has done for the Law School,” before he announced Kagan as Clark’s successor.

He added that Clark will step down from his dean post to return to being a professor, and that his teaching will be a gift to future generations of HLS students.

—Staff Writer Lauren A.E. Schuker can be reached at schuker@fas.harvard.edu.