Alexander Zhao Elected As 140th President of Harvard Law Review

Alexander Zhao was elected as the 140th president of the Harvard Law Review earlier this month, taking the helm of the prominent student-run publication amid a federal investigation into alleged racial discrimination in its evaluation process.

Zhao — who confirmed his election in an email to The Crimson on Tuesday evening — will steer the Law Review as the Trump administration examines whether its article selection process and membership policies violated Title VI of the Civil Rights Act by allegedly favoring Black and Latino authors and disadvantaging White and Asian applicants.

The journal’s masthead — which is typically announced in early February — has not yet been posted to its website. The Law Review has historically published its masthead online, but the rosters for the newly elected guard and the preceding one are not currently available.

Zhao and his predecessor, Gregory Terrell Seabrooks, did not respond to requests for comment on the status of the masthead’s publication.

In April, the Washington Free Beacon — a conservative publication — published an article accusing the Law Review of discriminating against white applicants, citing leaked memos and internal messages framing authors’ nonwhite racial identities as positive factors in publication decisions and encouraging editors to consider “DEI factors” when reviewing submissions.

Days later, three federal agencies — the Department of Health and Human Services, the Education Department, and the Justice Department — announced investigations into the publication, alleging that its article selection policies may have unlawfully factored race into publication decisions.

But the Law Review pushed back, stating that it “does not consider race, ethnicity, gender, or any other protected characteristic as a basis for recommending or selecting a piece for publication.”

The Trump administration has not provided an update on the investigation since the April announcement.

Zhao received his bachelor’s degree from the University of California, Berkeley in 2021, where he studied electrical engineering, computer science, and business administration. He worked as a data journalist for The Daily Californian — UC Berkeley’s student newspaper — and won first place for best multimedia package in the California Student Media Awards for his analysis of UC Berkeley students’ post-graduate outcomes.

After graduating college, Zhao pursued a master’s degree at Tsinghua University in China as a Schwarzman Scholar, earning an Outstanding Capstone Award at the conclusion of the program. He later interned at Politico and worked as a software engineer for nearly two years before matriculating to HLS.

In January, he wrote about the use of ancient sources in modern law cases, examining the Fourth Circuit’s reliance on Roman law in the 2025 case Elam v. Early. He also serves as a staff editor for the Journal of Law and Technology.

—Staff writer Uy B. Pham can be reached at [email protected] or on Signal at ubp.88. Follow him on X @uybpham.

—Staff writer Sierra R. Pape can be reached at [email protected].