Harvard Law School
Encyclopedia
Harvard Law School is one of the professional graduate school
s of Harvard University
. Located in Cambridge
, Massachusetts
, it is the oldest continually-operating law school
in the United States
and is home to the largest academic law library
in the world. The school is routinely ranked by the U.S. News & World Report
as the second best law school in the United States, behind Yale Law School
.
The current Dean of Harvard Law School
is Martha Minow
, who assumed the role on July 1, 2009. Harvard Law has 246 faculty members. Many are preeminent legal scholars; Harvard Law School faculty were responsible for more downloaded papers on the Social Science Research Network
than any other law school, a fact only partially explained by the school's size.
Harvard Law School has produced a large number of luminaries in law and politics, including the current President of the United States
, Barack Obama
, and former President Rutherford B. Hayes
. World leaders counted among its graduates include the current President of the Republic of China
, Ma Ying-jeou
; the current President of the World Bank Group
, Robert Zoellick
; the current United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights
, Navanethem Pillay; and the former President of Ireland
, Mary Robinson
. Some 149 sitting United States federal judge
s are Harvard Law School graduates; six of the nine sitting justices of the Supreme Court of the United States
attended the law school (Chief Justice
John G. Roberts and Associate Justices
Anthony Kennedy
, Stephen Breyer
, Ruth Bader Ginsburg
, Antonin Scalia
and Elena Kagan
). Seven sitting U.S. Senators
graduated from the school.
Harvard Law School has also educated a significant number of leaders and innovators in the business world. Business leaders counted among its graduates include the current Chairman and CEO of Goldman Sachs
, Lloyd Blankfein
, current Chairman of the Board and majority owner of National Amusements
, billionaire
Sumner Redstone
, current President and CEO of TIAA-CREF
, Roger W. Ferguson, Jr.
, current CEO and Chairman of Toys "R" Us, Gerald L. Storch
, and former CEO of Delta Air Lines
, Gerald Grinstein
, among many others.
Each class in the three-year J.D.
program has approximately 550 students. The first-year (1L) class is broken into seven sections of approximately 80 students who take most first-year classes together. Harvard Law School graduates have accounted for 568 judicial clerkships
in the past three years, including one-quarter of all Supreme Court clerkships. More than 120 from the last five graduating classes have obtained tenure-track law teaching positions.
, the historic center of Harvard University, and contains several architecturally significant buildings.
From 1849 to 1855, the Harvard Branch Railroad
terminated within what would become the present Law School campus, close to its southwest edge. Austin Hall
, the law school's oldest dedicated structure, designed by architect H. H. Richardson, was completed in that vicinity in 1884. The law school's student center, Harkness Commons, was designed by the Bauhaus
's founder, Walter Gropius
, and his firm, along with several law school dormitories. Together they make up the Harvard Graduate Center
complex. Langdell Hall
, the largest building on the law school campus, contains the Harvard Law Library, the most extensive academic law library in the world.
As of 2010, a new complex is rising on the northwest corner of the law school campus, designed by traditionalist architect Robert A. M. Stern
. The complex is set to marry the architectural themes present in Austin and Langdell Halls, as well as the Gropius buildings.
, reopening in 1920. The University of Maryland School of Law
was chartered in 1816, but did not begin classes until 1824, and also closed during the Civil War)
Its origins can be traced to the estate of Isaac Royall, who sold most of his Antigua
n slaves and plantations to move to Medford, Massachusetts
. His Medford estate, the Isaac Royall House
, is now a museum, and includes the only remaining slave quarters in the northeast United States. The estate was passed down to Royall's son, Isaac Royall, Jr.
, who fled Massachusetts as the American Revolution
broke out. Just prior to his death in 1781, Royall, Jr. left land to Harvard, the sale of which was intended for the "endowing of a Professor of Laws at said college, or a Professor of Physics and Anatomy". Harvard took the opportunity to fund its first chair of law. The Royall chair remains today. It traditionally was held by the Dean of the law school. The school's previous Dean, Elena Kagan
, declined the Royall chair, instead giving herself the Charles Hamilton Houston
Professorship.
In 1806, the Royall estate in Medford was returned to Royall, Jr.'s heirs, who sold it and donated the proceeds for the formal foundation of Harvard Law School. The Royall family coat-of-arms was adopted as the school crest, which shows three stacked wheat sheaves beneath the university motto (Veritas, Latin "truth").
. Story's belief in the need for an elite law school based on merit and dedicated to public service helped build the school's reputation at the time, although the contours of these beliefs have not been consistent throughout its history. Enrollment remained low through the 19th century as university legal education was considered to be of little added benefit to apprenticeships in legal practice.
In the 1870s, under Dean Christopher Columbus Langdell
, HLS introduced what has become the standard first-year curriculum
for American law schools—including classes in contracts, property
, torts, criminal law
, and civil procedure
. At Harvard, Langdell also developed the case method
of teaching law, now the dominant pedagogical
model at U.S. law schools. Langdell's notion that law could be studied as a "science" gave university legal education a reason for being distinct from vocational preparation.
While the law school had previously been located on Harvard Yard
, the new system demanded lecture halls suited to the case law and interrogatory Socratic method
of teaching. Henry Hobson Richardson
would later design the law school's first independent home, the Romanesque Austin Hall
, to the north of the Yard, with these needs in mind. This would come to form the nucleus of the current law school campus.
As the 20th century dawned, Dean Langdell's innovations became standard in law school curricula across the country. The school also became the first to elevate legal education to a graduate-only discipline. Yet new theories, such as legal realism
, blossomed at Yale
and Columbia
, while Harvard faculty members were generally known for their conservative approach.
Harvard Law was often believed to be a competitive environment. For example, Dean Berring of University of California, Berkeley School of Law once stated that he "view[ed] Harvard Law School as a samurai ring where you can test your swordsmanship against the swordsmanship of the strongest intellectual warriors from around the nation." This was possibly historically true. When Langdell developed the original law school curriculum, Harvard University
President Charles Eliot
told him to make it "hard and long."
The school maintained a relatively uncompetitive admissions process, but "weeded out" a large number of first year students. This gave rise to the infamous legend of a dean at the school telling incoming students, "Look to your left, look to your right, because one of you won't be here by the end of the year." Scott Turow
's memoir One L
and John Jay Osborn
's novel The Paper Chase describe such an environment.
Whether the school ever was competitive is a subject of debate. A New York Times article from 1894 described in-class moot courts at Harvard as "co-operative."
In addition, Eleanor Kerlow's book Poisoned Ivy: How Egos, Ideology, and Power Politics Almost Ruined Harvard Law School criticized the school for a 1980s political dispute between newer and older faculty members over accusations of insensitivity to minority and feminist issues. Divisiveness over such issues as political correctness
lent the school the title "Beirut
on the Charles
."
In Broken Contract: A Memoir of Harvard Law School, Richard Kahlenberg criticized the school for driving students away from public interest and toward work in high-paying law firms. Kahlenberg's criticisms are supported by Granfield and Koenig's study, which found that "students [are directed] toward service in the most prestigious law firms, both because they learn that such positions are their destiny and because the recruitment network that results from collective eminence makes these jobs extremely easy to obtain."
The school has also been criticized for extremely large first year class sizes (at one point there were 140 students/classroom; as of 2001 there are 80), a cold and aloof administration, and an inaccessible faculty. The latter stereotype is a central plot element of The Paper Chase and appears in Legally Blonde
. Inaccessibility of the faculty was possibly a side effect of Harvard's original admissions process, which may have annoyed faculty by giving them less than stellar students.
This Harvard Law persisted into the latter half of the 20th century, but bears no resemblance to the modern school. The school eventually implemented the once-criticized but now dominant approach pioneered by Dean Robert Hutchins
at Yale Law School
: It shifted the competitiveness to the admissions process. Robert Granfield and Thomas Koenig's 1992 study of Harvard Law students that appeared in The Sociological Quarterly found that students "learn to cooperate with rather than compete against classmates," and that contrary to "less eminent" law schools, students "learn that professional success is available for all who attend, and that therefore, only neurotic 'gunners' try to outdo peers." According to the ABA, in 2007–2008 the school admitted only 11.8% of applicants and no students left as a result of "academic" shortcomings.
Dean Robert C. Clark
is generally given credit for "break[ing] the logjam" of the school's tenure battles and other political disputes. Above all, many of the school's shortcomings were addressed head-on by the administration of Dean Elena Kagan after 2003.
sought to reverse many of the persistent stereotypes about the school when she assumed its deanship in 2003, promising reforms. She gave students her personal e-mail address, held office hours, successfully cut first year class sizes in half, and was given credit for a host of quality-of-life improvements at the law school, including an ice-skating rink (during the winter) and a beach volleyball court (the rest of the year) on campus, free coffee in classroom buildings, free tampons in campus public restrooms, and the renovation of several of the school's facilities. She also managed to boost the school's involvement in international and public interest law, and hired a significant number of prominent new faculty members.
The number of students interested in public interest law positions expanded as Harvard has begun to offer summer funding for public interest internships and low income loan reduction plans for alumni who take on careers in the public interest and academia. For example, the school introduced a program beginning with the J.D. Class of 2011, allowing students who pledged to spend five years working for nonprofit organizations or the government after graduation will receive a grant in the full amount of their tuition during their third year, and are entitled to keep the grant if they remain in such positions for the five-year period (while the program remained in place for students who had relied on it, it was discontinued and replaced with other incentives in 2009).
The second half of the 2000s saw Harvard Law School's most dramatic academic changes since the implementation of the Langdell curriculum. In 2006, the faculty voted unanimously to approve a new first-year curriculum, placing greater emphasis on problem-solving, administrative law, and international law. The new curriculum was implemented in stages over the next several years, with the last new course, a first year practice-oriented problem solving workshop, being instituted in January 2010. In late 2008, the faculty decided that the school should move to an Honors/Pass/Low Pass (H/P/LP) grading system, much like those in place at Yale
and Stanford Law School
s. The system applies to half the courses taken by students in the Class of 2010 and fully starting with the Class of 2011.
In addition, a vast new complex under construction on the northwest part of the law school campus is intended to expand classroom space for additional courses and create more space for an expanding clinical program. Several dormitories are also set to be renovated.
, and has taken a leave of absence from the faculty and resigned the deanship. Harvard University President Drew Gilpin Faust
designated HLS professor Howell Jackson as interim dean until a permanent replacement could be named. On June 11, 2009, Faust announced that Martha Minow
would become the dean, and she assumed the position on July 1, 2009.
Under Minow, HLS has been navigating the fallout of the global financial crisis and subsequent recession. The plan to end tuition for students who pledged five years of public interest work was cut in favor of more flexible incentives, and the new Holmes Fellowship was introduced to provide funding for students engaged in public interest work. The school also recently announced the launching of an innovative program for entrepreneurial students called the Public Service Venture Fund. This first of a kind program will offer seed money for start-up non-profit ventures and salary support for graduating J.D. students who pursue post-graduate work at non-profits or government agencies in the United States and abroad.
, which focuses on the study and construction of cyberspace
. The Center sponsors conferences, courses, visiting lecturers, and residential fellows. Members of the Center do research and write books, articles, and weblogs
with RSS 2.0
feeds, for which the Center holds the specification. Charles Nesson
, Lawrence Lessig
, Jonathan Zittrain
, John Palfrey
, William W. Fisher
, and Yochai Benkler
hold appointments at the Center.
The Center's present location is a small Victorian
wood-frame building which sits next to the larger-scale buildings of the Harvard Law School campus. It is in the process of relocating to a larger site on the campus' perimeter after being elevated to the status of an interfaculty center for all of Harvard University in 2008.
Its newsletter, "The Filter", is on the Web and available by e-mail, and it hosts a blog community of Harvard faculty, students and Berkman Center affiliates. The Berkman Center is funding the Openlaw
project. One of the major initiatives of the Berkman Center is the OpenNet Initiative, which is a joint worldwide study of the filtering of the web, along with the Universities of Toronto and Cambridge (UK). It is also home to Global Voices Online
and Herdict, worldwide blog-monitoring websites. The Berkman Center was a co-sponsor of Wikimania
2006.
, the Charles Hamilton Houston Institute for Race and Justice seeks to honor the contributions of Charles Hamilton Houston
. The Institute carries forth Houston's legacy by serving as a hub for scholarship, legal education, policy analysis, and public forums on issues central to current civil rights struggles.
is the oldest student-run legal services office
in the country, founded in 1913. The Bureau's mission is to provide an important community service while giving student attorneys the opportunity to develop professional skills as part of the clinical programs of Harvard Law School.
The Harvard Legal Aid Bureau is a student-run law firm. The Bureau serves clients in housing law (landlord-tenant relations, public housing, subsidized housing), family law (divorce, custody, paternity, child support), government benefits (Social Security, unemployment benefits, Veterans' benefits, welfare), and wage and hour cases (including unpaid or underpaid wages, benefits, and overtime). The Bureau employs eight supervising attorneys and elects approximately twenty-five student members annually. Students practice under the supervision of admitted attorneys; however, students are primarily casehandlers on all matters. As a result, students gain firsthand experience appearing in court, negotiating with opposing attorneys, and working directly with clients. Students receive both classroom and clinical credits for their work at the Bureau.
Unlike most clinical programs at Harvard (or other schools), the Bureau is a two-year commitment. This gives students a chance to have a much more sustained and in-depth academic experience. In addition to the substantive legal experience, students gain practical experience managing a law firm. The student board of directors makes all decisions regarding case intake, budget management, and office administration.
Famous participants include Supreme Court Justice William J. Brennan, Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick
, activist and first lady Michelle Obama
, and professors Erwin Chemerinsky
and Laurence Tribe
.
Since 2006, the clinic has continued to grow. HNMCP expanded its capacity by hiring additional staff to support the program and to help develop and supervise clinical projects. Currently, in addition to Professor Bordone, the clinic employs two full-time teaching fellows and a part-time program coordinator. This gives the clinic one of the best student-to-supervisor ratios at Harvard and ensures that the clinic will continue to develop its promise as a place where negotiation and mediation theory and practice come together.
neighborhood, the WilmerHale Legal Services Center (formerly the Hale and Dorr Legal Services Center) is Harvard Law School's oldest and largest clinical teaching facility. Students working at the Center are placed in one of its clinics housed in five substantive practice groups and work with clinical instructors, experienced practitioners and mentors, who supervise student work and provide guidance as students build and manage their own caseload. The Center provides substantive training in each practice area and also offers general instruction on topics such as client interviewing and intake, case management, legal investigation and discovery, creative legal analysis, research and drafting. In June 2009, Harvard Law School eliminated at least three staff positions at the WilmerHale Legal Services Center.
Two additional programs affiliated with Harvard Law School are the Ames Foundation and the Selden Society. Harvard Law School also co-founded CALI
in 1982 with University of Minnesota Law School
.
, one of the most renowned university law review
s, as well as a number of other law journals and an independent student newspaper. The Harvard Law Review was first published in 1887 and has been staffed and edited by some of the school's most notable alumni. In addition to the journal, the Harvard Law Review Association also publishes The Bluebook: A Uniform System of Citation
, the most widely followed authority for legal citation formats in the United States. The student newspaper, the Harvard Law Record
, has been published continuously since the 1940s, making it one of the oldest law school newspapers in the country, and has included the exploits of fictional law student Fenno for decades. The Harvard Law School Forum on Corporate Governance and Financial Regulation, formerly known as the Harvard Law School Corporate Governance Blog, is one of the most widely read law websites in the country.
The law journals are:
Rutherford B. Hayes
, the 19th President of the United States, and Barack Obama
, the 44th and current President of the United States, graduated from HLS. Obama was the first African-American president of the Harvard Law Review and is now the first African-American President of the United States. His wife Michelle Obama
is also a graduate of Harvard Law School. Ma Ying-jeou
, the current president of the Republic of China
(Taiwan
), received his SJD from Harvard. Past presidential candidates who are HLS graduates include Michael Dukakis
and Ralph Nader
. The plurality of US Senators with law degrees, and a significant number of Massachusetts governors, graduated from HLS as well.
Fourteen of the school's graduates have served on the Supreme Court of the United States
, more than any other law school, and another four justices attended the school without graduating. Six of the current nine members of the court attended HLS: Chief Justice
John Roberts, and Associate Justices Antonin Scalia
, Anthony Kennedy
, Ruth Bader Ginsberg, Stephen Breyer
and Elena Kagan
, who also served as the Dean of Harvard Law School
from 2003 to 2009. Ginsburg transferred to and graduated from Columbia Law School
. Past Supreme Court justices from Harvard Law School include David Souter
, Harry Blackmun
, William J. Brennan, Louis Brandeis
, Felix Frankfurter
, Lewis Powell (LLM), and Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.
, among others.
Attorneys General Alberto Gonzales
and Janet Reno
, among others, and noted federal judges Richard Posner
of the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals, Judge
Michael Boudin
of the First Circuit Court of Appeals, Laurence Silberman of the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals
, and Pierre Leval of the Second Circuit Court of Appeals, among many other judicial figures, graduated from the school. The current Commonwealth Solicitor General of Australia Stephen Gageler SC
graduated from Harvard with an LL.M.
Famous legal academics who graduated from Harvard Law include Erwin Chemerinsky
, Ronald Dworkin
, Susan Estrich
, Arthur R. Miller
, William L. Prosser, John Sexton
, Kathleen Sullivan
, Cass Sunstein
, Michael Kinsley
, and Laurence Tribe
.
In addition to their achievements in law and politics, Harvard Law alumni have also excelled in other fields. Many have gone on to become influential journalists, writers, media and business leaders and even professional athletes.
The Paper Chase is a novel set amid a student's first ("One L") year at the school. It was written by John Jay Osborn, Jr.
, who studied at the school. The book was later turned into a film and a television series (see below).
Scott Turow
wrote a memoir of his experience as a first-year law student at Harvard, One L
.
Richard Kahlenberg's account of his experiences, Broken Contract: A Memoir of Harvard Law School. Kahlenberg breaks from the other two authors and describes the experience of the final two years at the school, claiming that the environment drives students away from their public interest aspirations and toward work in high-paying law firms.
The book Brush With the Law, by Robert Byrnes and Jaime Marquart, is an account of the authors' three years in Stanford and Harvard Law Schools. The authors indulge in alcohol, drugs, womanizing, and gambling before passing their exams and moving on to successful legal careers.
. They include:
Many popular movies and television shows also feature characters introduced as Harvard Law graduates. Some of these include:
Graduate school
A graduate school is a school that awards advanced academic degrees with the general requirement that students must have earned a previous undergraduate degree...
s of Harvard University
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...
. Located in Cambridge
Cambridge, Massachusetts
Cambridge is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States, in the Greater Boston area. It was named in honor of the University of Cambridge in England, an important center of the Puritan theology embraced by the town's founders. Cambridge is home to two of the world's most prominent...
, Massachusetts
Massachusetts
The Commonwealth of Massachusetts is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. It is bordered by Rhode Island and Connecticut to the south, New York to the west, and Vermont and New Hampshire to the north; at its east lies the Atlantic Ocean. As of the 2010...
, it is the oldest continually-operating law school
Law school
A law school is an institution specializing in legal education.- Law degrees :- Canada :...
in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
and is home to the largest academic law library
Library
In a traditional sense, a library is a large collection of books, and can refer to the place in which the collection is housed. Today, the term can refer to any collection, including digital sources, resources, and services...
in the world. The school is routinely ranked by the U.S. News & World Report
U.S. News & World Report
U.S. News & World Report is an American news magazine published from Washington, D.C. Along with Time and Newsweek it was for many years a leading news weekly, focusing more than its counterparts on political, economic, health and education stories...
as the second best law school in the United States, behind Yale Law School
Yale Law School
Yale Law School, or YLS, is the law school of Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Established in 1824, it offers the J.D., LL.M., J.S.D. and M.S.L. degrees in law. It also hosts visiting scholars, visiting researchers and a number of legal research centers...
.
The current Dean of Harvard Law School
Dean of Harvard Law School
The Dean of Harvard Law School is the head of Harvard Law School. The current Dean is Martha Minow, the 12th person, and second woman to hold the post.-List of Deans of Harvard Law School:...
is Martha Minow
Martha Minow
Martha Louise Minow is the Jeremiah Smith, Jr. Professor of Law and the Dean of Harvard Law School. She teaches civil procedure, constitutional law, family law, international criminal justice, jurisprudence, law and education, nonprofit organizations, and the public law workshop...
, who assumed the role on July 1, 2009. Harvard Law has 246 faculty members. Many are preeminent legal scholars; Harvard Law School faculty were responsible for more downloaded papers on the Social Science Research Network
Social Science Research Network
The Social Science Research Network is a website devoted to the rapid dissemination of scholarly research in the social sciences and humanities. SSRN is viewed as particularly strong in the fields of economics, finance, accounting, management, and law. SSRN was founded in 1994 by Michael Jensen ...
than any other law school, a fact only partially explained by the school's size.
Harvard Law School has produced a large number of luminaries in law and politics, including the current President of the United States
President of the United States
The President of the United States of America is the head of state and head of government of the United States. The president leads the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United States Armed Forces....
, Barack Obama
Barack Obama
Barack Hussein Obama II is the 44th and current President of the United States. He is the first African American to hold the office. Obama previously served as a United States Senator from Illinois, from January 2005 until he resigned following his victory in the 2008 presidential election.Born in...
, and former President Rutherford B. Hayes
Rutherford B. Hayes
Rutherford Birchard Hayes was the 19th President of the United States . As president, he oversaw the end of Reconstruction and the United States' entry into the Second Industrial Revolution...
. World leaders counted among its graduates include the current President of the Republic of China
President of the Republic of China
The President of the Republic of China is the head of state and commander-in-chief of the Republic of China . The Republic of China was founded on January 1, 1912, to govern all of China...
, Ma Ying-jeou
Ma Ying-jeou
Ma Ying-jeou is the 12th term and current President of the Republic of China , commonly known as Taiwan, and the Chairman of the Kuomintang Party, also known as the Chinese Nationalist Party. He formerly served as Justice Minister from 1993 to 1996, Mayor of Taipei from 1998 to 2006, and Chairman...
; the current President of the World Bank Group
World Bank Group
The World Bank Group is a family of five international organizations that makes leveraged loans, generally to poor countries.The Bank came into formal existence on 27 December 1945 following international ratification of the Bretton Woods agreements, which emerged from the United Nations Monetary...
, Robert Zoellick
Robert Zoellick
Robert Bruce Zoellick is the eleventh president of the World Bank, a position he has held since July 1, 2007. He was previously a managing director of Goldman Sachs, United States Deputy Secretary of State and U.S. Trade Representative, from February 7, 2001 until February 22, 2005.President...
; the current United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights
Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights
The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights is a United Nations agency that works to promote and protect the human rights that are guaranteed under international law and stipulated in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights of 1948...
, Navanethem Pillay; and the former President of Ireland
President of Ireland
The President of Ireland is the head of state of Ireland. The President is usually directly elected by the people for seven years, and can be elected for a maximum of two terms. The presidency is largely a ceremonial office, but the President does exercise certain limited powers with absolute...
, Mary Robinson
Mary Robinson
Mary Therese Winifred Robinson served as the seventh, and first female, President of Ireland from 1990 to 1997, and the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, from 1997 to 2002. She first rose to prominence as an academic, barrister, campaigner and member of the Irish Senate...
. Some 149 sitting United States federal judge
United States federal judge
In the United States, the title of federal judge usually means a judge appointed by the President of the United States and confirmed by the United States Senate in accordance with Article II of the United States Constitution....
s are Harvard Law School graduates; six of the nine sitting justices of the Supreme Court of the United States
Supreme Court of the United States
The Supreme Court of the United States is the highest court in the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all state and federal courts, and original jurisdiction over a small range of cases...
attended the law school (Chief Justice
Chief Justice of the United States
The Chief Justice of the United States is the head of the United States federal court system and the chief judge of the Supreme Court of the United States. The Chief Justice is one of nine Supreme Court justices; the other eight are the Associate Justices of the Supreme Court of the United States...
John G. Roberts and Associate Justices
Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States
Associate Justices of the Supreme Court of the United States are the members of the Supreme Court of the United States other than the Chief Justice of the United States...
Anthony Kennedy
Anthony Kennedy
Anthony McLeod Kennedy is an Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court, having been appointed by President Ronald Reagan in 1988. Since the retirement of Sandra Day O'Connor, Kennedy has often been the swing vote on many of the Court's politically charged 5–4 decisions...
, Stephen Breyer
Stephen Breyer
Stephen Gerald Breyer is an Associate Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court. Appointed by President Bill Clinton in 1994, and known for his pragmatic approach to constitutional law, Breyer is generally associated with the more liberal side of the Court....
, Ruth Bader Ginsburg
Ruth Bader Ginsburg
Ruth Joan Bader Ginsburg is an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. Ginsburg was appointed by President Bill Clinton and took the oath of office on August 10, 1993. She is the second female justice and the first Jewish female justice.She is generally viewed as belonging to...
, Antonin Scalia
Antonin Scalia
Antonin Gregory Scalia is an American jurist who serves as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. As the longest-serving justice on the Court, Scalia is the Senior Associate Justice...
and Elena Kagan
Elena Kagan
Elena Kagan is an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, serving since August 7, 2010. Kagan is the Court's 112th justice and fourth female justice....
). Seven sitting U.S. Senators
United States Senate
The United States Senate is the upper house of the bicameral legislature of the United States, and together with the United States House of Representatives comprises the United States Congress. The composition and powers of the Senate are established in Article One of the U.S. Constitution. Each...
graduated from the school.
Harvard Law School has also educated a significant number of leaders and innovators in the business world. Business leaders counted among its graduates include the current Chairman and CEO of Goldman Sachs
Goldman Sachs
The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. is an American multinational bulge bracket investment banking and securities firm that engages in global investment banking, securities, investment management, and other financial services primarily with institutional clients...
, Lloyd Blankfein
Lloyd Blankfein
Lloyd Craig Blankfein is an American business executive. He is currently the CEO and Chairman of Goldman Sachs. He has been in this position since the May 31, 2006 nomination of former CEO Henry Paulson as Secretary of the Treasury under George W...
, current Chairman of the Board and majority owner of National Amusements
National Amusements
National Amusements, Inc. is a privately owned theatre company based in Dedham, Massachusetts, USA. The company was founded in 1936 as the Northeast Theatre Corporation by Michael Redstone....
, billionaire
Billionaire
A billionaire, in countries that use the short scale number naming system, is a person who has a net worth of at least one billion units of a given currency, usually the United States dollar, Euro, or Pound sterling. Forbes magazine updates a complete list of U.S. dollar billionaires around the...
Sumner Redstone
Sumner Redstone
Sumner Murray Redstone is an American media magnate. He is the majority owner and Chairman of the Board of the National Amusements theater chain...
, current President and CEO of TIAA-CREF
TIAA-CREF
Teachers Insurance and Annuity Association – College Retirement Equities Fund is a Fortune 100 financial services organization that is the leading retirement provider for people who work in the academic, research, medical and cultural fields...
, Roger W. Ferguson, Jr.
Roger W. Ferguson, Jr.
Roger W. Ferguson, Jr. is an American economist, who was Vice Chairman of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System from 1999 to 2006 and is currently the President and Chief Executive Officer of the Teachers Insurance and Annuity Association - College Retirement Equities Fund...
, current CEO and Chairman of Toys "R" Us, Gerald L. Storch
Gerald L. Storch
Gerald L. Storch is a business executive. He is the Chairman and CEO of Toys "R" Us, Inc. Prior to joining Toys "R" Us, Storch was Vice Chairman of Target Corporation. He holds B.A., J.D. and M.B.A. degrees from Harvard University.-References:...
, and former CEO of Delta Air Lines
Delta Air Lines
Delta Air Lines, Inc. is a major airline based in the United States and headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia. The airline operates an extensive domestic and international network serving all continents except Antarctica. Delta and its subsidiaries operate over 4,000 flights every day...
, Gerald Grinstein
Gerald Grinstein
Gerald Grinstein is the former CEO of Delta Air Lines, Inc. of Atlanta, Georgia. Grinstein came to the position in 2004, after CEO Leo F. Mullin stepped down amid a controversy over executive retirement and cash bonus plans that were deemed excessive...
, among many others.
Each class in the three-year J.D.
Juris Doctor
Juris Doctor is a professional doctorate and first professional graduate degree in law.The degree was first awarded by Harvard University in the United States in the late 19th century and was created as a modern version of the old European doctor of law degree Juris Doctor (see etymology and...
program has approximately 550 students. The first-year (1L) class is broken into seven sections of approximately 80 students who take most first-year classes together. Harvard Law School graduates have accounted for 568 judicial clerkships
Law clerk
A law clerk or a judicial clerk is a person who provides assistance to a judge in researching issues before the court and in writing opinions. Law clerks are not court clerks or courtroom deputies, who are administrative staff for the court. Most law clerks are recent law school graduates who...
in the past three years, including one-quarter of all Supreme Court clerkships. More than 120 from the last five graduating classes have obtained tenure-track law teaching positions.
Campus
Harvard Law School's campus is located just north of Harvard YardHarvard Yard
Harvard Yard is a grassy area of about , adjacent to Harvard Square in Cambridge, Massachusetts, that constitutes the oldest part and the center of the campus of Harvard University...
, the historic center of Harvard University, and contains several architecturally significant buildings.
From 1849 to 1855, the Harvard Branch Railroad
Harvard Branch Railroad
The Harvard Branch Railroad was a short-lived branch from the Fitchburg Railroad to Harvard Square and Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts...
terminated within what would become the present Law School campus, close to its southwest edge. Austin Hall
Austin Hall (Harvard University)
Austin Hall is a classroom building of the Harvard Law School designed by noted American architect H. H. Richardson. The first building purpose built for an American law school, it was also the first dedicated home of Harvard Law. It is located on the Harvard University campus in Cambridge,...
, the law school's oldest dedicated structure, designed by architect H. H. Richardson, was completed in that vicinity in 1884. The law school's student center, Harkness Commons, was designed by the Bauhaus
Bauhaus
', commonly known simply as Bauhaus, was a school in Germany that combined crafts and the fine arts, and was famous for the approach to design that it publicized and taught. It operated from 1919 to 1933. At that time the German term stood for "School of Building".The Bauhaus school was founded by...
's founder, Walter Gropius
Walter Gropius
Walter Adolph Georg Gropius was a German architect and founder of the Bauhaus School who, along with Ludwig Mies van der Rohe and Le Corbusier, is widely regarded as one of the pioneering masters of modern architecture....
, and his firm, along with several law school dormitories. Together they make up the Harvard Graduate Center
Harvard Graduate Center
The Harvard Graduate Center, also known as Harkness Commons, was commissioned of The Architects Collaborative by Harvard University in 1948...
complex. Langdell Hall
Langdell Hall
Langdell Hall is the largest building on the campus of Harvard Law School in Cambridge, Massachusetts. It is home to the school's library, the largest academic law library in the world, and is named for pioneering law school dean Christopher Columbus Langdell...
, the largest building on the law school campus, contains the Harvard Law Library, the most extensive academic law library in the world.
As of 2010, a new complex is rising on the northwest corner of the law school campus, designed by traditionalist architect Robert A. M. Stern
Robert A. M. Stern
Robert Arthur Morton Stern, usually credited as Robert A. M. Stern, is an American architect and Dean of the Yale University School of Architecture....
. The complex is set to marry the architectural themes present in Austin and Langdell Halls, as well as the Gropius buildings.
History
Harvard Law School was established in 1817, making it the oldest continuously-operating law school in the nation. (William & Mary Law School opened first in 1779, but closed due to the American Civil WarAmerican Civil War
The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...
, reopening in 1920. The University of Maryland School of Law
University of Maryland School of Law
The University of Maryland Francis King Carey School of Law is the second-oldest law school in the United States by date of establishment and third-oldest by date of first classes. The school is located on the campus of the University of Maryland, Baltimore in Downtown Baltimore's West Side...
was chartered in 1816, but did not begin classes until 1824, and also closed during the Civil War)
The Royall estate
Antigua
Antigua , also known as Waladli, is an island in the West Indies, in the Leeward Islands in the Caribbean region, the main island of the country of Antigua and Barbuda. Antigua means "ancient" in Spanish and was named by Christopher Columbus after an icon in Seville Cathedral, Santa Maria de la...
n slaves and plantations to move to Medford, Massachusetts
Medford, Massachusetts
Medford is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, in the United States, on the Mystic River, five miles northwest of downtown Boston. In the 2010 U.S. Census, Medford's population was 56,173...
. His Medford estate, the Isaac Royall House
Isaac Royall House
The Isaac Royall House is a historic house located at 15 George Street, Medford, Massachusetts. It is a National Historic Landmark, operated as a non-profit museum, and open for public visits between June 1 and the last weekend in October....
, is now a museum, and includes the only remaining slave quarters in the northeast United States. The estate was passed down to Royall's son, Isaac Royall, Jr.
Isaac Royall, Jr.
Isaac Royall, Jr. was a colonial American slaveholder who played an important role in the creation of Harvard Law School.He was the son of Isaac Royall, an Antiguan slaveholder who moved his family to Medford, Massachusetts in the early 18th century...
, who fled Massachusetts as the American Revolution
American Revolution
The American Revolution was the political upheaval during the last half of the 18th century in which thirteen colonies in North America joined together to break free from the British Empire, combining to become the United States of America...
broke out. Just prior to his death in 1781, Royall, Jr. left land to Harvard, the sale of which was intended for the "endowing of a Professor of Laws at said college, or a Professor of Physics and Anatomy". Harvard took the opportunity to fund its first chair of law. The Royall chair remains today. It traditionally was held by the Dean of the law school. The school's previous Dean, Elena Kagan
Elena Kagan
Elena Kagan is an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, serving since August 7, 2010. Kagan is the Court's 112th justice and fourth female justice....
, declined the Royall chair, instead giving herself the Charles Hamilton Houston
Charles Hamilton Houston
Charles Hamilton Houston was an African American lawyer, Dean of Howard University Law School and NAACP Litigation Director who played a significant role in dismantling the Jim Crow laws and trained future Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall.Houston was born in Washington, D.C. His father...
Professorship.
In 1806, the Royall estate in Medford was returned to Royall, Jr.'s heirs, who sold it and donated the proceeds for the formal foundation of Harvard Law School. The Royall family coat-of-arms was adopted as the school crest, which shows three stacked wheat sheaves beneath the university motto (Veritas, Latin "truth").
Growth and the Langdell curriculum
By 1827, the school, which was down to one faculty member, was struggling. An alumnus stepped in by endowing the Dane Professorship of Law and insisting that it be given to then Supreme Court Justice Joseph StoryJoseph Story
Joseph Story was an American lawyer and jurist who served on the Supreme Court of the United States from 1811 to 1845. He is most remembered today for his opinions in Martin v. Hunter's Lessee and The Amistad, along with his magisterial Commentaries on the Constitution of the United States, first...
. Story's belief in the need for an elite law school based on merit and dedicated to public service helped build the school's reputation at the time, although the contours of these beliefs have not been consistent throughout its history. Enrollment remained low through the 19th century as university legal education was considered to be of little added benefit to apprenticeships in legal practice.
In the 1870s, under Dean Christopher Columbus Langdell
Christopher Columbus Langdell
Christopher Columbus Langdell , American jurist, was born in the town of New Boston, New Hampshire, of English and Scots-Irish ancestry....
, HLS introduced what has become the standard first-year curriculum
Curriculum
See also Syllabus.In formal education, a curriculum is the set of courses, and their content, offered at a school or university. As an idea, curriculum stems from the Latin word for race course, referring to the course of deeds and experiences through which children grow to become mature adults...
for American law schools—including classes in contracts, property
Property
Property is any physical or intangible entity that is owned by a person or jointly by a group of people or a legal entity like a corporation...
, torts, criminal law
Criminal law
Criminal law, is the body of law that relates to crime. It might be defined as the body of rules that defines conduct that is not allowed because it is held to threaten, harm or endanger the safety and welfare of people, and that sets out the punishment to be imposed on people who do not obey...
, and civil procedure
Civil procedure
Civil procedure is the body of law that sets out the rules and standards that courts follow when adjudicating civil lawsuits...
. At Harvard, Langdell also developed the case method
Casebook method
The casebook method, also known as the case method, is the primary method of teaching law in law schools in the United States. It was pioneered at Harvard Law School by Christopher Columbus Langdell...
of teaching law, now the dominant pedagogical
Pedagogy
Pedagogy is the study of being a teacher or the process of teaching. The term generally refers to strategies of instruction, or a style of instruction....
model at U.S. law schools. Langdell's notion that law could be studied as a "science" gave university legal education a reason for being distinct from vocational preparation.
While the law school had previously been located on Harvard Yard
Harvard Yard
Harvard Yard is a grassy area of about , adjacent to Harvard Square in Cambridge, Massachusetts, that constitutes the oldest part and the center of the campus of Harvard University...
, the new system demanded lecture halls suited to the case law and interrogatory Socratic method
Socratic method
The Socratic method , named after the classical Greek philosopher Socrates, is a form of inquiry and debate between individuals with opposing viewpoints based on asking and answering questions to stimulate critical thinking and to illuminate ideas...
of teaching. Henry Hobson Richardson
Henry Hobson Richardson
Henry Hobson Richardson was a prominent American architect who designed buildings in Albany, Boston, Buffalo, Chicago, Pittsburgh, and other cities. The style he popularized is named for him: Richardsonian Romanesque...
would later design the law school's first independent home, the Romanesque Austin Hall
Austin Hall (Harvard University)
Austin Hall is a classroom building of the Harvard Law School designed by noted American architect H. H. Richardson. The first building purpose built for an American law school, it was also the first dedicated home of Harvard Law. It is located on the Harvard University campus in Cambridge,...
, to the north of the Yard, with these needs in mind. This would come to form the nucleus of the current law school campus.
Legal realism
Legal realism is a school of legal philosophy that is generally associated with the culmination of the early-twentieth century attack on the orthodox claims of late-nineteenth-century classical legal thought in the United States...
, blossomed at Yale
Yale Law School
Yale Law School, or YLS, is the law school of Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Established in 1824, it offers the J.D., LL.M., J.S.D. and M.S.L. degrees in law. It also hosts visiting scholars, visiting researchers and a number of legal research centers...
and Columbia
Columbia Law School
Columbia Law School, founded in 1858, is one of the oldest and most prestigious law schools in the United States. A member of the Ivy League, Columbia Law School is one of the professional graduate schools of Columbia University in New York City. It offers the J.D., LL.M., and J.S.D. degrees in...
, while Harvard faculty members were generally known for their conservative approach.
20th century: Institutional criticism
As it rose to preeminence among law schools in the United States, Harvard attracted significant criticism for many perceived shortcomings.Harvard Law was often believed to be a competitive environment. For example, Dean Berring of University of California, Berkeley School of Law once stated that he "view[ed] Harvard Law School as a samurai ring where you can test your swordsmanship against the swordsmanship of the strongest intellectual warriors from around the nation." This was possibly historically true. When Langdell developed the original law school curriculum, Harvard University
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...
President Charles Eliot
Charles William Eliot
Charles William Eliot was an American academic who was selected as Harvard's president in 1869. He transformed the provincial college into the preeminent American research university...
told him to make it "hard and long."
The school maintained a relatively uncompetitive admissions process, but "weeded out" a large number of first year students. This gave rise to the infamous legend of a dean at the school telling incoming students, "Look to your left, look to your right, because one of you won't be here by the end of the year." Scott Turow
Scott Turow
Scott F. Turow is an American author and a practicing lawyer. Turow has written eight fiction and two nonfiction books, which have been translated into over 20 languages and have sold over 25 million copies...
's memoir One L
One L
One L: The Turbulent True Story of a First Year at Harvard Law School is an autobiographical narrative by Scott Turow.-Summary:One L tells author Turow's experience as a first-year Harvard Law School student.-Reception:...
and John Jay Osborn
John Jay Osborn, Jr.
John Jay Osborn, Jr. is the author of the bestselling novel, The Paper Chase, a fictional account of one Harvard Law School student's battles with the imperious Professor Charles Kingsfield. The book was made into a movie starring John Houseman and Timothy Bottoms. Houseman won an Oscar for his...
's novel The Paper Chase describe such an environment.
Whether the school ever was competitive is a subject of debate. A New York Times article from 1894 described in-class moot courts at Harvard as "co-operative."
In addition, Eleanor Kerlow's book Poisoned Ivy: How Egos, Ideology, and Power Politics Almost Ruined Harvard Law School criticized the school for a 1980s political dispute between newer and older faculty members over accusations of insensitivity to minority and feminist issues. Divisiveness over such issues as political correctness
Political correctness
Political correctness is a term which denotes language, ideas, policies, and behavior seen as seeking to minimize social and institutional offense in occupational, gender, racial, cultural, sexual orientation, certain other religions, beliefs or ideologies, disability, and age-related contexts,...
lent the school the title "Beirut
Beirut
Beirut is the capital and largest city of Lebanon, with a population ranging from 1 million to more than 2 million . Located on a peninsula at the midpoint of Lebanon's Mediterranean coastline, it serves as the country's largest and main seaport, and also forms the Beirut Metropolitan...
on the Charles
Charles River
The Charles River is an long river that flows in an overall northeasterly direction in eastern Massachusetts, USA. From its source in Hopkinton, the river travels through 22 cities and towns until reaching the Atlantic Ocean at Boston...
."
In Broken Contract: A Memoir of Harvard Law School, Richard Kahlenberg criticized the school for driving students away from public interest and toward work in high-paying law firms. Kahlenberg's criticisms are supported by Granfield and Koenig's study, which found that "students [are directed] toward service in the most prestigious law firms, both because they learn that such positions are their destiny and because the recruitment network that results from collective eminence makes these jobs extremely easy to obtain."
The school has also been criticized for extremely large first year class sizes (at one point there were 140 students/classroom; as of 2001 there are 80), a cold and aloof administration, and an inaccessible faculty. The latter stereotype is a central plot element of The Paper Chase and appears in Legally Blonde
Legally Blonde
Legally Blonde is a 2001 American comedy film directed by Robert Luketic, written by Karen McCullah Lutz and Kirsten Smith, and produced by Marc E. Platt...
. Inaccessibility of the faculty was possibly a side effect of Harvard's original admissions process, which may have annoyed faculty by giving them less than stellar students.
This Harvard Law persisted into the latter half of the 20th century, but bears no resemblance to the modern school. The school eventually implemented the once-criticized but now dominant approach pioneered by Dean Robert Hutchins
Robert Hutchins
Robert Maynard Hutchins , was an educational philosopher, dean of Yale Law School , and president and chancellor of the University of Chicago. He was the husband of novelist Maude Hutchins...
at Yale Law School
Yale Law School
Yale Law School, or YLS, is the law school of Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Established in 1824, it offers the J.D., LL.M., J.S.D. and M.S.L. degrees in law. It also hosts visiting scholars, visiting researchers and a number of legal research centers...
: It shifted the competitiveness to the admissions process. Robert Granfield and Thomas Koenig's 1992 study of Harvard Law students that appeared in The Sociological Quarterly found that students "learn to cooperate with rather than compete against classmates," and that contrary to "less eminent" law schools, students "learn that professional success is available for all who attend, and that therefore, only neurotic 'gunners' try to outdo peers." According to the ABA, in 2007–2008 the school admitted only 11.8% of applicants and no students left as a result of "academic" shortcomings.
Dean Robert C. Clark
Robert C. Clark
Robert C. Clark is currently Harvard University Distinguished Service Professor of the Harvard Law School. He previously served as Dean and Professor of Law at Harvard Law School from 1989 to 2003. Clark is recognized as a leading authority in corporate law and corporate governance.-Career:Clark...
is generally given credit for "break[ing] the logjam" of the school's tenure battles and other political disputes. Above all, many of the school's shortcomings were addressed head-on by the administration of Dean Elena Kagan after 2003.
The Kagan deanship
Elena KaganElena Kagan
Elena Kagan is an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, serving since August 7, 2010. Kagan is the Court's 112th justice and fourth female justice....
sought to reverse many of the persistent stereotypes about the school when she assumed its deanship in 2003, promising reforms. She gave students her personal e-mail address, held office hours, successfully cut first year class sizes in half, and was given credit for a host of quality-of-life improvements at the law school, including an ice-skating rink (during the winter) and a beach volleyball court (the rest of the year) on campus, free coffee in classroom buildings, free tampons in campus public restrooms, and the renovation of several of the school's facilities. She also managed to boost the school's involvement in international and public interest law, and hired a significant number of prominent new faculty members.
The number of students interested in public interest law positions expanded as Harvard has begun to offer summer funding for public interest internships and low income loan reduction plans for alumni who take on careers in the public interest and academia. For example, the school introduced a program beginning with the J.D. Class of 2011, allowing students who pledged to spend five years working for nonprofit organizations or the government after graduation will receive a grant in the full amount of their tuition during their third year, and are entitled to keep the grant if they remain in such positions for the five-year period (while the program remained in place for students who had relied on it, it was discontinued and replaced with other incentives in 2009).
The second half of the 2000s saw Harvard Law School's most dramatic academic changes since the implementation of the Langdell curriculum. In 2006, the faculty voted unanimously to approve a new first-year curriculum, placing greater emphasis on problem-solving, administrative law, and international law. The new curriculum was implemented in stages over the next several years, with the last new course, a first year practice-oriented problem solving workshop, being instituted in January 2010. In late 2008, the faculty decided that the school should move to an Honors/Pass/Low Pass (H/P/LP) grading system, much like those in place at Yale
Yale Law School
Yale Law School, or YLS, is the law school of Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Established in 1824, it offers the J.D., LL.M., J.S.D. and M.S.L. degrees in law. It also hosts visiting scholars, visiting researchers and a number of legal research centers...
and Stanford Law School
Stanford Law School
Stanford Law School is a graduate school at Stanford University located in the area known as the Silicon Valley, near Palo Alto, California in the United States. The Law School was established in 1893 when former President Benjamin Harrison joined the faculty as the first professor of law...
s. The system applies to half the courses taken by students in the Class of 2010 and fully starting with the Class of 2011.
In addition, a vast new complex under construction on the northwest part of the law school campus is intended to expand classroom space for additional courses and create more space for an expanding clinical program. Several dormitories are also set to be renovated.
Post-Kagan
In 2009, Kagan was appointed Solicitor General of the United States by President Barack ObamaBarack Obama
Barack Hussein Obama II is the 44th and current President of the United States. He is the first African American to hold the office. Obama previously served as a United States Senator from Illinois, from January 2005 until he resigned following his victory in the 2008 presidential election.Born in...
, and has taken a leave of absence from the faculty and resigned the deanship. Harvard University President Drew Gilpin Faust
Drew Gilpin Faust
Catherine Drew Gilpin Faust is an American historian, college administrator, and the president of Harvard University. Faust is the first woman to serve as Harvard's president and the university's 28th president overall. Faust is the fifth woman to serve as president of an Ivy League university, and...
designated HLS professor Howell Jackson as interim dean until a permanent replacement could be named. On June 11, 2009, Faust announced that Martha Minow
Martha Minow
Martha Louise Minow is the Jeremiah Smith, Jr. Professor of Law and the Dean of Harvard Law School. She teaches civil procedure, constitutional law, family law, international criminal justice, jurisprudence, law and education, nonprofit organizations, and the public law workshop...
would become the dean, and she assumed the position on July 1, 2009.
Under Minow, HLS has been navigating the fallout of the global financial crisis and subsequent recession. The plan to end tuition for students who pledged five years of public interest work was cut in favor of more flexible incentives, and the new Holmes Fellowship was introduced to provide funding for students engaged in public interest work. The school also recently announced the launching of an innovative program for entrepreneurial students called the Public Service Venture Fund. This first of a kind program will offer seed money for start-up non-profit ventures and salary support for graduating J.D. students who pursue post-graduate work at non-profits or government agencies in the United States and abroad.
Berkman Center for Internet & Society
The Harvard Law School was the original home of the Berkman Center for Internet & SocietyBerkman Center for Internet & Society
The Berkman Center for Internet & Society is a research center at Harvard University that focuses on the study of cyberspace. Founded at Harvard Law School, the center traditionally focused on internet-related legal issues. On May 15, 2008, the Center was elevated to an interfaculty initiative of...
, which focuses on the study and construction of cyberspace
Cyberspace
Cyberspace is the electronic medium of computer networks, in which online communication takes place.The term "cyberspace" was first used by the cyberpunk science fiction author William Gibson, though the concept was described somewhat earlier, for example in the Vernor Vinge short story "True...
. The Center sponsors conferences, courses, visiting lecturers, and residential fellows. Members of the Center do research and write books, articles, and weblogs
Blog
A blog is a type of website or part of a website supposed to be updated with new content from time to time. Blogs are usually maintained by an individual with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other material such as graphics or video. Entries are commonly displayed in...
with RSS 2.0
RSS (file format)
RSS is a family of web feed formats used to publish frequently updated works—such as blog entries, news headlines, audio, and video—in a standardized format...
feeds, for which the Center holds the specification. Charles Nesson
Charles Nesson
Charles Rothwell Nesson is the William F. Weld Professor of Law at Harvard Law School and the founder of the Berkman Center for Internet & Society and of the Global Poker Strategic Thinking Society. He is author of Evidence, with Murray and Green, and has participated in several cases before the...
, Lawrence Lessig
Lawrence Lessig
Lawrence "Larry" Lessig is an American academic and political activist. He is best known as a proponent of reduced legal restrictions on copyright, trademark, and radio frequency spectrum, particularly in technology applications, and he has called for state-based activism to promote substantive...
, Jonathan Zittrain
Jonathan Zittrain
Jonathan L. Zittrain is a US professor of Internet law at Harvard Law School and the Harvard Kennedy School, a professor of computer science at the Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, and a faculty co-director of Harvard's Berkman Center for Internet & Society...
, John Palfrey
John Palfrey
John Palfrey is a faculty co-director of the Berkman Center for Internet & Society, vice dean for library and information resources, and the Henry N. Ess III Professor of Law at Harvard Law School. He led a reorganization of the Harvard Law School Library in 2009...
, William W. Fisher
William W. Fisher
William "Terry" W. Fisher III is the WilmerHale Professor of Intellectual Property Law at Harvard Law School and faculty director of the Berkman Center for Internet and Society...
, and Yochai Benkler
Yochai Benkler
Yochai Benkler is an Israeli-American professor of Law and author. Since 2007, he has been the Berkman Professor of Entrepreneurial Legal Studies at Harvard Law School. He is also a faculty co-director of the Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University.- Biography :In 1984, Benkler...
hold appointments at the Center.
The Center's present location is a small Victorian
Victorian architecture
The term Victorian architecture refers collectively to several architectural styles employed predominantly during the middle and late 19th century. The period that it indicates may slightly overlap the actual reign, 20 June 1837 – 22 January 1901, of Queen Victoria. This represents the British and...
wood-frame building which sits next to the larger-scale buildings of the Harvard Law School campus. It is in the process of relocating to a larger site on the campus' perimeter after being elevated to the status of an interfaculty center for all of Harvard University in 2008.
Its newsletter, "The Filter", is on the Web and available by e-mail, and it hosts a blog community of Harvard faculty, students and Berkman Center affiliates. The Berkman Center is funding the Openlaw
Openlaw
Openlaw is a project at the Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard Law School aimed at releasing case arguments under a copyleft license, in order to encourage public suggestions for improvement....
project. One of the major initiatives of the Berkman Center is the OpenNet Initiative, which is a joint worldwide study of the filtering of the web, along with the Universities of Toronto and Cambridge (UK). It is also home to Global Voices Online
Global Voices Online
Global Voices Online is an international network of bloggers and citizen journalists that follow, report, and summarizes what is going on in the blogosphere in every corner of the world...
and Herdict, worldwide blog-monitoring websites. The Berkman Center was a co-sponsor of Wikimania
Wikimania
Wikimania is an annual international conference for users of the wiki projects operated by the Wikimedia Foundation...
2006.
Charles Hamilton Houston Institute for Race and Justice
Established in the fall of 2005 by Professor Charles OgletreeCharles Ogletree
Charles J. Ogletree is Jesse Climenko Professor at Harvard Law School, the founder of the school's Charles Hamilton Houston Institute for Race and Justice, and the author of numerous books on legal topics....
, the Charles Hamilton Houston Institute for Race and Justice seeks to honor the contributions of Charles Hamilton Houston
Charles Hamilton Houston
Charles Hamilton Houston was an African American lawyer, Dean of Howard University Law School and NAACP Litigation Director who played a significant role in dismantling the Jim Crow laws and trained future Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall.Houston was born in Washington, D.C. His father...
. The Institute carries forth Houston's legacy by serving as a hub for scholarship, legal education, policy analysis, and public forums on issues central to current civil rights struggles.
Labor and Worklife Program
The Labor and Worklife Program is a forum for research and teaching on the world of work and its implications for society. The program brings together scholars and policy experts from a variety of disciplines, including scholars of labor studies and an array of international intellectuals, to analyze critical labor issues in the law, economy, and society. As a multidisciplinary research and policy network, the LWP organizes projects and programs that seek to understand critical changes in labor markets and labor law, and to analyze the role of unions, business, and government as they affect the world of work. It also provides unique education for labor leaders throughout the world via the Harvard Trade Union Program, founded in 1942, which works closely with trade unions around the world to bring excellence in labor education to trade union leadership. By engaging scholars, students, and members of the labor community, the program coordinates legal, educational, and cultural activities designed to improve the quality of work life. It regularly holds forums, conferences, and discussion groups on labor issues of concern to business, unions, and the government.Harvard Legal Aid Bureau
The Harvard Legal Aid BureauHarvard Legal Aid Bureau
The Harvard Legal Aid Bureau is the oldest student-run legal services office in the country, founded in 1913. Located at 23 Everett Street in Cambridge, MA, the Bureau's mission is to provide an important community service while giving student attorneys the opportunity to develop professional...
is the oldest student-run legal services office
Legal clinic
The phrase legal clinic may refer to any private, nonprofit law practice serving the public interest. In the academic context, these law school clinics provide hands-on experience to law school students and services to various clients. Academic Clinics are usually directed by clinical professors...
in the country, founded in 1913. The Bureau's mission is to provide an important community service while giving student attorneys the opportunity to develop professional skills as part of the clinical programs of Harvard Law School.
The Harvard Legal Aid Bureau is a student-run law firm. The Bureau serves clients in housing law (landlord-tenant relations, public housing, subsidized housing), family law (divorce, custody, paternity, child support), government benefits (Social Security, unemployment benefits, Veterans' benefits, welfare), and wage and hour cases (including unpaid or underpaid wages, benefits, and overtime). The Bureau employs eight supervising attorneys and elects approximately twenty-five student members annually. Students practice under the supervision of admitted attorneys; however, students are primarily casehandlers on all matters. As a result, students gain firsthand experience appearing in court, negotiating with opposing attorneys, and working directly with clients. Students receive both classroom and clinical credits for their work at the Bureau.
Unlike most clinical programs at Harvard (or other schools), the Bureau is a two-year commitment. This gives students a chance to have a much more sustained and in-depth academic experience. In addition to the substantive legal experience, students gain practical experience managing a law firm. The student board of directors makes all decisions regarding case intake, budget management, and office administration.
Famous participants include Supreme Court Justice William J. Brennan, Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick
Deval Patrick
Deval Laurdine Patrick is the 71st and current Governor of Massachusetts. A member of the Democratic Party, Patrick served as an Assistant United States Attorney General under President Bill Clinton...
, activist and first lady Michelle Obama
Michelle Obama
Michelle LaVaughn Robinson Obama is the wife of the 44th and incumbent President of the United States, Barack Obama, and is the first African-American First Lady of the United States...
, and professors Erwin Chemerinsky
Erwin Chemerinsky
Erwin Chemerinsky is an American lawyer and law professor. He is a prominent scholar in United States constitutional law and federal civil procedure...
and Laurence Tribe
Laurence Tribe
Laurence Henry Tribe is a professor of constitutional law at Harvard Law School and the Carl M. Loeb University Professor at Harvard University. He also works with the firm Massey & Gail LLP on a variety of matters....
.
Harvard Negotiation and Mediation Clinical Program
The Harvard Negotiation and Mediation Clinical Program was founded in 2006 by Professor Robert Bordone, who saw a growing need at Harvard Law School for practical opportunities where students could hone their negotiation and dispute management skills. The vision for the clinic was that by working directly with clients facing real-world problems, students would learn to look beyond litigation as the sole means of resolving disputes. From the start, student initiative and engagement have been crucial in shaping the nature of this clinic. The result is the nation's first legal clinic focusing on dispute systems design and conflict management.Since 2006, the clinic has continued to grow. HNMCP expanded its capacity by hiring additional staff to support the program and to help develop and supervise clinical projects. Currently, in addition to Professor Bordone, the clinic employs two full-time teaching fellows and a part-time program coordinator. This gives the clinic one of the best student-to-supervisor ratios at Harvard and ensures that the clinic will continue to develop its promise as a place where negotiation and mediation theory and practice come together.
WilmerHale Legal Services Center
Located in Boston's Jamaica PlainJamaica Plain, Massachusetts
Jamaica Plain is a historic neighborhood of in Boston, Massachusetts. Founded by Boston Puritans seeking farm land to the south, it was originally part of the city of Roxbury...
neighborhood, the WilmerHale Legal Services Center (formerly the Hale and Dorr Legal Services Center) is Harvard Law School's oldest and largest clinical teaching facility. Students working at the Center are placed in one of its clinics housed in five substantive practice groups and work with clinical instructors, experienced practitioners and mentors, who supervise student work and provide guidance as students build and manage their own caseload. The Center provides substantive training in each practice area and also offers general instruction on topics such as client interviewing and intake, case management, legal investigation and discovery, creative legal analysis, research and drafting. In June 2009, Harvard Law School eliminated at least three staff positions at the WilmerHale Legal Services Center.
Other programs
- The Ames Moot Court CompetitionAmes Moot Court CompetitionThe Ames Moot Court Competition is the annual upper level moot court competition at Harvard Law School. It is designed and administered by the Board of Student Advisers and has been in existence since 1911.-Format and History:...
- Association for Law and Business
- Child Advocacy Program
- Harvard Defenders
- East Asian Legal Studies Program
- European Law Research Center
- Fund for Tax and Fiscal Research
- Human Rights Program
- Immigration and Refugee Clinical Program
- Islamic Legal Studies Program
- John M. Olin Center for Law, Economics and Business
- Petrie-Flom Center for Health Law Policy, Biotechnology and Bioethics
- Prison Legal Assistance Project
- Program on Corporate Governance
- Program on Empirical Legal Studies
- Program on International Financial Systems
- Program on the Legal Profession
- Program on Negotiation
- Public Interest AuctionHarvard Law School Public Interest AuctionThe Harvard Law School Public Interest Auction began in 1994 as a student-run fundraising event to support Harvard Law students working in full-time public interest positions during the summer. Since then, it has raised over $800,000 for students involved in public interest work...
- Williston Negotiation CompetitionWilliston Negotiation CompetitionThe Williston Negotiation Competition is an annual negotiation and contract drafting competition at Harvard Law School.Students work in paired teams of two, with each team representing a side in a complex business deal...
Two additional programs affiliated with Harvard Law School are the Ames Foundation and the Selden Society. Harvard Law School also co-founded CALI
Calì
Calì, also written in English as Cali, is an Italian surname, widespread mainly in the Ionian side of Sicily.For the surname Calì is assumed the origin of the Greek word kalos , or from its Sanskrit root kali, "time."The surname refers to:...
in 1982 with University of Minnesota Law School
University of Minnesota Law School
The University of Minnesota Law School, located in Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA, is a professional school of the University of Minnesota. The school offers a Juris Doctor , Masters of Law for Foreign Lawyers, and joint degrees with J.D./M.B.A., J.D./M.P.A, J.D./M.A., J.D./M.S., J.D./Ph.D.,...
.
Publications
Students of the Juris Doctor (JD) program are involved in preparing and publishing the Harvard Law ReviewHarvard Law Review
The Harvard Law Review is a journal of legal scholarship published by an independent student group at Harvard Law School.-Overview:According to the 2008 Journal Citation Reports, the Review is the most cited law review and has the second-highest impact factor in the category "law" after the...
, one of the most renowned university law review
Law review
A law review is a scholarly journal focusing on legal issues, normally published by an organization of students at a law school or through a bar association...
s, as well as a number of other law journals and an independent student newspaper. The Harvard Law Review was first published in 1887 and has been staffed and edited by some of the school's most notable alumni. In addition to the journal, the Harvard Law Review Association also publishes The Bluebook: A Uniform System of Citation
Bluebook
The Bluebook: A Uniform System of Citation, a style guide, prescribes the most widely used legal citation system in the United States. The Bluebook is compiled by the Harvard Law Review Association, the Columbia Law Review, the University of Pennsylvania Law Review, and the Yale Law Journal....
, the most widely followed authority for legal citation formats in the United States. The student newspaper, the Harvard Law Record
Harvard Law Record
The Harvard Law Record is an independent, biweekly student-edited newspaper based at Harvard Law School. Founded in 1946, it is the oldest law school newspaper in the United States.-Characteristics:...
, has been published continuously since the 1940s, making it one of the oldest law school newspapers in the country, and has included the exploits of fictional law student Fenno for decades. The Harvard Law School Forum on Corporate Governance and Financial Regulation, formerly known as the Harvard Law School Corporate Governance Blog, is one of the most widely read law websites in the country.
The law journals are:
- Harvard Law ReviewHarvard Law ReviewThe Harvard Law Review is a journal of legal scholarship published by an independent student group at Harvard Law School.-Overview:According to the 2008 Journal Citation Reports, the Review is the most cited law review and has the second-highest impact factor in the category "law" after the...
- Harvard Civil Rights-Civil Liberties Law ReviewHarvard Civil Rights-Civil Liberties Law ReviewThe Harvard Civil Rights-Civil Liberties Law Review is a student-run law review Harvard Law School. The journal is published two times per year and contains articles, essays, and book reviews concerning civil rights and liberties...
- Harvard Black Letter Law Journal
- Harvard Environmental Law Review
- Harvard Human Rights Journal
- Harvard International Law JournalHarvard International Law JournalThe Harvard International Law Journal is the oldest and most-cited academic journal of international law in the United States. It is run and edited by students at Harvard Law School, but relies on input from peer reviewers...
- Harvard Journal of Law & Gender (formerly Women's Law Journal)
- Harvard Journal of Law & Public Policy
- Harvard Journal of Law & Technology
- Harvard Journal of Sports and Entertainment Law
- Harvard Journal on LegislationHarvard Journal on LegislationThe Harvard Journal on Legislation is a journal of legal scholarship published by students at Harvard Law School.-Overview:The Harvard Journal on Legislation publishes articles analyzing legislation and the legislative process...
- Harvard Latino Law Review
- Harvard Law & Policy Review
- Harvard National Security Journal
- Harvard Negotiation Law Review
- Unbound: Harvard Journal of the Legal Left
- Harvard Business Law Review
Notable alumni
Rutherford B. Hayes
Rutherford Birchard Hayes was the 19th President of the United States . As president, he oversaw the end of Reconstruction and the United States' entry into the Second Industrial Revolution...
, the 19th President of the United States, and Barack Obama
Barack Obama
Barack Hussein Obama II is the 44th and current President of the United States. He is the first African American to hold the office. Obama previously served as a United States Senator from Illinois, from January 2005 until he resigned following his victory in the 2008 presidential election.Born in...
, the 44th and current President of the United States, graduated from HLS. Obama was the first African-American president of the Harvard Law Review and is now the first African-American President of the United States. His wife Michelle Obama
Michelle Obama
Michelle LaVaughn Robinson Obama is the wife of the 44th and incumbent President of the United States, Barack Obama, and is the first African-American First Lady of the United States...
is also a graduate of Harvard Law School. Ma Ying-jeou
Ma Ying-jeou
Ma Ying-jeou is the 12th term and current President of the Republic of China , commonly known as Taiwan, and the Chairman of the Kuomintang Party, also known as the Chinese Nationalist Party. He formerly served as Justice Minister from 1993 to 1996, Mayor of Taipei from 1998 to 2006, and Chairman...
, the current president of the Republic of China
Republic of China
The Republic of China , commonly known as Taiwan , is a unitary sovereign state located in East Asia. Originally based in mainland China, the Republic of China currently governs the island of Taiwan , which forms over 99% of its current territory, as well as Penghu, Kinmen, Matsu and other minor...
(Taiwan
Taiwan
Taiwan , also known, especially in the past, as Formosa , is the largest island of the same-named island group of East Asia in the western Pacific Ocean and located off the southeastern coast of mainland China. The island forms over 99% of the current territory of the Republic of China following...
), received his SJD from Harvard. Past presidential candidates who are HLS graduates include Michael Dukakis
Michael Dukakis
Michael Stanley Dukakis served as the 65th and 67th Governor of Massachusetts from 1975–1979 and from 1983–1991, and was the Democratic presidential nominee in 1988. He was born to Greek immigrants in Brookline, Massachusetts, also the birthplace of John F. Kennedy, and was the longest serving...
and Ralph Nader
Ralph Nader
Ralph Nader is an American political activist, as well as an author, lecturer, and attorney. Areas of particular concern to Nader include consumer protection, humanitarianism, environmentalism, and democratic government....
. The plurality of US Senators with law degrees, and a significant number of Massachusetts governors, graduated from HLS as well.
Fourteen of the school's graduates have served on the Supreme Court of the United States
Supreme Court of the United States
The Supreme Court of the United States is the highest court in the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all state and federal courts, and original jurisdiction over a small range of cases...
, more than any other law school, and another four justices attended the school without graduating. Six of the current nine members of the court attended HLS: Chief Justice
Chief Justice of the United States
The Chief Justice of the United States is the head of the United States federal court system and the chief judge of the Supreme Court of the United States. The Chief Justice is one of nine Supreme Court justices; the other eight are the Associate Justices of the Supreme Court of the United States...
John Roberts, and Associate Justices Antonin Scalia
Antonin Scalia
Antonin Gregory Scalia is an American jurist who serves as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. As the longest-serving justice on the Court, Scalia is the Senior Associate Justice...
, Anthony Kennedy
Anthony Kennedy
Anthony McLeod Kennedy is an Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court, having been appointed by President Ronald Reagan in 1988. Since the retirement of Sandra Day O'Connor, Kennedy has often been the swing vote on many of the Court's politically charged 5–4 decisions...
, Ruth Bader Ginsberg, Stephen Breyer
Stephen Breyer
Stephen Gerald Breyer is an Associate Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court. Appointed by President Bill Clinton in 1994, and known for his pragmatic approach to constitutional law, Breyer is generally associated with the more liberal side of the Court....
and Elena Kagan
Elena Kagan
Elena Kagan is an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, serving since August 7, 2010. Kagan is the Court's 112th justice and fourth female justice....
, who also served as the Dean of Harvard Law School
Dean of Harvard Law School
The Dean of Harvard Law School is the head of Harvard Law School. The current Dean is Martha Minow, the 12th person, and second woman to hold the post.-List of Deans of Harvard Law School:...
from 2003 to 2009. Ginsburg transferred to and graduated from Columbia Law School
Columbia Law School
Columbia Law School, founded in 1858, is one of the oldest and most prestigious law schools in the United States. A member of the Ivy League, Columbia Law School is one of the professional graduate schools of Columbia University in New York City. It offers the J.D., LL.M., and J.S.D. degrees in...
. Past Supreme Court justices from Harvard Law School include David Souter
David Souter
David Hackett Souter is a former Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. He served from 1990 until his retirement on June 29, 2009. Appointed by President George H. W. Bush to fill the seat vacated by William J...
, Harry Blackmun
Harry Blackmun
Harold Andrew Blackmun was an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States from 1970 until 1994. He is best known as the author of Roe v. Wade.- Early years and professional career :...
, William J. Brennan, Louis Brandeis
Louis Brandeis
Louis Dembitz Brandeis ; November 13, 1856 – October 5, 1941) was an Associate Justice on the Supreme Court of the United States from 1916 to 1939.He was born in Louisville, Kentucky, to Jewish immigrant parents who raised him in a secular mode...
, Felix Frankfurter
Felix Frankfurter
Felix Frankfurter was an Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court.-Early life:Frankfurter was born into a Jewish family on November 15, 1882, in Vienna, Austria, then part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire in Europe. He was the third of six children of Leopold and Emma Frankfurter...
, Lewis Powell (LLM), and Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. was an American jurist who served as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States from 1902 to 1932...
, among others.
Attorneys General Alberto Gonzales
Alberto Gonzales
Alberto R. Gonzales was the 80th Attorney General of the United States. Gonzales was appointed to the post in February 2005 by President George W. Bush. Gonzales was the first Hispanic Attorney General in U.S. history and the highest-ranking Hispanic government official ever...
and Janet Reno
Janet Reno
Janet Wood Reno is a former Attorney General of the United States . She was nominated by President Bill Clinton on February 11, 1993, and confirmed on March 11...
, among others, and noted federal judges Richard Posner
Richard Posner
Richard Allen Posner is an American jurist, legal theorist, and economist who is currently a judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit in Chicago and a Senior Lecturer at the University of Chicago Law School...
of the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals, Judge
Judge
A judge is a person who presides over court proceedings, either alone or as part of a panel of judges. The powers, functions, method of appointment, discipline, and training of judges vary widely across different jurisdictions. The judge is supposed to conduct the trial impartially and in an open...
Michael Boudin
Michael Boudin
Michael Boudin is a Judge and former Chief Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit.Boudin was born in New York City, the son of the civil liberties attorney Leonard Boudin and older brother of Weather Underground member Kathy Boudin. He received a B.A. from Harvard...
of the First Circuit Court of Appeals, Laurence Silberman of the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals
United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit
The United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit known informally as the D.C. Circuit, is the federal appellate court for the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. Appeals from the D.C. Circuit, as with all the U.S. Courts of Appeals, are heard on a...
, and Pierre Leval of the Second Circuit Court of Appeals, among many other judicial figures, graduated from the school. The current Commonwealth Solicitor General of Australia Stephen Gageler SC
Star of Courage (Australia)
The Star of Courage is a bravery decoration awarded to Australians. It is awarded for acts of conspicuous courage in circumstances of great peril. The SC was created on 14 February 1975. The decoration recognises acts of bravery by members of the community. They selflessly put themselves in...
graduated from Harvard with an LL.M.
Famous legal academics who graduated from Harvard Law include Erwin Chemerinsky
Erwin Chemerinsky
Erwin Chemerinsky is an American lawyer and law professor. He is a prominent scholar in United States constitutional law and federal civil procedure...
, Ronald Dworkin
Ronald Dworkin
Ronald Myles Dworkin, QC, FBA is an American philosopher and scholar of constitutional law. He is Frank Henry Sommer Professor of Law and Philosophy at New York University and Emeritus Professor of Jurisprudence at University College London, and has taught previously at Yale Law School and the...
, Susan Estrich
Susan Estrich
Susan Estrich is an American lawyer, professor, author, political operative, feminist advocate, and political commentator for Fox News.-Early life:...
, Arthur R. Miller
Arthur R. Miller
Arthur Raphael Miller is a leading scholar in the field of American civil procedure and a University Professor at New York University. Before that he was the Bruce Bromley Professor of Law at Harvard Law School , after being on the faculties of the University of Michigan and the University of...
, William L. Prosser, John Sexton
John Sexton
John Edward Sexton is the fifteenth President of New York University, having held this position since May 17, 2002, and the Benjamin Butler Professor of Law at the New York University School of Law. From 1988 to 2002, he served as Dean of the NYU School of Law, which during his deanship became one...
, Kathleen Sullivan
Kathleen Sullivan
Kathleen Marie Sullivan is a professor at the Stanford Law School and name partner at Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan, a litigation-only law firm with offices in California, New York, Silicon Valley, Chicago, San Francisco, Germany, London, and Tokyo where she chairs their national appellate...
, Cass Sunstein
Cass Sunstein
Cass R. Sunstein is an American legal scholar, particularly in the fields of constitutional law, administrative law, environmental law, and law and behavioral economics, who currently is the Administrator of the White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs in the Obama administration...
, Michael Kinsley
Michael Kinsley
Michael Kinsley is an American political journalist, commentator, television host, and pundit. Primarily active in print media as both a writer and editor, he also became known to television audiences as a co-host on Crossfire...
, and Laurence Tribe
Laurence Tribe
Laurence Henry Tribe is a professor of constitutional law at Harvard Law School and the Carl M. Loeb University Professor at Harvard University. He also works with the firm Massey & Gail LLP on a variety of matters....
.
In addition to their achievements in law and politics, Harvard Law alumni have also excelled in other fields. Many have gone on to become influential journalists, writers, media and business leaders and even professional athletes.
Notable professors
- William P. AlfordWilliam P. AlfordWilliam P. Alford is a US legal scholar. He is currently Henry L. Stimson Professor of Law and Vice Dean for the Graduate Program and International Legal Studies at Harvard Law School...
- Lucian BebchukLucian BebchukLucian Arye Bebchuk is a professor at Harvard Law School focusing on economics and finance.His many degrees include a B.A. in Mathematics and Economics from the University of Haifa , an LL.B. from the University of Tel Aviv , an LL.M. and S.J.D. from Harvard Law School and an M.A. and Ph.D. in...
- Yochai BenklerYochai BenklerYochai Benkler is an Israeli-American professor of Law and author. Since 2007, he has been the Berkman Professor of Entrepreneurial Legal Studies at Harvard Law School. He is also a faculty co-director of the Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University.- Biography :In 1984, Benkler...
- Robert C. ClarkRobert C. ClarkRobert C. Clark is currently Harvard University Distinguished Service Professor of the Harvard Law School. He previously served as Dean and Professor of Law at Harvard Law School from 1989 to 2003. Clark is recognized as a leading authority in corporate law and corporate governance.-Career:Clark...
- Alan DershowitzAlan DershowitzAlan Morton Dershowitz is an American lawyer, jurist, and political commentator. He has spent most of his career at Harvard Law School where in 1967, at the age of 28, he became the youngest full professor of law in its history...
- Noah FeldmanNoah FeldmanNoah Feldman is an American author and professor of law at Harvard Law School.-Education and career:Feldman grew up in Boston, Massachusetts, where he attended the Maimonides School....
- Roger Fisher
- William W. FisherWilliam W. FisherWilliam "Terry" W. Fisher III is the WilmerHale Professor of Intellectual Property Law at Harvard Law School and faculty director of the Berkman Center for Internet and Society...
- Charles FriedCharles FriedCharles Fried is a prominent American jurist and lawyer. He served as United States Solicitor General from 1985 to 1989. He is currently a professor at Harvard Law School.-Early life and education:...
- Gerald FrugGerald FrugGerald Frug is the Louis D. Brandeis Professor of Law at Harvard Law School, and a leading academic authority on local government law. He was married to feminist law professor Mary Joe Frug, who was murdered in 1991....
- Mary Ann GlendonMary Ann GlendonMary Ann Glendon J.D., LL.M., was the United States Ambassador to the Holy See and is the Learned Hand Professor of Law at Harvard Law School. She teaches and writes on bioethics, comparative constitutional law, property, and human rights in international law...
- Jack GoldsmithJack GoldsmithJack Landman Goldsmith is a Harvard Law School professor who has written a number of texts regarding international law, cyber law, and national security law...
- Tom GoldsteinTom GoldsteinThomas C. Goldstein is an American attorney famous as an advocate before and blogger about the Supreme Court of the United States. He was a founding partner of Goldstein and Howe, a Washington, D.C. firm specializing in Supreme Court litigation, and was, until the end of 2010, a partner at Akin...
- Lani GuinierLani GuinierLani Guinier is an American lawyer, scholar and civil rights activist. The first African-American woman tenured professor at Harvard Law School, Guinier's work includes professional responsibilities of public lawyers, the relationship between democracy and the law, the role of race and gender in...
- Morton HorwitzMorton HorwitzMorton J. Horwitz is an American legal historian and law professor at Harvard Law School. The recent past dean of Harvard Law School, Elena Kagan, relates that during her time at law school, students often nicknamed him as "Mort the Tort" since he taught the first-year subject Torts.Horwitz...
- Elena KaganElena KaganElena Kagan is an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, serving since August 7, 2010. Kagan is the Court's 112th justice and fourth female justice....
- Duncan KennedyDuncan KennedyDuncan Kennedy is the Carter Professor of General Jurisprudence at Harvard Law School and a founder of critical legal studies as movement and school of thought. Kennedy has been a member of the ACLU since 1967. According to his own testimony, he has never forgotten to pay his dues.-Education and...
- Randall KennedyRandall KennedyRandall L. Kennedy is an American Law professor and author at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. He is the Michael R. Klein Professor of Law and focuses his research on the intersection of racial conflict and legal institutions in American life...
- Michael KlarmanMichael KlarmanMichael J. Klarman is an American legal historian, and constitutional law scholar, the Kirkland & Ellis Professor at Harvard Law School. Formerly, he was James Monroe Distinguished Professor of Law, Professor of History, and Elizabeth D. and Richard A. Merrill Research Professor at the University...
- Lawrence LessigLawrence LessigLawrence "Larry" Lessig is an American academic and political activist. He is best known as a proponent of reduced legal restrictions on copyright, trademark, and radio frequency spectrum, particularly in technology applications, and he has called for state-based activism to promote substantive...
- John F. ManningJohn F. ManningJohn F. Manning is a prominent American legal academic and the Bruce Bromley Professor of Law at Harvard Law School. He graduated from Harvard Law School in 1985, and served that year as a law clerk to Judge Robert H. Bork at the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit...
- Daniel MeltzerDaniel MeltzerDaniel Meltzer is an American lawyer and law professor, and is a presidential lawyer in the Obama Administration through June 1, 2010.-Education and career:...
- Frank MichelmanFrank MichelmanFrank Isaac Michelman is an American legal scholar and Robert Walmsley University Professor at Harvard Law School.Michelman wrote the influential law review article, Property, Utility and Fairness, on the economic reasons for just compensation in the 5th Amendment Takings Clause in the United...
- Martha MinowMartha MinowMartha Louise Minow is the Jeremiah Smith, Jr. Professor of Law and the Dean of Harvard Law School. She teaches civil procedure, constitutional law, family law, international criminal justice, jurisprudence, law and education, nonprofit organizations, and the public law workshop...
- Charles NessonCharles NessonCharles Rothwell Nesson is the William F. Weld Professor of Law at Harvard Law School and the founder of the Berkman Center for Internet & Society and of the Global Poker Strategic Thinking Society. He is author of Evidence, with Murray and Green, and has participated in several cases before the...
- Charles OgletreeCharles OgletreeCharles J. Ogletree is Jesse Climenko Professor at Harvard Law School, the founder of the school's Charles Hamilton Houston Institute for Race and Justice, and the author of numerous books on legal topics....
- John PalfreyJohn PalfreyJohn Palfrey is a faculty co-director of the Berkman Center for Internet & Society, vice dean for library and information resources, and the Henry N. Ess III Professor of Law at Harvard Law School. He led a reorganization of the Harvard Law School Library in 2009...
- Mark J. RoeMark J. RoeMark J. Roe is the David Berg Professor of Law at Harvard Law School, appointed in 2001.Professor Roe is the author of Strong Managers, Weak Owners and Political Determinants of Corporate Governance , in which he shows underlying connections between business structures and national political...
- Lewis SargentichLewis SargentichLewis Daniel "Lew" Sargentich , frequently referred to simply as "Sarge," has been a professor at Harvard Law School since 1973 where he teaches courses tort law and jurisprudence. Sargentich is well known for his remarkable tenure as a student at Harvard Law School, where he both named and first...
- Robert SitkoffRobert SitkoffRobert H. Sitkoff is the John L. Gray Professor of Law at Harvard Law School, where he is the only faculty member specializing in trusts and estates . He previously served as professor of law at New York University School of Law and Northwestern University School of Law , where he joined at age...
- Jeannie Suk
- Cass SunsteinCass SunsteinCass R. Sunstein is an American legal scholar, particularly in the fields of constitutional law, administrative law, environmental law, and law and behavioral economics, who currently is the Administrator of the White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs in the Obama administration...
- Laurence TribeLaurence TribeLaurence Henry Tribe is a professor of constitutional law at Harvard Law School and the Carl M. Loeb University Professor at Harvard University. He also works with the firm Massey & Gail LLP on a variety of matters....
- Mark TushnetMark TushnetMark Victor Tushnet is the William Nelson Cromwell Professor of Law at Harvard Law School. A prominent scholar of constitutional law and legal history, he is the author of many books and articles.-Career:...
- Roberto Unger
- Adrian VermeuleAdrian VermeuleAdrian Vermeule, who is a graduate of Harvard College and Harvard Law School, has been Professor of Law at Harvard Law School since 2006 and was named John H. Watson Professor of Law in 2008. He was a Visiting Professor of Law in 2005...
- Elizabeth WarrenElizabeth WarrenElizabeth Warren is an American bankruptcy expert, policy advocate, Harvard Law School professor, and Democratic Party candidate in the 2012 United States Senate election in Massachusetts. She has written several academic and popular books concerning the American economy and personal finance. She...
- Steven M. WiseSteven M. WiseSteven M. Wise is an American legal scholar who specializes in animal protection issues, primatology, and animal intelligence. He teaches animal rights law at Harvard Law School, Vermont Law School, John Marshall Law School, Lewis & Clark Law School, and Tufts University School of Veterinary...
- Jonathan ZittrainJonathan ZittrainJonathan L. Zittrain is a US professor of Internet law at Harvard Law School and the Harvard Kennedy School, a professor of computer science at the Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, and a faculty co-director of Harvard's Berkman Center for Internet & Society...
Notable former professors
- Derrick BellDerrick BellDerrick Albert Bell, Jr. was the first tenured African-American professor of Law at Harvard University, and largely credited as the originator of Critical Race Theory. He was the former dean of the University of Oregon School of Law.- Education and early career :Born in the Hill District of...
- Derek Bok
- Stephen BreyerStephen BreyerStephen Gerald Breyer is an Associate Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court. Appointed by President Bill Clinton in 1994, and known for his pragmatic approach to constitutional law, Breyer is generally associated with the more liberal side of the Court....
- Zechariah ChafeeZechariah ChafeeZechariah Chafee, Jr. was an American judicial philosopher and civil libertarian. An advocate for free speech, he was described by Senator Joseph McCarthy as "dangerous" to the United States...
- Abram ChayesAbram ChayesAbram Chayes was an American scholar of international law closely associated with the administration of John F. Kennedy. He is best known for his “legal process” approach to international law, which attempted to provide a new, less formalistic way of understanding international law and how it...
- Archibald CoxArchibald CoxArchibald Cox, Jr., was an American lawyer and law professor who served as U.S. Solicitor General under President John F. Kennedy. He became known as the first special prosecutor for the Watergate scandal. During his career, he was a pioneering expert on labor law and also an authority on...
- Christopher Edley, Jr.Christopher Edley, Jr.Christopher Fairchild Edley, Jr. is Dean of the University of California, Berkeley School of Law . After receiving his undergraduate degree from Swarthmore College, he attended Harvard Law School, where he later served as a professor. He is married to Maria Echaveste, former deputy chief of staff...
- Felix FrankfurterFelix FrankfurterFelix Frankfurter was an Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court.-Early life:Frankfurter was born into a Jewish family on November 15, 1882, in Vienna, Austria, then part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire in Europe. He was the third of six children of Leopold and Emma Frankfurter...
- Paul A. FreundPaul A. FreundPaul A. Freund was an American jurist and law professor. He taught most of his life at Harvard Law School and is known for his writings on the United States Constitution and the Supreme Court of the United States....
- Lon Fuller
- John Chipman GrayJohn Chipman GrayJohn Chipman Gray was an American scholar of property law and professor at Harvard Law School. He also co-founded one of the oldest and most prestigious law firms in the United States, the firm of Ropes & Gray, with law partner John Codman Ropes. He was half-brother to U.S...
- Erwin GriswoldErwin GriswoldErwin Nathaniel Griswold was an appellate attorney who argued many cases before the U.S. Supreme Court. Griswold served as Solicitor General of the United States under Presidents Lyndon B. Johnson and Richard M. Nixon. He also served as Dean of Harvard Law School for 21 years. Several times he...
- Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. was an American jurist who served as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States from 1902 to 1932...
- Christopher Columbus LangdellChristopher Columbus LangdellChristopher Columbus Langdell , American jurist, was born in the town of New Boston, New Hampshire, of English and Scots-Irish ancestry....
- Soia MentschikoffSoia MentschikoffSoia Mentschikoff was an American lawyer, law professor, and legal scholar, best known for her work in the development and drafting of the Uniform Commercial Code. She was also the first woman to teach at Harvard Law School....
- Arthur R. MillerArthur R. MillerArthur Raphael Miller is a leading scholar in the field of American civil procedure and a University Professor at New York University. Before that he was the Bruce Bromley Professor of Law at Harvard Law School , after being on the faculties of the University of Michigan and the University of...
- Roscoe PoundRoscoe PoundNathan Roscoe Pound was a distinguished American legal scholar and educator. He was Dean of Harvard Law School from 1916 to 1936...
- Joseph StoryJoseph StoryJoseph Story was an American lawyer and jurist who served on the Supreme Court of the United States from 1811 to 1845. He is most remembered today for his opinions in Martin v. Hunter's Lessee and The Amistad, along with his magisterial Commentaries on the Constitution of the United States, first...
- Kathleen SullivanKathleen SullivanKathleen Marie Sullivan is a professor at the Stanford Law School and name partner at Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan, a litigation-only law firm with offices in California, New York, Silicon Valley, Chicago, San Francisco, Germany, London, and Tokyo where she chairs their national appellate...
- Joseph H. H. WeilerJoseph H. H. WeilerJoseph Halevi Horowitz Weiler is Joseph Straus Professor of Law and European Union Jean Monnet Chair at New York University Law School. He holds a diploma from the Hague Academy of International Law, Weiler is the author of works relating to the sui generis character of the European Union...
- Samuel WillistonSamuel WillistonSamuel Williston was an American lawyer and law professor.Early in Williston's career, from 1888 to 1889 he worked as the private secretary to U.S. Supreme Court Justice Horace Gray. In the summer of 1889, he helped to collate laws from various U.S...
Books
A number of notable novels have been inspired by the student experience at the school.The Paper Chase is a novel set amid a student's first ("One L") year at the school. It was written by John Jay Osborn, Jr.
John Jay Osborn, Jr.
John Jay Osborn, Jr. is the author of the bestselling novel, The Paper Chase, a fictional account of one Harvard Law School student's battles with the imperious Professor Charles Kingsfield. The book was made into a movie starring John Houseman and Timothy Bottoms. Houseman won an Oscar for his...
, who studied at the school. The book was later turned into a film and a television series (see below).
Scott Turow
Scott Turow
Scott F. Turow is an American author and a practicing lawyer. Turow has written eight fiction and two nonfiction books, which have been translated into over 20 languages and have sold over 25 million copies...
wrote a memoir of his experience as a first-year law student at Harvard, One L
One L
One L: The Turbulent True Story of a First Year at Harvard Law School is an autobiographical narrative by Scott Turow.-Summary:One L tells author Turow's experience as a first-year Harvard Law School student.-Reception:...
.
Richard Kahlenberg's account of his experiences, Broken Contract: A Memoir of Harvard Law School. Kahlenberg breaks from the other two authors and describes the experience of the final two years at the school, claiming that the environment drives students away from their public interest aspirations and toward work in high-paying law firms.
The book Brush With the Law, by Robert Byrnes and Jaime Marquart, is an account of the authors' three years in Stanford and Harvard Law Schools. The authors indulge in alcohol, drugs, womanizing, and gambling before passing their exams and moving on to successful legal careers.
Film and television
Several movies and television shows take place at least in part at the school. Most of them have scenes filmed on location at or around Harvard UniversityHarvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...
. They include:
- Love StoryLove Story (1970 film)Love Story is a 1970 romantic drama film written by Erich Segal and based on his novel Love Story. It was directed by Arthur Hiller. The film, well known as a tragedy, is considered one of the most romantic of all time by the American Film Institute , and was followed by a sequel, Oliver's Story...
(1970) - The Paper Chase (1973)
- The Paper ChaseThe Paper Chase (TV series)The Paper Chase is a television series based on a 1970 novel by John Jay Osborn, Jr., as well as a 1973 film based on the novel. It follows the lives of law student James T. Hart and his classmates at Harvard Law School.-Production:...
(1978-1979, 1983-1986 television series) - Soul ManSoul Man (film)Soul Man is a comedy film made in 1986 about a man who undergoes racial transformation with pills to qualify for a Black only scholarship at Harvard Law School. It stars C. Thomas Howell, Rae Dawn Chong, Arye Gross, James Earl Jones, Leslie Nielsen, James B...
(1986) - The Firm (1993)
- How HighHow HighHow High is a 2001 stoner comedy starring Method Man and Redman, written by Dustin Lee Abraham, and director Jesse Dylan's debut feature film. Entertainment Weekly rated it third in their "Best Stoner Movie" top ten list...
(2001) - Legally BlondeLegally BlondeLegally Blonde is a 2001 American comedy film directed by Robert Luketic, written by Karen McCullah Lutz and Kirsten Smith, and produced by Marc E. Platt...
(2001) - Love Story in HarvardLove Story in HarvardLove Story in Harvard is a 16-episode romantic Korean television drama broadcast in 2004, set in the United States and South Korea...
(2004 Korean TV series)
Many popular movies and television shows also feature characters introduced as Harvard Law graduates. Some of these include:
- Suits (2011)
- Stranger Than Fiction (2006)
- Boston LegalBoston LegalBoston Legal is an American legal dramedy created by David E. Kelley, which was produced in association with 20th Century Fox Television for the ABC...
(2004–2009) - NCISNCIS (TV series)NCIS, formerly known as NCIS: Naval Criminal Investigative Service, is an American police procedural drama television series revolving around a fictional team of special agents from the Naval Criminal Investigative Service, which conducts criminal investigations involving the U.S...
(2003–) - Two Weeks NoticeTwo Weeks NoticeTwo Weeks Notice is a 2002 romantic comedy film starring Hugh Grant and Sandra Bullock from Warner Bros. Pictures. The film was written and directed by Marc Lawrence. Upon release, the film received a successful box office run both in the United States and globally.-Plot:Lucy Kelson is a...
(2002) - The People vs. Larry FlyntThe People vs. Larry FlyntThe People vs. Larry Flynt is a 1996 American biographical drama film directed by Miloš Forman about the rise of pornographic magazine publisher and editor Larry Flynt, and his subsequent clash with the law. The film stars Woody Harrelson, Courtney Love, and Edward Norton.The film was written by...
(1996) - PassionsPassionsPassions is an American television soap opera which aired on NBC from July 5, 1999 to September 7, 2007 and on The 101 Network from September 17, 2007 to August 7, 2008....
(1999–2008) - Sex and the CitySex and the CitySex and the City is an American television comedy-drama series created by Darren Star and produced by HBO. Broadcast from 1998 until 2004, the original run of the show had a total of ninety-four episodes...
(1998) - The PracticeThe PracticeThe Practice is an American legal drama created by David E. Kelley centering on the partners and associates at a Boston law firm. Running for eight seasons from 1997 to 2004, the show won the Emmy in 1998 and 1999 for Best Drama Series, and spawned the successful and lighter spin-off series Boston...
(1997–2004) - The West Wing (1999–2006)
- Ally McBealAlly McBealAlly McBeal is an American legal comedy-drama series which aired on the Fox network from 1997 to 2002. The series was created by David E. Kelley, who also served as the executive producer, along with Bill D'Elia...
(1997–2002)
- Judging AmyJudging AmyJudging Amy is an American television drama that was telecast from September 19, 1999, through May 3, 2005, on CBS-TV. This TV series starred Amy Brenneman and Tyne Daly...
(1999–2005) - Quiz ShowQuiz ShowQuiz Show is a 1994 American historical drama film produced and directed by Robert Redford. Adapted by Paul Attanasio from Richard Goodwin's memoir Remembering America, the film is based upon the Twenty One quiz show scandal of the 1950s...
(1994) - The Firm (1993)
- A Few Good MenA Few Good Men (film)A Few Good Men is a 1992 drama film directed by Rob Reiner and starring Tom Cruise, Jack Nicholson, and Demi Moore. It was adapted for the screen by Aaron Sorkin from his play of the same name. A courtroom drama, the film revolves around the trial of two U.S...
(1992) - Law & OrderLaw & OrderLaw & Order is an American police procedural and legal drama television series, created by Dick Wolf and part of the Law & Order franchise. It aired on NBC, and in syndication on various cable networks. Law & Order premiered on September 13, 1990, and completed its 20th and final season on May 24,...
(1990–) - The Fresh Prince of Bel-AirThe Fresh Prince of Bel-AirThe Fresh Prince of Bel-Air is an American television sitcom that originally aired on NBC from September 10, 1990 to May 20, 1996. The show stars Will Smith as a fictionalized version of himself, a street-smart teenager from West Philadelphia who is sent to move in with his aunt and uncle in their...
(1990–96) - MatlockMatlock (TV series)Matlock is an American television legal drama, starring Andy Griffith in the title role of attorney Ben Matlock. The show originally aired from September 23, 1986 to May 8, 1992 on NBC, where it replaced The A-Team, then from November 5, 1992 until May 7, 1995 on ABC.The show's format was similar...
(1986–95) - Legally BlondeLegally BlondeLegally Blonde is a 2001 American comedy film directed by Robert Luketic, written by Karen McCullah Lutz and Kirsten Smith, and produced by Marc E. Platt...
(2001) - EntourageEntourage (TV series)Entourage is an American comedy-drama television series that premiered on HBO on July 18, 2004 and concluded on September 11, 2011, after eight seasons...
(2004–) - OzOz (TV series)Oz is an American television drama series created by Tom Fontana, who also wrote or co-wrote all of the series' 56 episodes . It was the first one-hour dramatic television series to be produced by premium cable network HBO. Oz premiered on July 12, 1997 and ran for six seasons...
(1997–2003) - Blue Bloods (TV series)Blue Bloods (TV series)Blue Bloods is an American police procedural/drama series on CBS, filmed on location in New York City. The show premiered on September 24, 2010, with episodes airing on Fridays at 10:00 pm Eastern and Pacific/9:00 PM Central and Mountain....
(2010)
External links
- Official website
- HLS programs
- HLS publications
- Hale and Dorr Legal Services Center
- HLS blogs
- The Harvard Law Record – Harvard Law School's independent student newspaper
- History of Harvard Law School
- Law School Admission Council's page on HLS