Dean Koh to State Department?
The Yale Law School campus is buzzing with rumors that their popular dean, Harold Hongju Koh, could be leaving for a job in the Clinton State Department. The Yale Daily News reports that Koh could be appointed as legal adviser to the State Department:
In that position, Koh — a former assistant secretary of state and a leading expert on international law — would serve as principal counselor on all legal matters to Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton LAW ‘73.Rumors have swirled for months around the Law School and in Washington, D.C., that Koh, whose five-year term as dean ends in June, might leave Yale to serve again in government. Koh, however, has repeatedly dismissed talk about a possible appointment as pure speculation.
Koh and the YLS press office did not respond to ATL’s requests for comment.
Even though Koh’s five year term is up in June, Yale has given every indication that Koh can keep his current job if he wants it:
University President Richard Levin said Wednesday that a routine review of Koh’s tenure at the Law School — timed for the end of his first term as dean — had yielded positive responses.“It was clear that the community supported his reappointment,” Levin said. “There’s no question: If he stays here, he will be reappointed.”
If Koh leaves, he’ll be creating yet another opening on the Law School Dean circuit — which is one of the few jobs in the legal profession that is hiring.
Details after the jump.
There are a lot of law schools looking for new deans. The National Law Journal reported on the phenomenon earlier this week:
Even in this economy, there seems to still be a demand for one high-paying job — law school dean. At least 27 law schools throughout the country are searching for new deans — and many are having a tough time filling the position.
In an interesting twist to the global financial crisis, the economy is making these particular jobs less instead of more (“holy God you’re hiring please give me some of that I’ll take anything you don’t know what it’s like out there”) appealing:
“Being a dean is less attractive than it used to be,” said Thomas Ulen, a professor at the University of Illinois College of Law. “An increasing percentage of the job — upwards of 80 to 90% — is devoted to fundraising. And with the economy in this state, that is not easy. And let’s face it, being a law professor is one of the best jobs in the universe.”
Regardless about how Koh feels about fundraising, the chance to have significant power in his field of expertise must be a compelling opportunity:
“It’s certainly the most prestigious international law office in the federal government, if not the most prestigious general counsel office in the government overall,” said John Bellinger III, who served as legal adviser until last month’s change of power in Washington. “It is the central place to do international law.”
And while you might think Obama is trying to shove all of the Yalies (like Secretary Clinton) into the State Department, remember that Koh has Harvard College and Harvard Law degrees. So he’ll be able to fit in with the rest of our new HLS overlords.
Update: As expected, Dean Koh is leaving Yale for the Obama State Department. See here.
Koh considered for State Department [Yale Daily News]
Koh to State? [The Plank / TNR]
Wanted: law school deans. Lots of them. [National Law Journal]
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Koh is not even diplomatic to Republicans and basically anyone who works in the private sector yet he is going to represent America to the world? Ridiculous.
"Regardless about how Koh feels about fundraising, the chance to have significant power in his field of expertise must be appealing:"
Regardless about how? Is that how you speak? Elie, that wouldn't even be correct in casual conversation... this is you job, take some pride in what you do.
2: the rest of the world is full of left-leaning statists. he'll fit right in.
Firsty McFirsty I !!!!!
THANK GOD. Elena Kagan and Harold Koh leaving their respective law schools are the first and second best things to happen to Yale Law School in years.
Koh is despised (not an exaggeration) by students and faculty alike. His clashes with high-profile faculty have become increasingly visible and embarrassing in the past year -- and those are the ones he hasn't driven away to HLS, CLS, and NYU. His reappointment is by no means a sure thing.
Koh would be fantastic.
KOH IZ NOT GONNA BE DA TOP LAWYA AT DA STATE DEPO BAYBAY BECUZ DEAN DON LEDUC OF DA NUMBA ONE STUNNA COOLEY FO REAL IZ GONNA BE DAT ONE FO SHO!!!! HAHAHA YALE IZ A TTT BAYBAY COOLEY IZ FO REAL REAL AND OBAMA KNOWZ IT!!!
COOLEY 2011 FO LIFE
5, then why did Elie call him a "popular dean"?
Set aside your enthusiasm for Hillary. It's the "Obama" State Department. Not the "Clinton" State Department.
Unless, that is, you were calling the State Department before this the "Rice State Department."
If Ginsburg steps down, how about Koh to SCOTUS? Finally somebody who can talk some sense through Scalia's usual nativist bull.
DEAN LEDUC TURND DWN DAT SCOTUS POSISH THAT ROBERTS DUN TOOK BECUZ HE HAD TO MAKE DA COOLEY NUMBA ONE!!!! HE DUN DID DAT NOW AND WOOD BE WILLIN TO TAYK DAT SCOTUS POSISH WHEN DA RUTH LINDBERG DIEZ BUT FO NOW HE BE HAPPY WIF DA STATE DEPO POSISHS HOLLA!
COOLEY 2011 FO LIFE
8, because he doesn't know what he's talking about, obviously. Levin says he's popular, so Elie says he's popular. This isn't the New York Times. Or even USA Today.
The faculty tries to keep the squabbles in-house because they make the school look bad and Koh's a vindictive son of a bitch, but one of the worst-kept secrets at the law school is that a group of well-known faculty have been campaigning against his reappointment for the last year.
"which is one of the few jobs in the legal profession that is hiring. "
Wow, really Elie? Does every single article on this site have to make a flip comment about layoffs and the overall shape of the legal job market? Someone's job is a deeply personal asset and it's simply not appropriate to be so nonchalant about people's lives being, without exaggeration, ruined. It's similarly inappropriate to make jokes about people's looks, including their weight. To the extent that being fat is a mix of choice and poor luck and losing your job is a mix of choice and poor luck, making fun of either is really douchebag.
I had originally been one of the commenters who refrained from making comments about Elie's weight and have actually, on several occasions, chided fellow commenters for stooping so low.
However, seeing as though it's clear that you don't intend to (a) stop making fun of the job market for lawyers, or (b) shed 180 lbs, consider this war. Elie, your fat ass is mine.
To start, I'll point out that even if I lose my job after working at a firm for a few months, I'll still maintain a relatively even keel. And by the time I'm 60, it will have been nothing in my life but a speed bump that made me, more honestly than ever before, assess my drives and skills and it will have made me a better person.
Elie, on the other hand, at the age of 60 will have been dead for 15 years, having exploded at the age of 45 after winning a pie eating contest. It was the only contest he ever won in his life (aside from the one which forced Lat to hire him) but before you congratulate him too much, please note that he was the only entrant. The rules clearly stated that the winner of the pie eating contest was, literally, more pie, and he couldn't pass that up.
10, how about Republicans have a long memory of Democratic interests groups trying to filibuster two mainstream conservative picks, i.e. Alito and Roberts?
You will never get a Brennan type judge confirmed during an Obama administration, who btw voted against both Alito and Roberts. As Nathan Persilly stated in the NY Times, the Court is already to the left of the American public on issues like affirmative action and abortion.
Democrats act like their antics over the past eight years never happened.
12, do you have first hand evidence of this? do you go to yls?
Koh is adored at YLS. The State Department's gain would be Yale's huge, huge loss.
Koh is adored at YLS. The State Department's gain would be Yale's huge, huge loss.
Under Bill Clinton Koh was the Assistant Secretary of State for Democracy and Human Rights, so this is no surprise.
15, yes. And I have had personal conversations with several faculty members about it.
Wow, 5 and 12 are cranky... and I'm pretty sure they're wrong. I love Dean Koh, and I think most of my classmates do too. I bet 5 and 12 are those people who talk on their cell phones in the library really loud, but then glare at you when you quietly cough while they're "studying" (when "studying" means "sitting at the library carrel dyspeptically checking their stock portfolio" or "buying Miley Cyrus tickets" or something).
12 is right, Koh is an arrogant/vindictive prick. I graduated YLS '05 so I haven't seen all the latest fallout, but even when he was first appointed there were grumblings on the faculty as some saw where his tenure would end up.
In my experience, you either love him or hate him, and the balance when I was there tilted toward the latter. Not surprised to hear it still does.
Koh is NOT loved at YLS. He is rude to guest speakers. He was rude to Justice Kennedy, reminding him that he wasn't Bush's first choice for the job. He has lost a number of top faculty. He has his toadies, but he is NOT adored. Koh is unable to treat those who don't share his vision of integration of international law into domestic law with anything other than utter contempt.
@20
Does Koh still give the talk to 1Ls about how any private sector job is PURE EVIL and if you don't go into government or public interest you are a terrible, terrible person?
It's high comedy because the model he suggests following is not his career, but his sister's. Which makes sense, since Koh's first job after law school and clerking was as an associate at Covington.
That picture of Koh has always bothered me. Who the hell takes their official photo while wearing a jacket 4 sizes too big?
If you're not interested in international law, Koh couldn't care less about you. The man treats students who want to practice law with open, blatant contempt. That's fine in a law professor, but not in a dean.
Was he a named defendant in the Doe v. Ciolli lawsuit?
Koh memorizes all 180 1Ls from the facebook before they get there and can recognize them on sight. That is just too freaky.
I guess hiring people like Koh is exactly the type of moderate, bipartisan politics Obama promised us.
The Chinese already own most of our debt guess they might as well own the State Department too.
28, he's korean
I remember there being grumblings about this guy. More dirt, please.
While YLS was never a particularly welcoming environment for conservative law students, the level of discomfort definitely rose under his leadership. As a professor, he regularly let ideology and jokes about Republicans permeate the classroom.
Draw your own conclusions.
As a YLS alum, I'd say that even though Koh is not perfect, he has been doing a very decent job as a dean who actually tries to get things done around YLS. This is not an easy task, since every single member of the YLS community has an over-sized and over-sensitive ego. The previous dean dealt with this YLS problem by not doing too many things that could be taken as controversial. That's why the 21st century didn't really arrive at YLS until 2004.
On a side note, most if not all faculty departures over the past couple of years have been for personal reasons. And all this talk about Yale's decline (here and on Brian Leiter's blog) doesn't change the fact that YLS remains the most selective law school in the U.S.
It's simply not true that most faculty departures have been for personal reasons. There were a couple like that, early on. But this year's departures -- notably Smith, Graetz, and Hathaway, all rock stars -- had nothing to do with personal reasons. In fact, Smith's wife still teaches at Yale, and he will have to commute from Harvard to see her. So he took a job elsewhere in spite of, and not because of, compelling personal reasons.
Koh is not wildly popular at YLS, at least not among the students that I am friends with. He is not a great fundraiser because he alienates anyone who doesn't agree with him. He may be brilliant, but he's hardly diplomatic. Bring back Guido! or just bring in Gerken.
I am a YLS student, and almost everyone I know thinks that Koh is an ASS. If we have him as dean any longer, this school may never recover. On the other hand, maybe it is better that YLS go down the toilet than letting this self-righteous prick drag the whole country down. He has a way of alienating everyone who doesn't think exactly as he does. He treats you like utter garbage if you don't tow the lie. He is probably the worst proffessor/dean in the country.
Really? He's a warm person, and I like him. And I'm conservative, though probably a little less concerned with politics than most Yalies. So he thinks we should do public interest. So what? That doesn't mean we have to. And he's liberal. So are all law profs. You just have to remind yourself that law school is not reality, and out there where the normal americans live, terrorists are still bad and trees don't have standing.
Koh's departure would be the best thing that happened to YLS in a long time. Maybe we can finally focus on retaining faculty and rebuilding our past strengths (e.g., our tax group that was among the premier when Bittker, Graetz and Alstott were there, and that, with Koh, now lacks a single notable name or tenured faculty member) instead of on Red Socks kitsch and political alienation. I wish the best to the State Department, and trust that Clinton has a sharp enough mind to discount Koh's advice.
Yeah, as a recent alum, I can say that the contempt that he shows you if he doesn't agree with your career decisions is not only dispiriting but totally misplaced for a law school dean. Here's hoping he gets a clue (that there are more paths than the narrow ones he approves of) and that many law students are just as successful without his hypocritical cheerleading.
I don't know what some of you are talking about. I've seen Harold Koh befriend a number of conservative students. I've also seen him connect with a number of people who plan to go into law firm practice. Maybe it's YOU he doesn't like, and not your interests or ideology.