Martha Minow Named New Dean of Harvard Law School
A replacement for Elena Kagan as dean of Harvard Law School has been named. It’s the well-liked law school professor Martha Minow.
Harvard University President Drew Faust announced the news to HLS students, today:
I am delighted to let you know that Martha Minow has agreed to serve as the next Dean of Harvard Law School. She will take up her duties on July 1.Martha has been a member of the HLS faculty since 1981, and she has served the school with extraordinary dedication and energy. She is an eminent scholar of uncommon range and imagination, a greatly admired teacher who guided the school’s recent curricular review, and an outstanding citizen not only of the Law School but of the University, with impressive experience in academic leadership roles. She has a clear-eyed view of the challenges and opportunities facing the Law School, and a talent for bringing people together to work through important academic and institutional issues. Most of all, she has a passion for the law and for all that legal scholarship, education, and practice can do to advance the public good. I look forward to welcoming Martha to the University’s Council of Deans and to working closely with her in the years to come.
Faust also thanked interim Dean Howell Jackson for his service over the past few months.
More on Minow after the jump.
Minow seemed ready for the challenges of leading the law school during these difficult times. The Harvard Gazette reports:
“I am deeply honored and humbled by the opportunity to serve as the next dean of Harvard Law School,” said Minow. “I am grateful to Drew Faust for inviting me to assume this vital role, and I will do my best to enhance and build upon the extraordinary leadership of past deans Elena Kagan and Robert Clark, and the wise and thoughtful stewardship of Acting Dean Howell Jackson. In this time of both challenge and promise for this country and for the world, Harvard Law School faculty, students, staff, and graduates are already playing pivotal roles in the search for financial stability, national security, peaceful international relations, and legal order. I am eager to help the remarkable community of people at the Harvard Law School, in concert with colleagues across Harvard and beyond, continue to pursue the promise of the rule of law, the ideal of justice, the practical solution of problems, and ever deeper understandings of legal institutions and commitments.”
Minow’s appointment is yet another indication that Harvard law students and Yale law students can get along:
After completing her undergraduate studies at the University of Michigan, Minow received a master’s degree in education from Harvard and her law degree from Yale. She clerked for Judge David Bazelon of the United States Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit and then for Justice Thurgood Marshall of the Supreme Court of the United States. She joined the Harvard Law faculty as an assistant professor in 1981, was promoted to professor in 1986, was named the William Henry Bloomberg Professor of Law in 2003, and became the Jeremiah Smith Jr., Professor of Law in 2005.
Not only does Minow follow in Kagan’s footsteps as a former clerk for Justice Marshall, both women also teach Civil Procedure. My personal recollection was that Minow’s class was much “nicer” than Kagan’s, but I might think that because Kagan inflicted Socratic scars that burn my skin to this day.
We wish Dean Minow the best of luck.
Now, about loan repayment assistance for recent graduates who have lost their job during the largest economic crisis since the Great Depression …
Martha Minow named dean of Harvard Law School [Harvard Gazette]
Earlier: Howell Jackson Named Acting Dean of HLS
Breaking: Elena Kagan to Solicitor General
(77) Comments
Comments
Small fish in a big pond!
She likes fishsticks.
Fell out of ugly tree and hit every branch on the way down.
Congratulations!
I have one of her books.
Suffolk Law is the Community College of Law Schools
Tom Petty looks a little weathered in that picture
I don't care what one does in their private life, but isn't it odd that Harvard has chosen two lesbians in a row?
White males need not apply.
Wow, that's interesting, though as an HLS alum and former student of Minow, I'm not overjoyed. I had Minow for 1st year Civil Procedure, and though she was motherly to an extent, she was also kind of aloof, and she really didn't care all that much about teaching us the actual facts. She's also about 4'10" and probably has never weighed 100 lbs in her life, so you might mistake her for a 10-year-old girl from afar. I never envisioned her as the heavy-hitter politico type who would lead HLS into a new day. I suppose there were worse choices, but this news does not feel me as an HLS alum with pride or awe.
#6 you're a douche. Everyone in Massachusetts knows Suffolk law is stellar and the community college is new england school of law (or worse yet, massachusetts school or law at andover).
You're probably some loser paralegal who got denied at Suffolk because you were blowing professors in college instead of studying for the LSAT. get a life
Harvard is the Yale of Cambridge.
Is the US Open at Hofstra this year?
Yale is the Yale of the Universe.
Why would anyone who didn't go to Harvard care about this?
I thought Western New England was the Community College
ET is a Suffolk grad and remains gainfully employed, unlike you T14 grads who are jobless and have no meaningful skills. Go 4th Tier.
If I am white and go to Yale, am I racist?
#7 - nice. Tom's receding hairline appears to be holding steady, though.
#10 has to be a joke. Noone in their right (or wrong) mind would defend a festering sewer like Suffolk Law
#10 has to be a joke. Noone in their right (or wrong) mind would defend a festering sewer like Suffolk Law
Another ugly lesbian?
8: She's married to Joseph Singer, who's also a professor at HLS.
9: "I never envisioned her as the heavy-hitter politico type who would lead HLS into a new day."
What does being a "heavy-hitter politico type" have to do with being HLS dean? Being dean means you have to be (a) a good administrator, (b) a good fund-raiser, both of which require being patient and well-respected by your peers. Kagan had both, as does Minow. Add to that, in the current climate of budget cuts and fiscal hardship, (c) a pragmatic problem-solver, which Minow is also known for.
This is good choice by HLS. Go Martha.
PS -- if you look at her photo in Pound Hall from back in the day, when she started as a professor, she was actually pretty cute, in a mousy sort of way.
7: it's an old shot of neil young
Look at all the elitist WASP snobs try to tear down Minow. Shocking!
A fine example of the statement that beauty and intelligence do not always coincide.
The economy is getting better. Don't trust ATL to report it though. Every major news source is reporting that conditions are improving. ATL admittedly does not hold itself out to be a legitimate news source, but don't be fooled by the fear-mongering.
http://www.cnbc.com/id/31238766
I hear some people are taking this rat to oci when Latham shows up at their school.
http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2008/09/08/nyregion/08laborrat.533.jpg
Minow is not a lesbian. She's married to another law prof (Joseph Singer, author of the great property treatise). She is somewhat aloof, but what law professor isn't? She's a great choice and will definitely keep building on the positive changes that Kagan put in place.
26 -
Keep drinking the Koolaid - when Obama gets done printing the 3.6 trillion dollars that he just spent in his first 5 months, it's going to take you $672 of those dollars just to buy a loaf of bread.
why do we care about this?
is this blog for law students, now, or what?
then shouldn't you change the name of the blog to Below the Law if you're just going to cater to law students??
Oh wow. A picture of a woman. Let's all judge her on her looks and sexuality!!
If it was a pic of a man, well, then.... we would talk about his credentials.
The fact that she is married to another HLS drone means nothing. Male law professors, and esp ones in a place like HLS, can hardly be classified as "men."
This reminds me of when Will Ferrell would be the bearded professor on SNL and talk about bisexual orgies with equally ugly and socially awkward aged dorks.
29,
When the economy turns around, everyone will praise Obama for it. Man, that's gotta piss you off.
29: while 26 may be drinking Koolaid, you're just wrong:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/29/opinion/29krugman.html?_r=1&scp=5&sq=krugman%20inflation&st=cse
Go ET!
-Biglaw Associate & 4th Tier Grad.
Research interests:
* Equality and Inequality
* Human Rights and Transitional Societies
* Law and Social Change
* Religion and Pluralism
You can't make that stuff up.
Any thoughts on what kind of hiring we're going to see from this professor of law and social change?
Is that the David Carradine autopsy photo I've been hearing about?
38- too soon
Agree with 14 and 30---who gives a shit. This blog has become Elie's personal playground. Every post he makes, it seems, is either saying Harvard is great and every other school sucks or is about some sort of racial topic. Shark? Jump? How about some posts, you know, on LAW FIRMS (and not ones about fucking salary reductions or layoffs for a change).
39- no, not soon enough
#38 wins this post.
42, I prefer the Tom Petty and Neil Young references.
sexless
Martha is a great professor, and her husband is as well. I think she's a great choice.
Just because someone's married to a person of the opposite sex doesn't mean they're straight. Just look at Dem N.J. Gov. McGreevey.
AND, there's this -- a marriage of convenience? Mystal needs to investigate:
"Same Sex Marriage, Full Faith and Credit, and the Evasion of Obligation"
By Joseph William Singer, Harvard Law School
http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=697862
I'm surprised no one's mentioned that she's the daughter of Newton Minow, former FCC chair.
She looks like John Denver.
At "Breaking Back Into a Large Law Firm," someone needs to ask John Cannon of Shearman & Sterling why he fired all of the firm's second-years and then hired first-years to replace them, and if he thought that was ethical, moral, or human.
47--who cares. Nobody balled at the FCC like Dick Wiley and/or Kevin Martin.
Suffolk Law is the "bidet" of TTTTs.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bidet
Suffolk Law is the "bidet" of TTTTs.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bidet
Remind me again, where did Elie go to law school?
Typical BS from law schools- hire a lesbian or gay man to do a job a straight white men is qualified or even better qualified to do.
My next interview; I'm going to take my wedding ring off
and pretend I{m gay- so I can get a second interview.
Only male professors are respected if they're plain and aloof. Female professors must be sexy, yet motherly.
She hates men and heterosexuals. Let's make her Dean of HLS. What a cesspool....
51/52 - Was it really necessary to put a reference link for a bideTTTT?
Keep TTTThinking.
57, I just love the characterization of "bidet is a low-mounted plumbing fixture or type of sink intended for washing the genitalia, inner buttocks, and anus." which basically sums up the Suffolk law sTTTTudents relationship with partners after graduating.
nobody cares.
"rocky mountain high..."
@34: When you wish to argue that a person is "just plain wrong," perhaps you should avoid linking to an author who writes "big disagreements are especially likely in weird times like the present, when many of the normal rules no longer apply."
Krugman's mushy column amounts to this: (1) there's no inflation right now; (2) the Fed's actions might not be inflationary; (3) Japan didn't suffer from inflation, but France did a long time ago; and (4) Rethuglicans only dislike deficits when the the other guys do it.
51/57/58 - Completely understood.
Cheers,
57
I thought Kagan didn't teach civ pro, but rather admin.
60: if you'd read the article and the statements correctly, you'd have responded differently.
"when Obama gets done printing the 3.6 trillion dollars that he just spent in his first 5 months, it's going to take you $672 of those dollars just to buy a loaf of bread." - 29
Translation: the fed is printing money which must lead to inflation.
Response: you're just plain wrong
Authority:
Krugman: That "[s]ome claim that the Federal Reserve is printing lots of money, which must be inflationary . . . is just wrong."
Continuing, "[n]ow, it’s true that the Fed has taken unprecedented actions lately. More specifically, it has been buying lots of debt both from the government and from the private sector, and paying for these purchases by crediting banks with extra reserves. And in ordinary times, this would be highly inflationary: banks, flush with reserves, would increase loans, which would drive up demand, which would push up prices.
But these aren’t ordinary times. Banks aren’t lending out their extra reserves. They’re just sitting on them — in effect, they’re sending the money right back to the Fed. So the Fed isn’t really printing money after all. "
Reason for claims like 29's? Political, derived from hate, not economic thought. The second point that was maybe yes maybe no, not what 29 said.
63, and what happens when banks start lending out the money? Is the Fed really going to jack up interest rates to 10%, like the 1982 recession, to soak the money back in? The market, i.e., everyone besides Krugman, is betting all money on no.
Everyone knows that Krugman is a political hack who thinks that Democrats can do no wrong and Republicans are to blame for everything.
A dead ringer for Ben Gazzara.
Elie, this is not news. This is something you care about as an alum. I'm sure she's a nice person and all. But please.
I had her for civ pro and I agree that she was not a great choice. She was not particularly mean, but she certainly was not charismatic. Rakoff would have been much better.
I did not go to Harvard, so instead I went to Georgetown law. Real efficient school. Anyhow, congratulations to Dean Minow. I would love to come speak to one of Harvard's criminal procedure classes one day, if you'll have me, Ms. Minow. Just let me know.
Btw, is there a Saladworks in Cambridge?
Geddy Lee was just named Harvard's new dean? I had no idea he was a lawyer. Well, anyway, I just love "The Spirit of Radio."
I certainly wish her luck. I know some of my friends on the faculty are excited about her appointment. Me, I don't know. Was underwhelmed by her in Civ Pro. Can't help but laugh now at her assign-thousands-of-pages-per-night-to-exercise-control-over-scared-1Ls-who-might-not-fear-my-4'11"-height philosophy. Also studied under Kagan. Now she was an obvious candidate for Dean and I knew she'd be successful.
But in the end, what do I know. I haven't seen Minow outside of that one clase over a decade ago now.
Great choice
Minow is awesome. She's one of the only teachers at HLS who treated me like a human being, and might actually recognize me... Wish there were more teachers like her there. She's a good Civ Pro teacher too.
HLS is a rough place and most of the profs have no interest in the career/personal life of the average student (i.e. the folks who don't wait in line after class everyday to ask suck-up questions)...
Harvard sounds awful, like a big, meat-grinder filled with the hyper-anal. Is the only reason why people go there b/c it's Harvard? Why not take a full ride to Berkeley, Mich, VA, NYU, some place that's fun. I don't think I've ever heard a graduate speak positivley about that place. Actually, I take that back. There was one. Total. Douche. Sack.
Well, at least you have Tom Petty as your new dean. Wildflowers is a killer album.
73 - Georgetown alum. Loser.
Prof. Minow was my favorite professor at HLS, had her for civ pro and con law as well. I always thought that she had a warm personality and a better relationship with the students. Never understood why some of my classmates had a different experience, after all we were in the same class.
Congratulations to Martha. I think she will be great as dean. To all the other losers, stop embarrassing us all with your tasteless comments about lesbians.
Prof. Minow was my favorite professor at HLS, had her for civ pro and con law as well. I always thought that she had a warm personality and a better relationship with the students. Never understood why some of my classmates had a different experience, after all we were in the same class.
Congratulations to Martha. I think she will be great as dean. To all the other losers, stop embarrassing us all with your tasteless comments about lesbians.
Martha should stick to her muffins.