Lawyerly Lairs: Professor Laurence Tribe’s $3.4 Million Mansion

The house sits on a little more than half an acre of land. According to the listing, the property boasts “one of the largest professionally designed gardens in all of Cambridge, with mature plantings and entirely flat.”

I think this view, from the backyard, shows off the house to better advantage than the frontal view we saw earlier:

Professor Tribe and his girlfriend, Elizabeth Westling — yes, the girlfriend he got stuck in an elevator with — have hosted political fundraisers at this home before (such as a 2011 event for Tribe’s former HLS colleague, Elizabeth Warren). One can easily imagine limousine liberals guests mingling on this well-manicured lawn, champagne glasses in hand, while they enjoy passed hors d’oeuvres:

Imagine the brilliant, mind-blowing legal debates that have taken place on this terrace. See those five chairs? I wonder what the average IQ for the occupant of each chair would be, if you could calculate it.

All in all, and looking past the quirky decor (which the new owner can and surely will change), this is a magnificent residence for a magnificent legal mind. Best of luck to Professor Tribe in the home-selling process (which it seems he’s only just begun; the property showed up on Redfin about two weeks ago).

Here’s the main cause for concern: does Professor Tribe putting his house on the market mean that he might be leaving Harvard Law School? Recall that Tribe’s former colleague, Professor Alan Dershowitz, sold his own $4 million Cambridge residence before retiring from teaching. (We reached out to Professor Tribe to inquire about his future plans but did not hear back.)

If Professor Tribe were to retire from teaching, it would be understandable — he’s turning 75 in a few weeks, he’s taught at the law school for almost 50 years, and he received treatment for a (benign) brain tumor a few years ago — but it would still be a loss for Harvard Law School. He’s known among HLS students and alumni as a superb classroom teacher as well as a great scholar (which sadly can’t be said of all great scholars).

But even if Professor Tribe stops teaching, his legacy — reflected in former star students such as President Barack Obama, Chief Justice John Roberts, Senator Ted Cruz, Justice Elena Kagan, and Chief Judge Merrick Garland — will live on.

33 Fresh Pond Parkway [Redfin]
Did Laurence Tribe Sell Out? [New Yorker]
Laurence Tribe Tweet About Trump Sparks Controversy [WSJ Law Blog]

Earlier: Et Tu, Laurence Tribe?
Potential Lawsuit / Bar Exam Review Question of the Day: Laurence Tribe v. Safeway?
Larry Tribe Leaving DOJ Because His Brain Hurts
Professor Laurence Tribe Calls Out Biglaw Pro Bono And Shares His Take On The Roberts Court

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David Lat is the founder and managing editor of Above the Law and the author of Supreme Ambitions: A Novel. You can connect with David on Twitter (@DavidLat), LinkedIn, and Facebook, and you can reach him by email at [email protected].