Law Schools

Stanford Law Review Elects Its First Iranian-American, Muslim President

He believes that 'diversity is something that enhances legal scholarship.'

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Stanford Law School (Photo by King of Hearts via Wikimedia)

Harvard Law School’s Law Review recently elected its first Muslim president, adding to a series of noteworthy diversity firsts for the school’s prestigious legal journal. The move attracted much fanfare, but it turns out that Harvard isn’t the only T-14 law school to announce a diversity first for its incoming editorial board.

As it turns out, Stanford Law School’s Law Review recently elected its first Iranian-American, Muslim president. Daniel Khalessi ’22 was elected in November 2020, and assumed the role last month. This is what he had to say about his new position in an interview with the Stanford Daily:

I think the hope that I have for my election, if it has any symbolic meaning or anything like that, is that I want people to know that there is a more tolerant America beyond the America that we’ve seen in the last four years. There’s a lot of challenges, there’s so many problems going on and they’re not going to get resolved. But, I think, electing people of color and minorities to these positions and opening doors for others is really important in showing that America can be a very inclusive and tolerant place.

Khalessi, a Stanford graduate who later attended Yale for his master’s degree and spent a year at Peking University in China as a Yenching Scholar, has expressed an interest in constitutional, national security, and international law. He says one of his long-term goals is to become an international legal scholar.

Congratulations to Daniel Khaleesi on his noteworthy achievement.

Q&A: Diversity makes us better, Stanford Law Review president says [Stanford Daily]

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Staci ZaretskyStaci Zaretsky is a senior editor at Above the Law, where she’s worked since 2011. She’d love to hear from you, so please feel free to email her with any tips, questions, comments, or critiques. You can follow her on Twitter or connect with her on LinkedIn.

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