When it comes to law school dean searches, you usually find two types: those that publicize their finalists and those that provide no information. At Harvard Law School, there is no official shortlist. There are, however, some industrious reporters at the Harvard Crimson who may have sussed out the final four. At least, the Crimson editors think so. But at Harvard, and isn't this so Harvard, finalists may not even be interested in the job!
According to Harvard's daily:
The field is...open, with a slate of seven internal candidates and, among those, three or four top candidates whom [Harvard President Drew] Faust is considering for the job.
The short-list includes acting Dean Howell E. Jackson and Harvard Law School Professors David J. Barron ’89, John Coates, John F. Manning ’82, Martha Minow, David B. Wilkins ’77, and Elizabeth Warren, according to the senior Law School professor familiar with the search process.
Among that list, Jackson, Manning, and Minow have risen to the top. Wilkins may also be a top candidate, but opinions among the faculty vary about whether he should be included on the list of most likely candidates. Faculty members were, however, in near unanimity in naming Jackson, Manning, and Minow as frontrunners.
Although these professors have all been considered for the position, whether they would accept an offer to serve as Dean remains unclear.
Elizabeth Warren is such an intriguing option because she strikes me a seriously attractive candidate: incredibly high profile, widely respected...and a Rutgers-Newark law graduate. Even if she was interested in the position, could Faust - would Faust - pull the trigger on that decision.
Everyone feels great about a meritocracy until it actually torpedos tradition (and widely used heuristics.)
Isn't Drew Faust the first president of Harvard since the 17th century to have gone somewhere other than Harvard for college (or something like that)? Seems to me that she'd love to have new traditions.
Posted by: Alfred | June 04, 2009 at 05:26 PM
Wouldn't the world be upside down if merit worked and Elizabeth Warren, a Rutgers grad, became the HLS dean!!!
Posted by: Roger Dennis | June 05, 2009 at 11:13 AM
As far as I can tell, Elizabeth Warren would make a great dean for my alma mater. It is incredible to me that sensible, intelligent people could actually consider where she went to law school as a relevant consideration at this point when she has presumably (or one would have thought) has proven herself, not only by being appointed to the faculty at HLS, but also by her many published works. It is like asking what score she made on the LSAT. Who cares? Many people do not have the benefit of good advice about how to choose a law school and if they are not already part of the elite, may not fully appreciate the consequences of attendance at a non-elite school. Or they may have financial or family considerations that limit their choices. Attendance at an elite institution is surely as least as correlated with wealth as it is with merit, perhaps more. It is discouraging that this fact seems so important to many people.
Posted by: tamara | June 05, 2009 at 03:53 PM
You never know. Isn't Princeton's current president a Ph.D graduate of Temple University? Didn't seem to bother Princeton.
Posted by: SF Attorney | June 08, 2009 at 02:19 PM