Pusey Names Law, Divinity Deans

Derek C. Bok, professor of Law, has been appointed the new dean of the Harvard Law School, President Pusey announced yesterday. A. James Casner will continue as acting dean until Bok takes office on July 1.

The 37-year-old Bok will be the school's seventh dean, succeeding Erwin N. Griswold. Griswold retired last October after 21 years in office to become United States Solicitor General.

Bok said yesterday that he views such internal school problems as Faculty development and the nature of legal education as his future primary areas of concern. He is currently chairman of the Continuing Committee on Legal Education, the Law School's curriculum committee.

Although there is no time limit on his appointment, Bok said that he has no intention of remaining in office until the retirement age of 65. There has been general agreement recently among Law School Faculty members that one man should not serve as dean for more than ten years. Bok yesterday declined to set any time limit for his tenure.

Labor Authority

An authority on labor law and a one-time labor mediator, he is currently collaborating with John T. Dunlop, David A. Wells Professor of Political Economy, on a study of the contemporary problems of labor unions. In 1963, Bok helped mediate the Florida East Coast Railway dispute.

Under his guidance last year, the school's curriculum committee successfully proposed making all second-year courses elective. In 1967, he headed a private foundation task force studying the impact of law schools on world affairs.

Commenting on legal education, Bok said yesterday that the school's casebook method "should be enriched and not abandoned." The casebook method has increasingly become the target of criticism from both students and professors.

Social Sciences

Bok thinks that the school should increase its contact with the social sciences, but not solely by appointing nonlaw professors to the Faculty. He said that he hopes to encourage younger Faculty members and prospective law teachers to obtain a thorough grounding in other disciplines.

Bok himself did not join the Law School Faculty until he had earned his M.A. in economics at George Washington University in 1958, after studying in Paris for a year as a Fulbright Scholar. He became an assistant professor at the school that fall and was made a full professor three years later. He received his B.A. from Stanford University in 1951 and his LL.B. magna cum laude from Harvard in 1954.

His appointment will not be official until confirmed by the Board of Overseers in March. Such confirmations are usually perfunctory.