Kagan Named Next HLS Dean

A woman will lead Harvard Law School (HLS) for the first time in its 186-year history, the University announced today.

Elena Kagan, who received tenure in 2001 after only two years as a visiting professor at HLS, has been chosen to replace current HLS dean Robert C. Clark when he steps down this June.

Kagan hails from Washington, D.C., where she worked in the Clinton Administration with University President Lawrence H. Summers as the deputy director of the Domestic Policy Council. Kagan was also nominated to serve on the U.S. Appeals Court for Washington, D.C.

The appointment of Kagan to the deanship marks a new beginning in the history of the traditional Law School, which only began admitting women 50 years ago.

“I loved this law school since the moment I arrived here as a student,” Kagan, who graduated from HLS in 1986, told faculty and students yesterday. “To be able to have a job in which I think about how to improve this school—that is a dream.”

After graduating from HLS in 1986, Kagan clerked for former U.S. Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall and briefly worked as a practicing lawyer before accepting a teaching position at the University of Chicago.

Please see tomorrow’s Crimson for full coverage of Kagan’s appointment.