Harvard Law School Dean Kagan Wins Praise as Potential Solicitor General

Harvard Law School Dean Elena Kagan, who is rumored to be president-elect Barack Obama’s choice for solicitor general, won praise over the weekend from one of Ronald Reagan’s solicitors general, who said in an interview that she is a “fresh face” that “some of the justices might appreciate.”

The endorsement came from professor Charles Fried, the Law School’s best known conservative and an academic who served as solicitor general from 1985 to 1989 and as a judge from 1995 to 1999.

As solicitor general, the United States’ chief legal advocate, Kagan would represent the U.S. government before the Supreme Court and other federal courts. The United States is party to about two-thirds of cases brought before the high court.

Kagan served on the faculty of the University of Chicago Law School with Obama in the early and mid-1990s.

Though Kagan has never argued a case before the Supreme Court, Fried said that her lack of experience before the court is secondary to her time at the Law School.

“Several hundred Harvard Law students are about as tough an audience as you can get,” Fried said.

During her time at the Law School, Kagan has taught constitutional and administrative law. She became dean after just two years as a full professor, succeeding Robert C. Clark as dean in 2003.

Kagan has received praise for record fundraising, winning approval for significant changes to the first-year curriculum, and poaching distinguished law professors like Chicago’s Cass R. Sunstein ‘75 and Stanford’s Lawrence Lessig.

“I’m happy for her but sorry for us,” Fried said. “She’s a very hard person to replace.”

Kagan clerked for Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall and U.S. Appeals Court Judge Abner Mikva before serving as a domestic policy adviser under President Clinton.

During their time at the Law School, which did not overlap, both Kagan and Obama served as research assistants to constitutional law professor Laurence H. Tribe ‘62, who in recent years has generously praised Kagan and emerged as a close adviser to Obama.

Kagan did not respond to requests for comment, and officials from Obama’s transition office declined to comment.

—Staff writer Elias J. Groll can be reached at egroll@fas.harvard.edu.