Harvard Law Review Elects Lauren Beck President

The Harvard Law Review elected second-year Law student Lauren N. Beck as its 133rd president, according to an email from outgoing president Michael L. Thomas.

Beck, who was born in Northern California and raised in San Francisco, graduated from Columbia University in 2014 with a degree in English literature. Before starting at Harvard Law School, Beck worked at Codeacademy, an education startup based in New York that specializes in teaching students computer programming skills. This summer she will serve as a summer associate at Munger, Tolles & Olson.

The Harvard Law Review was founded in 1887 by former United States Supreme Court Justice Louis D. Brandeis. The publication is entirely student-edited with the largest circulation of any law journal in the world. The Law Review counts various notable alumni among its members, including former U.S. President Barack Obama.

Thomas praised Beck in an email for her suitability for the position and wrote he is excited for the future of the publication under her leadership.

“The Law Review is incredibly fortunate to have Lauren at the helm. She has consistently impressed her peers with her brilliance, thoughtfulness, and dedication to the institution.” Thomas wrote. “I am so excited to see all the ways that the Law Review will thrive under her leadership.”

Beck wrote in an emailed statement that her predecessor helmed the publication skillfully.

“Michael has led the Law Review with compassion, humility, and skill,” Beck wrote. “His exceptional tenure is a testament to his character, and to his remarkable intellect.”

Beck also wrote that she looks forward to continuing the legacy left by Thomas and other Law Review editors.

“Michael and his volume leave our scholarship and our internal community more ambitious, more cohesive, and simply stronger,” Beck wrote. “I’m grateful for the chance, alongside the brilliant editors in our volume, to follow their example.”

Beck’s election comes after the Law Review has made efforts in the past few years to increase diversity at the publication. The Law Review expanded its affirmative action policy in 2013, and has since elected its first majority female class in 2017.

This hiring policy has recently come under fire in a suit brought against the Law Review, Harvard Law School, and the President and Fellows of Harvard College — the University's highest governing board, otherwise known as the Harvard Corporation — for alleged violation of anti-discrimination laws Title VI and IX.

—Staff writer Connor W. K. Brown can be reached at connor.brown@thecrimson.com. Follow him on Twitter @ConnorWKBrown.