Harvard Law School

Harvard Law School, Harvard Law or HLS,  is one of the professional graduate schools of Harvard University and is regarded as one of the most prestigious educational institutions in the world. Located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, it is the oldest continually-operating law school in the United States and is home to the largest academic law library in the world. The school is routinely ranked by the U.S. News and World Reports as the second best law school in the United States, behind only Yale Law School.

The current Dean of Harvard Law School is Martha Minow, who assumed the role on July 1, 2009. Harvard Law has 246 faculty members. Many are preeminent legal scholars; Harvard Law School faculty were responsible for more downloaded papers on the Social Science Research Network than any other law school, a fact only partially explained by the school's size.

Harvard Law School has produced a large number of luminaries in law and politics, including the current President of the United States, Barack Obama, and former President Rutherford B. Hayes. World leaders counted among its graduates include the current President of the Republic of China, Ma Ying-jeou; the current President of the World Bank Group, Robert Zoellick; the current United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Navanethem Pillay; and the former President of Ireland, Mary Robinson. Some 149 sitting United States federal judges are Harvard Law School graduates; six of the nine sitting justices of the Supreme Court of the United States attended the law school (Chief Justice John G. Roberts and Associate Justices Anthony Kennedy, Stephen Breyer, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Antonin Scalia and Elena Kagan). Seven sitting U.S. Senators graduated from the school.

Harvard Law School has also educated a significant number of leaders and innovators in the business world. Business leaders counted among its graduates include the current Chairman and CEO of Goldman Sachs, Lloyd Blankfein, current Chairman of the Board and majority owner of National Amusements, billionare Sumner Redstone, current President and CEO of TIAA-CREF, Roger W. Ferguson, Jr., current CEO and Chairman of Toys "R" Us, Gerald L. Storch, and former CEO of Delta Air Lines, Gerald Grinstein, among many others.

Each class in the three-year J.D. program has approximately 550 students. The first-year (1L) class is broken into seven sections of approximately 80 students who take most first-year classes together. Harvard Law School graduates have accounted for 568 judicial clerkships in the past three years, including one-quarter of all Supreme Court clerkships. More than 120 from the last five graduating classes have obtained tenure-track law teaching positions.

History

Harvard Law School was established in 1817, making it the oldest continuously-operating law school in the nation. (William & Mary Law School opened first in 1779, but closed due to the American Civil War, reopening in 1920. The University of Maryland School of Law was chartered in 1816, but did not begin classes until 1824, and also closed during the Civil War.

Campus

Harvard Law School's campus is located just north of Harvard Yard, the historic center of Harvard University, and contains several architecturally significant buildings.

From 1849 to 1855, the Harvard Branch Railroad terminated within what would become the present Law School campus, close to its southwest edge. Austin Hall, the law school's oldest dedicated structure, designed by architect H. H. Richardson, was completed in that vicinity in 1884. The law school's student center, Harkness Commons, was designed by the Bauhaus's founder, Walter Gropius, and his firm, along with several law school dormitories. Together they make up the Harvard Graduate Center complex. Langdell Hall, the largest building on the law school campus, contains the Harvard Law Library, the most extensive academic law library in the world.

As of 2010, a new complex is rising on the northwest corner of the law school campus, designed by traditionalist architect Robert A. M. Stern. The complex is set to marry the architectural themes present in Austin and Langdell Halls, as well as the Gropius buildings.

Notable alumni

Rutherford B. Hayes, the 19th President of the United States, and Barack Obama, the 44th and current President of the United States, graduated from HLS. Obama was the first African-American president of the Harvard Law Review and is now the first African-American President of the United States. His wife Michelle Obama is also a graduate of Harvard Law School. Ma Ying-jeou, the current president of the Republic of China (Taiwan), received his SJD from Harvard. Past presidential candidates who are HLS graduates include Michael Dukakis and Ralph Nader. The plurality of US Senators with law degrees, and a significant number of Massachusetts governors, graduated from HLS as well.

Fourteen of the school's graduates have served on the Supreme Court of the United States, more than any other law school, and another four justices attended the school without graduating. Six of the current nine members of the court attended HLS: Chief Justice John Roberts, and Associate Justices Antonin Scalia, Anthony Kennedy, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Stephen Breyer and Elena Kagan, who also served as the Dean of Harvard Law School from 2003 to 2009. Ginsburg transferred to and graduated from Columbia Law School. Past Supreme Court justices from Harvard Law School include David Souter, Harry Blackmun, William J. Brennan, Louis Brandeis, Felix Frankfurter, Lewis Powell (LLM), and Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr., among others.

Attorneys General Alberto Gonzales and Janet Reno, among others, and noted federal judges Richard Posner of the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals, Judge Michael Boudin of the First Circuit Court of Appeals, Laurence Silberman of the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals, and Pierre Leval of the Second Circuit Court of Appeals, among many other judicial figures, graduated from the school. The current Commonwealth Solicitor General of Australia Stephen Gageler SC graduated from Harvard with an LL.M.

Famous legal academics who graduated from Harvard Law include Erwin Chemerinsky, Ronald Dworkin, Susan Estrich, Arthur R. Miller, William L. Prosser, John Sexton, Kathleen Sullivan, Cass Sunstein, Michael Kinsley, and Laurence Tribe.

In addition to their achievements in law and politics, Harvard Law alumni have also excelled in other fields. Many have gone on to become influential journalists, writers, media and business leaders and even professional athletes.

In popular culture

Books

A number of notable novels have been inspired by the student experience at the school.

The Paper Chase is a novel set amid a student's first ("One L") year at the school. It was written by John Jay Osborn, Jr., who studied at the school. The book was later turned into a film and a television series (see below).

Scott Turow wrote a memoir of his experience as a first-year law student at Harvard, One L.

Richard Kahlenberg's account of his experiences, Broken Contract: A Memoir of Harvard Law School. Kahlenberg breaks from the other two authors and describes the experience of the final two years at the school, claiming that the environment drives students away from their public interest aspirations and toward work in high-paying law firms.

The book Brush With the Law, by Robert Byrnes and Jaime Marquart, is an account of the authors' three years in Stanford and Harvard Law Schools. The authors indulge in alcohol, drugs, womanizing, and gambling before passing their exams and moving on to a successful legal career.

Film and television

Several movies and television shows take place at least in part at the school. Most of them have scenes filmed on location at or around Harvard University. They include:

The Social Network (2010)

Legally Blonde (2001)

How High (2001)

The Firm (1993)

Soul Man (1986)

The Paper Chase (1973)

Love Story (1970)

Love Story in Harvard (Korean TV series, 2004)

Many popular movies and television shows also feature characters introduced as Harvard Law graduates. Some of these include:

Suits (2011)

Stranger Than Fiction (2006)

Boston Legal (2004–2009)

NCIS (2003–)

Two Weeks Notice (2002)

The People vs. Larry Flynt (1996)

Passions (1999–2008)

Sex and the City (1998)

The Practice (1997–2004)

The West Wing (1999–2006)

Ally McBeal (1997–2002)

Judging Amy (1999–2005)

Quiz Show (1994)

The Firm (1993)

A Few Good Men (1992)

Law & Order (1990–)

The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air (1990–96)

Matlock (1986–95)

Legally Blonde (2001)

Entourage (2004–)

Oz (1997–2003)

Blue Bloods (TV series) (2010)