Post date: July 1, 2003
Today Elena Kagan became the 11th dean of Harvard Law School. Appointed in April by Harvard University President Lawrence Summers, Kagan succeeds Robert Clark, who served as dean for 14 years.
In addition to her title of Dean of the Faculty of Law, Kagan also becomes the first Charles Hamilton Houston Professor of Law. A 1921 graduate of Harvard Law School, Houston was a leader of the civil rights movement, who helped train many of the most influential civil rights attorneys of the 20th century.
“Charles Hamilton Houston was one of the Law School’s most distinguished graduates, responsible for great advances in social justice and in legal education,” said Kagan, who is a 1986 graduate of the Law School. “He was also the teacher of one of my own teachers, Justice Thurgood Marshall. Honoring Dean Houston seems especially appropriate as we approach the 50th anniversary of Brown v. Board of Education, in which he played such a signal role.”
Click here to read a bio of Dean Kagan.