‘What justice demands of us, no one person can do alone.’
Looking back and ahead with Martha Minow
Martha Minow became HLS’s 12th dean in 2009, after teaching at HLS since 1981. In January, she announced her intention to step down at the end of the academic year. This spring Minow spoke with the Bulletin about the institution she loves, the future of legal education and what she looks forward to next.
Martha Minow’s 8-year tenure as dean of Harvard Law School has been nothing short of transformative: Among many other things, she has overseen the expansion of clinical programs and public service initiatives at the school; engendered diversification of faculty, staff and the student body; and supported the pursuit of innovative and entrepreneurial ventures–changes that will have a lasting impact not only on the law school, but on legal scholarship and the legal profession for many years to come.
Parting Thoughts
As she prepares to step down as Dean, Martha Minow focused her Last Lecture to this year’s graduating class on mistakes she has made — “these are all pre-Deanship,” she quipped, “because we only have an hour” — and the lessons she has learned from them. “I wish you many great falls and many great standings-up again,” she told them. “I wish you not only great success and happiness, but also many great mistakes.”
Audio | Martha Minow on her tenure at HLS
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Martha Minow recently announced that she will step down as the dean of Harvard Law School at the end of this academic year. She began her tenure in 2009, in the midst of the financial crisis. In the intervening years, the law school faced serious questions of diversity and racism. Minow ends her tenure this year, as parts of the legal profession is feeling a new ripple of energy around the presidency of Donald Trump.
Video | Words to the Wise
The ‘Upstander’
A Transformative Tenure
Dean Martha Minow learned the word “upstander” from her former student Samantha Power, ’99, meaning someone who stands up against injustice, bigotry, violence, or other wrongdoing–the opposite of a bystander. As an upstander herself, Minow proselytizes in favor of seeking a sense of common purpose that makes all of us more likely to stand up against wrongs and on behalf of rights. She does this with a realism that does not reduce the optimism of her public persona, which is upbeat, a touch rabbinical, and full of heart.
Martha Minow’s 8-year tenure as dean of Harvard Law School has been nothing short of transformative: She has overseen the expansion of clinical programs and public service initiatives at the school; engendered diversification of faculty, staff and the student body; and supported the pursuit of innovative and entrepreneurial ventures.