Professors Gary Bellow, Abram Chayes, and James Vorenberg
Harvard Law School lost three of its great citizens during one week in April. Though we mourn their loss, we also rejoice in the privileged opportunity to continue their work.
Gary Bellow, Abe Chayes, and Jim Vorenberg had much in common. All of them provided long-term devoted service to Harvard Law School. Abe Chayes first joined the Harvard Law School faculty about 45 years ago; Jim Vorenberg, 38 years ago; Gary Bellow, the youngest of the trio, 28 years ago. They spent most of their working lives at this institution. They were a part of its fabric, its essence. They built up the last several generations. They contributed to the splendor of the institution.
They all engaged in serious, noteworthy public service. They cared not only about themselves or the institution they worked for, but for the greater good of the world around them. People contribute to the greater good in different ways. Many academics do it intellectually. It’s striking, however, that these three senior citizens of the School all did it in more direct ways as well. For example, Abe worked in the State Department, Jim was special Watergate prosecutor, and Gary worked with California rural legal assistance.
They were all focused and persistent over time in their academic interests. Jim was a distinguished criminal justice expert. Abe was an authority in public international law. Gary worked in clinical legal education. In fact, he was the pioneer in the field.
They were all admirable, constructive, positive human beings. They were moral. They were good. It’s an obvious thing to the people who knew them well; I’ve heard these thoughts expressed over and over: “Abe was so upbeat.” “Jim was so fair.” “Gary was so compassionate.”
They were all interested in teaching Harvard Law School students as long as they could. Gary was on his way to class when he collapsed. Jim was talking in the days before he died about the two seminars he was going to do next year. And Abe, though he retired seven years ago, was teaching important classes at my request every year until his illness made it impossible. They cared about serving the students here.
They had faith in the Harvard Law School and the commitment to improving it. You could see this in the way they talked about appointments. They were never complacent, but never despairing. They all had plans of action to make things better.
I imagine them in the other world enjoying their well-earned reward, taking a few minutes to push aside the clouds and look down at us. What would they say? I imagine they would all say this: “Cry about our passing if you wish, but please continue our work. We loved the Harvard Law School and we hope that you do too.”
-Dean Robert Clark ’72, Royall Professor of Law,
from remarks at a School memorial on April 17th 2000.
James Vorenberg
1928-2000
Roscoe Pound Professor of Law James Vorenberg, 72, the ninth dean of Harvard Law School, former Watergate associate special prosecutor, and first chair of the Massachusetts State Ethics Commission, died on April 12, 2000, of cardiac arrest.Professor James Vorenberg
Vorenberg received an A.B. magna cum laude in 1948 from Harvard College and an LL.B. magna cum laude in 1951 from Harvard Law School, where he received the Sears Prize and served as president of the Harvard Law Review.
Vorenberg was commissioned a second lieutenant and served from 1951 to 1953 as a lawyer in the Air Force General Counsel’s Office. He then clerked for U.S. Supreme Court Justice Felix Frankfurter. In 1954 he began working for the Boston law firm Ropes & Gray, becoming a partner in 1960.
Vorenberg joined the Law School faculty as professor of law in 1962, teaching courses in criminal law as well as on the government lawyer and on the legal profession. He also helped establish and later directed the Center for Criminal Justice, a Ford Foundation-funded research center that brought police officers, prosecutors, and defense counsels to campus and took law students to observe the local police and jails.
At the request of then Attorney General Robert Kennedy, Vorenberg served as director of the Office of Criminal Justice in the U.S. Department of Justice from 1964 to 1965.
From 1965 to 1967, he served as the director of the President’s Commission on Law Enforcement and Administration of Justice, which resulted in the Federal Law Enforcement Assistance Program that distributed almost a billion dollars a year to state and local criminal justice agencies.
From 1973 to 1975, Vorenberg served as principal assistant to Professor Emeritus Archibald Cox ’37 in the Watergate Special Prosecutor’s Office, building and organizing the office and hiring the staff.
He was the first chairman of the Massachusetts State Ethics Commission from 1978 to 1983, enforcing the state’s conflict of interest laws.
He served as associate dean from 1977 to 1981 before becoming dean and Roscoe Pound Professor in 1981.
Under Vorenberg’s leadership, the numbers of full-time women faculty and minority faculty increased, and the student body also became more diverse. Vorenberg received Harvard University’s Association of Black Faculty, Administrators, and Fellows C. Clyde Ferguson Award in 1987 for his “contributions to enhancing diversity in the Harvard community.”
He authorized the expansion of the School’s Low Income Protection Plan, which made it the leading program in the country at the time for the forgiveness of loans for law school graduates performing law-related public service work.
Initiatives created or invigorated during his deanship include the Human Rights Program and the Program on the Legal Profession. He oversaw the expansion of the School’s Clinical Program. He also promoted the teaching of negotiation and mediation and played a major role in bringing criminal law studies more into the mainstream of the School’s teaching and research programs.
He also began the long-term planning process that led to the Campaign for Harvard Law School, which raised $183 million, at the time the largest amount ever raised by a law school.
After stepping down as dean, he taught courses at the School on criminal law, legal ethics, and criminal justice.
In October 1999, the School renamed the Langdell Hall North classroom in his honor.In October 1999, the School renamed the Langdell Hall North classroom in his honor.
His publications include Criminal Law and Procedure: Cases and Materials (West, 1995). He also coauthored Dean Cuisine, Or, the Liberated Man’s Guide to Fine Cooking with his friend Jack Greenberg of Columbia University.
A memorial service was held at Harvard University’s Memorial Church on May 10.
Roscoe Pound Professor of Law James Vorenberg, 72, the ninth dean of Harvard Law School, former Watergate associate special prosecutor, and first chair of the Massachusetts State Ethics Commission, died on April 12, 2000, of cardiac arrest.Professor James Vorenberg
Vorenberg received an A.B. magna cum laude in 1948 from Harvard College and an LL.B. magna cum laude in 1951 from Harvard Law School, where he received the Sears Prize and served as president of the Harvard Law Review.
Vorenberg was commissioned a second lieutenant and served from 1951 to 1953 as a lawyer in the Air Force General Counsel’s Office. He then clerked for U.S. Supreme Court Justice Felix Frankfurter. In 1954 he began working for the Boston law firm Ropes & Gray, becoming a partner in 1960.
Vorenberg joined the Law School faculty as professor of law in 1962, teaching courses in criminal law as well as on the government lawyer and on the legal profession. He also helped establish and later directed the Center for Criminal Justice, a Ford Foundation-funded research center that brought police officers, prosecutors, and defense counsels to campus and took law students to observe the local police and jails.
At the request of then Attorney General Robert Kennedy, Vorenberg served as director of the Office of Criminal Justice in the U.S. Department of Justice from 1964 to 1965.
From 1965 to 1967, he served as the director of the President’s Commission on Law Enforcement and Administration of Justice, which resulted in the Federal Law Enforcement Assistance Program that distributed almost a billion dollars a year to state and local criminal justice agencies.
From 1973 to 1975, Vorenberg served as principal assistant to Professor Emeritus Archibald Cox ’37 in the Watergate Special Prosecutor’s Office, building and organizing the office and hiring the staff.
He was the first chairman of the Massachusetts State Ethics Commission from 1978 to 1983, enforcing the state’s conflict of interest laws.
He served as associate dean from 1977 to 1981 before becoming dean and Roscoe Pound Professor in 1981.
Under Vorenberg’s leadership, the numbers of full-time women faculty and minority faculty increased, and the student body also became more diverse. Vorenberg received Harvard University’s Association of Black Faculty, Administrators, and Fellows C. Clyde Ferguson Award in 1987 for his “contributions to enhancing diversity in the Harvard community.”
He authorized the expansion of the School’s Low Income Protection Plan, which made it the leading program in the country at the time for the forgiveness of loans for law school graduates performing law-related public service work.
Initiatives created or invigorated during his deanship include the Human Rights Program and the Program on the Legal Profession. He oversaw the expansion of the School’s Clinical Program. He also promoted the teaching of negotiation and mediation and played a major role in bringing criminal law studies more into the mainstream of the School’s teaching and research programs.
He also began the long-term planning process that led to the Campaign for Harvard Law School, which raised $183 million, at the time the largest amount ever raised by a law school.
After stepping down as dean, he taught courses at the School on criminal law, legal ethics, and criminal justice.
In October 1999, the School renamed the Langdell Hall North classroom in his honor.In October 1999, the School renamed the Langdell Hall North classroom in his honor.
His publications include Criminal Law and Procedure: Cases and Materials (West, 1995). He also coauthored Dean Cuisine, Or, the Liberated Man’s Guide to Fine Cooking with his friend Jack Greenberg of Columbia University.
A memorial service was held at Harvard University’s Memorial Church on May 10.
Abram Chayes
1922-2000
International Law Professor Abram Chayes, 77, who served as the Kennedy administration’s chief international lawyer at the height of the Cold War and who taught at the School for over four decades, died on Sunday, April 16, 2000, of complications from pancreatic cancer.
Chayes received his A.B. magna cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa, from Harvard College 1943. After serving in WWII from 1943 to 1946, he received his LL.B. magna cum laude from Harvard Law School in 1949. He served as note editor and then president of the Harvard Law Review. Chayes received the Sears Prize and the Fay Diploma.
After law school, Chayes served as legal adviser to Governor Chester Bowles of Connecticut. From 1951 to 1952 he clerked for U.S. Supreme Court Justice Felix Frankfurter and then was an associate with Covington & Burling in Washington, D.C.
In 1955 he joined the Law School faculty as assistant professor, becoming professor in 1958.
Chayes worked in the late 1950s on the presidential campaign of John F. Kennedy as the head staff person and lead draftsman of the 1960 Democratic Convention platform and one of the principal issues advisers to the campaign.
As legal adviser for the U.S. Department of State during the Kennedy administration, Chayes played a major role in the development of the U.S. position in the Berlin Crisis, the Cuban Missile Crisis, and the Limited Test Ban Treaty. He argued several cases before the U.S. Supreme Court and the World Court during this period.
In 1964, he went to the law firm of Ginsburg & Feldman in Washington, D.C., before coming back to the School in 1965. In 1976 he became the Felix Frankfurter Professor and in 1993 the Felix Frankfurter Professor, Emeritus.
After Chayes returned to the School, he continued his work in international affairs. He was a foreign policy adviser to the 1968 presidential campaign of Senator Robert F. Kennedy. Chayes advised Democratic members of the Senate in the debate in the early 1970s over antiballistic missle (ABM) deployment and was a strong supporter of the ABM Treaty of 1972.
In the 1980s, Chayes continued to spend considerable time on international law issues, ranging from Cold War questions to environmental and communications matters. He represented Nicaragua against the United States in a World Court suit brought against U.S. support for the Contras.
In April 1999, Chayes became of counsel to McDermott, Will & Emery, where he led the team of lawyers suing Slobodan Milosevic in the U.S. courts for genocide in Kosovo. From September 1999 through February 2000, he served as a member of the Commission of International Legal Experts appointed by the prime minister of Bosnia-Herzegovina to investigate and make recommendations to fight corruption in Bosnia.
Throughout the 1990s Chayes continued to teach at the School; coauthored several books with his wife, Antonia Handler Chayes, the former undersecretary of the Air Force in the Carter administration; and wrote on conflict management in the former Eastern bloc, international peacekeeping, and compliance with international treaties. He continued his work on international environmental law, teaching and serving on the Harvard interdisciplinary group on climate change.
His publications include The Cuban Missile Crisis: International Crisis and the Role of Law (Oxford University Press, 1974, 1987), The International Legal Process, with T. Ehrlich and A. Lowenfeld (Little, Brown, 1968, 1969), and The New Sovereignty: Compliance with International Regulatory Agreements, with A. H. Chayes (Harvard University Press, 1996, 1998).
He taught, among other courses, International Law, Civil Procedure, International Environmental Law and Institutions, International Peacekeeping, and Introduction to American Law.
In 1999 he received the Harvard Law School Association Award, and the School celebrated his career with a two-day program on issues in international law.
A memorial service will be held at Harvard University on September 27, 2000, in the Ames Courtroom, Austin Hall.
Gary Bellow
1935-2000
Pioneering public interest Professor Gary Bellow, 64, founder and former faculty director of the School’s Clinical Program, died on April 13, 2000, of cardiac arrest.
Bellow was a specialist in the areas of public interest law and poverty law and was considered to be one of the founders of modern clinical legal education. At HLS Bellow inaugurated a new model of clinical legal training in which students are exposed to simulated exercises and extensive hands-on practice, under the guidance of HLS faculty and experienced attorneys.
He was a cofounder with his wife, Lecturer Jeanne Charn, of the Hale and Dorr Legal Services Center of Harvard Law School, the School’s major legal clinic, directed by Charn, where Bellow was also a clinical instructor. Under Bellow’s leadership, the School’s Clinical Program developed from two courses (both taught by Bellow) with three clinical supervisors to more than 20 courses with more than 35 supervisors, and now involves some 450 students who represent more than 5,000 clients a year at the Hale and Dorr Center, the Criminal Justice Institute, student practice organizations, and outside agencies.
Bellow received an A.B. from Yale University in 1957, an LL.B. from Harvard Law School in 1960, and an LL.M. from Northwestern University School of Law in 1961. After graduation from law school, Bellow served in the Army from 1961 to 1962. He then embarked on a career dedicated to providing legal services to the poor.
From 1962 to 1965 he served as deputy director of the Legal Aid Agency for the District of Columbia. He then joined the United Planning Organization in Washington, D.C., a com-munity-organizing group, and served as administrative director in 1965 and as deputy executive director from 1965 to 1968.
Bellow served from 1966 to 1968 as deputy director of California Rural Legal Assistance, where he worked on com-munity organizing and legal assistance for migrant farmworkers in the San Joaquin Valley. His work brought him in contact with Cesar Chavez of the United Farm Workers and in conflict with then California Governor Ronald Reagan.
Bellow served as associate professor of law at the University of Southern California School of Law from 1968 to 1971. He continued his work with the United Farm Workers and added new clients, including the Black Panther Party.
Bellow joined the Harvard faculty in 1971 as visiting professor of law. He became professor of law in 1972 and Louis D. Brandeis Professor of Law in 1993. He served as faculty director of the Clinical Program from 1992 to 1996.
In 1993, the Law School dedicated a permanent location in the Jamaica Plain neighborhood of Boston for its Legal Services Center, which was purchased and renovated with support from a $2 million gift from the firm Hale and Dorr, and its partners who were graduates of the Law School.
Bellow’s publications include The Lawyering Process: Materials for Clinical Instruction in Advocacy, with B. Moulton (Foundation Press, 1978), Law Stories, with M. Minow (University of Michigan Press, 1996), and Professional Responsibility: Materials for Clinical Instruction in Law, with B. Moulton (Foundation Press, 1982), and many articles in law journals.
A memorial service was held at Harvard University’s Sanders Theatre on May 25. For transcripts from the event, go to the Gary Bellow Memorial Web page at www.garybellow.org, which also includes other recollections of Gary Bellow along with photographs and some of his writings.
On April 17, faculty, staff, and students, as well as family and friends of Gary Bellow, Abram Chayes, and James Vorenberg, came together to mourn and remember the three faculty who had died the week before. We include tributes from Dean Robert Clark ’72, Professors Charles Ogletree, Jr. ’78, Anne-Marie Slaughter ’85, and Andrew Kaufman ’54, who spoke that afternoon.
An Advocate for the Disenfranchised
Gary Bellow was a creative scholar, a gifted teacher, an extraordinary advocate and visionary leader in the clinical legal education movement. His legal career is one that all can admire for the extraordinary depth and breadth of what he was able to accomplish. I have lost a great teacher, a dear friend, an ideal mentor, and the perfect role model. He shall be missed but never forgotten.
During his early start as a public defender in Washington, D.C., Professor Bellow developed a reputation for winning acquittals in very difficult cases, and was a leader among a legion of young lawyers who were amazed at his many talents. Professor Bellow went on to create change in significant ways in California, representing the Black Panthers in many political cases, and Cesar Chavez in the civil rights movement of migrant farmers.
Professor Bellow’s work in California still stands as a monument to the resilience of workers, who had few rights then. They were fighting for a decent wage and appropriate health standards, facing not only pesticides in the fields where they worked, but very modest living conditions in the places they lived. Professor Bellow was so successful representing the migrant farm laborers that he drew the attention, and ultimately the wrath, of then Governor Ronald Reagan. Despite the complaints about the aggressive work he did on behalf of workers, Professor Bellow was able to assist in developing procedures that still stand as monumental protections of the rights of workers.
During his 30-year history at Harvard Law School, Professor Bellow wrote the seminal casebook the Lawyering Process and many articles that reflect self-criticism and in-depth analysis of the legal services movement. In The Lawyering Process casebook, Professor Bellow (with his coauthor, Professor Bea Moulton) made extensive use of social science material to support the critical analysis of the legal process, and to teach future generations of students to see the complexities of counseling, interviewing, and representation of indigent clients. It is still used in most law schools that offer clinical education, and its continued vitality is a testament to its innovative approach to clinical legal education. Professor Bellow also developed the monumental Clinical Program of Harvard Law School, one of the largest and most successful in the country. During the course of the last two decades, under Professor Bellow’s leadership, the Harvard Clinical Program has offered legal training to thousands of young law students, and provided representation to tens of thousands of indigent clients.
Professor Bellow was way ahead of the curve on the technology explosion. In 1967, at the School’s Sesquicentennial, he argued that technology would play a pivotal role in the provision of legal services to clients of the future. His clairvoyance was astounding.
Professor Bellow’s most important work was teaching students. It is a remarkable irony that, in the last moments of his life, he was on his way to teach a class, despite failing health. His dedication to students, the advancement of clinical legal education, and relentless advocacy on behalf of the poor exemplifies the level of his unqualified commitment to everything that he pursued. Professor Bellow will forever be remembered as an innovative and creative leader in clinical legal education.
-Charles Ogletree, Jr. ’78, Jesse Climenko Professor of Law,
faculty director of the Clinical Program
A Life Force
There will be time to remember Abe Chayes as a public figure, a public servant and advocate. I want today to remember him as a member of our community, as a friend, colleague, and teacher.
Chayes comes from “L’Chaim,” and L’Chaim means life. Never was anyone more aptly named. He was a life force. All of us in the Griswold fourth floor suite always knew when Abe was coming down the hall; he walked with such vigor and energy that the keys and change in his pockets jingled loud enough to hear all the way from the elevator!
As a colleague, Abe loved this institution deeply. He always made it seem as if his life began the day he entered the gates of Harvard yard: Harvard College, Harvard Law School, and then the Harvard Law School faculty.
Abe always understood that the people and the things he loved – his family, friends, students, and the Law School itself – had to have room to change and grow. In our collective conversations over the past two years about strategic planning, Abe’s was a voice for change, for risk-taking, for bold experiments. He deeply believed in this place, but in its spirit and people, not in any particular tradition or curriculum or institutional form. He believed that we served core values, but that we could serve them in many different ways.
Finally, Abe was a great teacher, which is how so many of us first encountered him and what, in the end, he most was. My life as a first-year student was transformed when he came in as a substitute to teach my civil procedure class for two weeks. He electrified the class, making it a completely different subject. He called on me to elucidate some aspect of Louisville and Nashville v. Mottley, and my first answer was good enough to elicit another question from him, but my second answer was greeted with: “Oh, Ms. Burley! Surely you don’t mean that.” At that point I had no idea what I meant, but I was caught up in an intellectual whirl of questions and challenges that kept me thinking about civil procedure for the rest of the day.
Long after all his students forget the details of Louisville v. Mottley or any other case, however, they will remember much larger lessons. When we face a problem and ask ourselves: “What would Abe do?” or “What would he tell me to do?” the lesson is clear. To analyze sharply and critically. To accept critiques and alternative perspectives for what we can learn from them. To be prepared to work, hard. And to figure out what is the right thing to do, and then to do it – with courage and passion.
-Anne-Marie Slaughter ’85, J. Sinclair Armstrong Professor of
International, Foreign and Comparative Law; director, Graduate
and International Legal Studies
The Soul of a Leader
Jim Vorenberg was my friend for 45 years. During that time I knew two Jim Vorenbergs.
The first was primarily Young Jim. He was tough, blunt- speaking, fun-loving, and competitive, both on the athletic field and off. You didn’t want to be in Jim’s way when he was trying to accomplish something. And you certainly didn’t want to be the third baseman waiting for the relay from the outfield when Young Jim was headed for third base, trying to stretch a double into a triple.
The second was Older Jim. He was also competitive, hard-driving, and fun-loving. But Older Jim was more of a listener to other people, a sought-after adviser, a caring person who performed hundreds, thousands of kindnesses for others. If you want to learn about the soul of a leader, don’t ask his peers. Ask the people who worked with him, worked under him. I know a great many of the people who worked with and under Jim. They didn’t just admire him. They loved him.
I have read Jim’s obituaries, and they emphasize his public service. That was an important part of the life of both Young Jim and Older Jim. He believed in using his talents to do as much good in this world, to reform it, as best he could. But his love of the Harvard Law School was an important part of his professional life too. Jim was instrumental in two of the major changes that have transformed this School in the last half century. In 1964, he and Frank Sander instituted the program that brought black college students to the Law School in the summer to teach them what law and law school were like – as a way of encouraging them to consider becoming lawyers. That was the beginning of the program that ended up changing the virtually all-white student body of this institution into one that more resembles the population of the country. And he worked hard to change the composition of the all-white, all-male faculty into the more diverse group that it has become today. It is up to all of us who remain to carry forward his visions.
At the graveside service for Jim, Tom Vorenberg, Jim’s nephew and a teacher of African history to sixth-graders, told an old African legend to Jim’s grandchildren and grandnieces and grandnephews. The story is too long to tell here, but the moral was that you never die until you are forgotten. Jim Vorenberg will be with us all for a very long time.
-Andrew L. Kaufman ’54, Charles Stebbins Fairchild Professor of Law