25 of the 44 presidents have been lawyers; the WSJ law blog has a list. Only one other besides Barack Obama has been a graduate of Harvard Law. It would take a trivia expert (or perhaps a Harvard grad) to identify that one: Rutherford B. Hayes.
P.S. See also, in comments, John Peralta’s list indicating that lawyer-nominees have lately been more common on the Democratic side than the Republican.
I’ve got an op-ed in today’s L.A. Times (Walter Olson, “Slavery reparations: what happened?”, Oct. 31) based on a longer article forthcoming in City Journal. (The short answer to what happened: 9/11, public opinion, and the courts.)
The City Journal article is in turn a much condensed version of a draft chapter in my book-in-progress about the influence of the law schools. As I show in that chapter, there were few places where reparations enthusiasm burned hotter than in legal academia, with conferences and law review articles galore devoted to advancing the cause. The most prominent law school advocate of the reparations cause back then, Harvard’s Charles Ogletree, is back in the news these days because of his role as mentor (and, reportedly, chief advisor on racial issues) to Democratic candidate Barack Obama; he’s being mentioned as a possible civil rights chief in the next administration. Not surprisingly, Ogletree has had much less to say about the reparations cause this year than he did eight or nine years ago; I have a feeling that in an Obama administration he’d be under strict orders not to get near the issue, but of course I could be wrong.
We’ve covered reparations litigation extensively at Overlawyered.
Stories it’s kind of amazing don’t get more attention: “The ABA Journal predicts that [Harvard lawprof, borrowing buff and Al Sharpton associate Charles] Ogletree, who has long advocated race-based reparations, will be the Assistant Attorney General in charge of the Civil Rights Division during the Obama administration.” (cross-posted from Point of Law).
In its many lawsuits against critics of its activities (see Jan. 5) the Islamic Society of Boston has added as a defendant Muslim reformist Ahmed Mansour, a former visiting fellow at Harvard Law School. (Jeff Jacoby, “Muslim reformer still a target”, May 17; Dean Barnett, “Mosque meltdown”, Weekly Standard, Mar. 24; Miss Kelly, Mar. 24).
The CJAC has an idea for the Harvard School of Public Health: rather than make an embarrassing decision to give a “Health Award” to the facile celebrity, why not give the award to Norma Zager, the Beverly Hills Courier reporter who exposed Erin Brockovich’s quackery? (May Habib, “Brockovich Awarded SPH’s Highest Honor”, Harvard Crimson, Oct. 19; Jessica Heslam, “Lawyer group protests award for `Erin Brockovich'”, Boston Herald, Oct. 18). Earlier coverage: Oct. 6 and especially Sep. 30 and links therein.
Tom Bray of the Detroit News weighs in on the controversy over the Harvard School of Public Health’s decision to give an award to Erin Brockovich (earlier: Sept. 30) and points out that the glamourpuss toxic-tort-chaser is making a push into TV:
She is listed as the executive producer of an upcoming NBC series titled “Class Action,” which will lionize a team of fictional plaintiff’s attorneys who specialize in class-action lawsuits.
(“Radical parody threatens environmental movement”, Oct. 2)(via Toxic Tort News).
Why, oh, why, asks Michael Fumento, is the Harvard School of Public Health bestowing its Julius Richmond Award on glamour-puss toxic-tort-chaser Erin Brockovich? (more, more, more, more)(cross-posted at Point of Law; and see later post there).
“What does a high-powered Harvard Law School professor do when he gets in a dispute with a neighbor? He sues, of course — even if that neighbor takes care of his young son after school every day.” The lawprof, for those who don’t want to follow the link, is executive-compensation-scourge Lucian Bebchuk, who’s joined with a few other Harvard-affiliated property owners to fight their neighbor, the nonprofit Agassiz Neighborhood Council, which would like to install a children’s art studio on its property. (Steve Bailey, “Sue thy neighbor”, Boston Globe, May 6).