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Alumna, Sachs scholar named Dean of Harvard Law School

Elena Kagan '81 was named yesterday as Harvard University's new law school dean.

Harvard president Lawrence Summers said Kagan will take the helm on June 30.

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"I am honored and thrilled to become the next dean of Harvard Law School," Kagan said in a statement. "Together, we can work to attract scholars engaged in the most exciting and important research, ensure that our educational programs are the best they can be, enhance our sense of community and our collective intellectual life, and strengthen ties to the profession, including through the promotion of public service."

Kagan graduated highest honors from the University and was the recipient of its Daniel M. Sachs Fellowship, which sponsored her study of philosophy at Worcester College, Oxford University, after graduation.

Kagan went on to Harvard Law School, where she also earned highest honors and was an editor of the law review. She clerked for former Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall and served in the Clinton administration as associate counsel to the president and later as deputy director of the Domestic Policy Council.

She is known for her expertise on the role of the president in shaping federal law and on First Amendment law.

Summers praised Kagan for her wide expertise. "Elena Kagan is an imaginative scholar, a gifted teacher, a public-spirited lawyer, and an energetic leader admired for her sound judgment and her capacity to inspire trust," he said in the statement.

"She understands both legal academia and legal practice, and has excelled in both domains," he added.

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Kagan follows classmate Anne-Marie Slaughter '81, dean of the Wilson School, as the first woman ever to hold her position. Slaughter was also a Sachs scholar and an HLS alumna.

"When an important position like this is held by the first woman, it's a milestone," Kagan told CNN. "It's actually very nice that at Harvard it's happening on the 50th anniversary of women's admission to the law school."

In 1999, Kagan was nominated for judgeship on the United States Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. However, her appointment was never confirmed, and it expired when the Senate adjourned in 2000.

At Princeton, Kagan studied history and was a writer and editorial chairman with The Daily Princetonian.

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