Robert C. Clark

Robert C. Clark is the Austin Wakeman Scott Professor of Law Emeritus at Harvard Law School. He was the Dean and Royall Professor of Law at Harvard Law School from 1989 through July 2003. He then served until June 2020 as the Harvard University Distinguished Service Professor and Scott Professor of Law. An authority on corporate law and corporate governance, he has written numerous law review articles and book chapters, as well as a one-volume treatise, Corporate Law, which was hailed as “the paradigm for future student texts.” Professor Clark gained practical experience in business as a member of numerous boards of directors or trustees. For example, he was a trustee (from 1988 to 2016) of TIAA, the giant pension fund serving the higher education community, and chaired the TIAA-CREF ad hoc committee on corporate governance. In addition, he served on the board of directors of Time Warner Inc. (2004-2018) and Omnicom Group, Inc. (2002-2020) and on the editorial board of directors of Foundation Press. He remains a trustee of Hodson Trust, which funds educational programs at four Maryland educational Institutions.

Prior to his 14-year tenure as Dean of Harvard Law School, Professor Clark consulted for law firms and government agencies, and he testified before various Congressional committees and subcommittees on regulation of financial institutions. From 1972 to 1974, Professor Clark was an associate with the Boston law firm of Ropes and Gray, where his practice involved commercial and corporate law. After his law firm experience, Professor Clark spent four years on the faculty of Yale Law School, where he became a tenured professor. In 1979, he returned to Harvard Law School as a professor of law. A 1966 graduate of Maryknoll College (a Catholic seminary that trained priests for service in poor and underdeveloped countries), Professor Clark received his Ph.D. in philosophy from Columbia University in 1971 and earned his J.D. magna cum laude from Harvard Law School in 1972.