John F. Manning

It felt like a family reunion — with 600 relatives. That many friends, former students, colleagues, and well-wishers gathered Monday in a joyful celebration of the life and career of Harvard Law Professor Charles Ogletree, advocate for Civil Rights, author of books on race and justice, and mentor to former President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama...And when John Manning, the Morgan and Helen Chu Dean and Professor of Law at HLS, announced that a group of Ogletree’s friends had established an endowed professorship in his honor, the Charles J. Ogletree Jr. Chair in Race and Criminal Justice, the news brought down the house...The chair was made possible through the generosity of a group of Ogletree’s close friends, said David Wilkins, Lester Kissel Professor of Law. “When the history of Harvard Law School in the 20th century is written, Charles Ogletree’s name will be among the first ones mentioned,” said Wilkins...The panelists told stories to “bring home the Tree-ness of Tree,” as Randall Kennedy, Michael R. Klein Professor of Law, explained...Tomiko Brown-Nagin, Daniel P.S. Paul Professor of Constitutional Law, said, “Throughout his career, Ogletree has embodied law in the service of society, just the same as other great beacons of the American legal profession, men and women like Thurgood Marshall, Constance Baker Motley, and Charles Hamilton Houston.”...Another frequent participant was Obama classmate Kenneth Mack ’91, the Lawrence D. Biele Professor of Law. Mack said he learned about Houston in a Saturday School class. It was a time, he added, when few people knew about the lawyer whom Ogletree deemed one of the 20th century’s greatest legal minds and Civil Rights lawyers.

...Law dean John Manning said at a dedication ceremony Tuesday that the law school should be open about its origins and ties to the slave trade. “Our school was founded with wealth generated through the profoundly immoral institution of slavery,”...The text of the plaque was drafted by history and law professor Annette Gordon-Reed, who has written extensively on Thomas Jefferson’s slaves...Gordon-Reed noted during the dedication ceremony on Tuesday that the memorial does not include the names of the slaves whose toil helped fund the law school’s founding, because many of their names are unknown. “The words are designed to invoke all of their spirits and bring them into our minds and our memories with the hope that it will spur us to try to bring to the world what was not give to them: the law’s protection and regard, and justice.” But some slave names were recorded in documents, which were read aloud at the dedication by law professor Janet Halley.

As part of Harvard University’s efforts to recognize its early ties to slavery, officials yesterday unveiled a memorial to honor the enslaved people whose work helped found Harvard Law School...Recognizing the legacy of slavery at the Law School is important for coming to terms with the past and for reminding future lawyers of their duty to make the legal system wiser and fairer, said John F. Manning, the School’s Morgan and Helen Chu Dean and professor of law...[Annette] Gordon-Reed, who has written extensively about slavery and who drafted the words on the plaque, said the memorial doesn’t contain names because it’s impossible to know the identities of all the Africans the Royalls enslaved in Antigua and Medford, whose work built much of the wealth used to found the Law School...In a touching moment during the ceremony, Janet Halley, the Royall Professor of Law, who has spoken openly about the connections between her chair and slavery, read aloud the names of those enslaved who were found listed in the Royalls’ records.

Harvard Law School has installed a memorial honoring slaves who were owned by one of the school’s founders...Law dean John Manning said at Tuesday’s unveiling that “to be true to our complicated history, we must also shine a light on what we are not proud of.”

Harvard Law School unveiled a memorial dedicated to slaves owned by the Royall family, whose donations helped endow the institution, at an event Tuesday evening. The plaque, which sits on a rock in the plaza between Langdell Hall and the Caspersen Student Center, reads, “In honor of the enslaved whose labor created wealth that made possible the founding of Harvard Law School. May we pursue the highest ideals of law and justice in their memory.” University President Drew G. Faust, newly appointed Dean of the Law School John F. Manning, and Law School professors Annette Gordon-Reed and Janet E. Halley each spoke at the dedication...Adrian D. Perkins, a member of the school’s student government, said seeing the monument gave him “profound happiness” as a student leader and African American student. He said the student government is planning a number of ways to address racial concerns on campus this year.

John Manning will be the next dean of Harvard Law School. University leaders announced Thursday that Manning, a conservative scholar who has been on the faculty of the Cambridge, Massachusetts, law school since 2004 and served as deputy dean since 2013, will replace outgoing dean Martha Minow on July 1...Manning said in an interview Thursday that he wanted the dean job in order to help shepherd the law school into its third century. (Harvard Law is celebrating its bicentennial this year.) “I care very much about Harvard Law School,” Manning said. “It’s a great place. It produces leaders, generation after generation, year in and year out, who want to go out and make the world better. It’s an exciting, vibrant place to work.”

Harvard Law School has a new dean. John Manning, a deputy dean and constitutional law professor, will take over as the school’s next dean on July 1, the law school announced on Thursday. His appointment, to succeed Martha L. Minow, who will step down on June 30, drew praise from Elena Kagan, an associate justice of the United States Supreme Court, who served as the law school’s dean from 2003 to 2009...In an interview on Thursday, he said that he planned to consult with faculty, students and alumni to look at the law school curriculum, ways to ensure students have the skills to be excellent lawyers and how to diversify the field of applicants. “We want to make sure we are drawing on students from a diverse applicant pool,” he said. “We want to have a diverse community, which makes for a more lively community.”

John F. Manning, a public law scholar on Harvard Law faculty since 2004 will take over as dean on July 1, the school announced on Thursday. Manning, 56, has been the deputy dean of Harvard Law School since 2013 and also is the Bruce Bromley Professor of Law, with an expertise in statutory interpretation and constitutional law. “I love this institution and it has done a lot of good in the world to train excellent lawyers and leaders,” said Manning, in an interview. “And it’s a vibrant intellectual community. I am grateful to be working with a great group of students, staff, alumni and professors.”

John F. Manning, the Bruce Bromley Professor of Law and deputy dean at Harvard Law School (HLS), an eminent public-law scholar with expertise in statutory interpretation and structural constitutional law, will become the School’s next dean on July 1...“I feel honored and grateful to President Faust for the opportunity to lead Harvard Law School as we enter our third century,” said Manning. “And I feel privileged to work alongside our exceptional students, staff, faculty, and alumni, whose invaluable contributions to legal scholarship, education, and practice inspire me every day.