One hundred sixty-two former students of Harvard Law School Professor Elizabeth Warren sent a letter to the White House on July 28, urging President Barack Obama ’91 to appoint her as director of the newly created Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection.
“Professor Warren creates and values an environment that invites active questioning of normative principles and empirical assumptions,” the letter states. “She puts facts first and allows conclusions to follow. We have every confidence that as Director of the Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection Professor Warren would engage all parties (lenders, consumer advocates, and other regulators) in a rigorous debate in which hard data and superior analysis would triumph over ideology or politics.”
The signers include graduates from Harvard Law School, the University of Pennsylvania Law School, and the University of Texas School of Law, institutions where Warren has taught during her career.
Warren is the chairwoman of the Congressional Oversight Panel, which was created in the wake of the recent financial crisis to oversee Congress’s use of the TARP money and investigate the bank bailout. In that role, she has made headlines for her criticism of the banking industry and in her vocal support of consumer protection.
Since 2007, Warren has advocated for the creation of a Consumer Financial Protection Agency. She was recently named as one of Time Magazine’s 100 most influential people in 2010. She was also named one of “The Decade’s Most Influential Lawyers” by The National Law Journal in the category of Legal Education.