As part of an ongoing effort to expand the full-time faculty at HLS, Dean Elena Kagan ’86 announced today that Gabriella Blum LL.M. ’01 S.J.D. ’03 and D. James Greiner have accepted offers to join the Harvard Law School faculty as assistant professors.
“I am thrilled to welcome these two young scholars to the permanent faculty,” said Kagan. “Gabby Blum will add wonderful depth to our international program, bringing a combination of scholarly accomplishment and practical experience to some of today’s most pressing international issues. Jim Greiner will greatly enhance our exploration and understanding of the ways that law can benefit from quantitative and statistical methods.”
When Blum and Greiner arrive to teach in the fall, they will be joined by Professors Noah Feldman and Kathryn Spier, who accepted tenured offers earlier this year. Over the past four academic years, 18 full-time professors have joined the HLS faculty, including Blum and Greiner. In all, there are 90 full-time faculty members at HLS, including 75 tenured professors, seven tenure-track professors, and eight clinical professors.
“Harvard has been my home away from home for five years, first as a student and then as a visiting assistant professor,” said Blum. “Being able to teach as a tenure-track professor feels both like a natural transition and an amazing opportunity.”
Currently the Learned Hand Visiting Assistant Professor of Law at HLS, Blum’s research interests include conflict management, counter-terrorism operations, law of armed conflict, negotiation, and public international law. She will teach International Negotiation and Public International Law next year.
Blum earned an LL.B. in 1995, a B.A. in Economics in 1997, and an LL.M. in 1999, all from Tel-Aviv University. She then joined the Israel Defense Forces, serving in the International Law Department of the Military Advocate General’s Corps. After completion of her LL.M and S.J.D. degrees in 2003, Blum returned to the International Law Department of the Israel Defense Forces to lead the counter-terrorism desk and then went on to serve as strategic advisor to the National Security Council. She came back to Harvard as a visiting assistant professor in 2005.
Her book, entitled Islands of Agreement: Managing Enduring Armed Rivalries was recently released by Harvard University Press.
Greiner will receive his Ph.D. in statistics from Harvard this spring. His graduate work focused on applying quantitative thinking to legal issues with the hope of improving the processes utilized in courtrooms and administrative agencies.
“What drew me to Harvard was the chance to integrate my research and teaching interests,” said Greiner. “There are few institutions around the country that offer an opportunity to grow as a scholar in law, quantitative methods, and a combination of the two.”
In spring 2006, Greiner co-taught a seminar for law students and students in the university’s statistics department exploring the relationship between quantitative methods and law. He will teach civil procedure at HLS in the fall semester.
In addition to his Ph.D. in statistics, Greiner holds a J.D. from the University of Michigan Law School and a B.A. from the University of Virginia. Before commencing his Ph.D. work at Harvard, Greiner was an associate at Jenner & Block in Washington, DC. He also served as a trial attorney with the U.S. Department of Justice in the Federal Programs Branch and as a clerk for Justice Patrick Higginbotham of the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals.