Larry Kramer, associate dean for research and academics and professor of law at New York University, has been named dean of the School of Law. He succeeds Kathleen Sullivan, who will take a one-year sabbatical and then serve as inaugural director of the Stanford Center on Constitutional Law.
“You’re sitting in one of the world’s greatest universities,” Kramer told Stanford in a telephone interview. “Law is a completely interdisciplinary subject, so we should take advantage of it in all the ways that make sense for students and scholars. I’m interested in joint degree programs, co-teaching and jointly authored scholarship.”
A 1984 honors graduate of the University of Chicago Law School, Kramer, 45, clerked for Judge Henry J. Friendly of the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals and for U.S. Supreme Court Justice William J. Brennan. He has also taught at Chicago and at the University of Michigan Law School.
Kramer is the fourth consecutive constitutional law scholar to lead Stanford Law School. He says he likely will teach classes in civil procedure and constitutional law, but not in his first year on the job.
Noting that the bolstering of the school’s clinical law programs “should be remembered as one of the important aspects of Kathleen’s legacy,” Kramer says the important question today is “not so much what other clinics we should have, but what should we make our clinics into.” Stanford, he says, is in “a remarkably good position, starting on a cleaner slate than most. We can use experience to build the best—not the biggest, but the best programs.”
