Heather K. Gerken

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Heather Gerken
Born (1969-02-19) February 19, 1969 (age 52)
Bolton, Massachusetts, U.S.
Spouse(s)David Simon
Academic background
EducationPrinceton University (BA)
University of Michigan (JD)
Academic work
DisciplineConstitutional law
Election law
InstitutionsYale Law School

Heather Kristin Gerken (born (1969-02-19)February 19, 1969) is the Dean and Sol & Lillian Goldman Professor of Law at Yale Law School,[1] where she teaches election law and runs the San Francisco Affirmative Litigation Project.[2]

Biography[]

Gerken grew up in Bolton, Massachusetts.[3] Gerken graduated summa cum laude from Princeton University with an A.B. in history in 1991 after completing a 123-page long senior thesis titled "Stepping Out of the Bounds of Womanhood: An Analysis of the Popular Image of Women and Women's Experiences during World War II".[4] In 1994, she graduated from the University of Michigan Law School, summa cum laude, and Order of the Coif, where she served as editor-in-chief of the Michigan Law Review.[5]

She clerked for Judge Stephen R. Reinhardt of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, and then for Justice David Souter of the U.S. Supreme Court during the 1995 Term.[6][7]

She was an associate at Jenner & Block in Washington, D.C., from December 1996 to July 2000. From July 2000 to June 2006, she was a professor at Harvard Law School, where she was also a fellow at the Harvard University Center for Ethics and the Profession from September 2003 to July 2004. In 2006 Gerken joined Yale Law School and in 2008 she became the inaugural J. Skelly Wright Professor of Law.[8][9] She became dean of Yale Law School in 2017, and in the same year she was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.[10][11] In 2021, she was named to the Presidential Commission on the Supreme Court of the United States, created by President Joe Biden in order to "provide an analysis of the principal arguments in the contemporary public debate for and against Supreme Court reform" in the context of evaluating the history and future of the court and its practices.[12]

Controversies under her deanship at Yale Law School[]

On September 20, 2018, The Guardian reported that Yale law professor Amy Chua had advised female law students at Yale that their physical attractiveness and femininity could play a role in securing a clerkship with Justice Brett Kavanaugh,[13] previously a prominent federal judge on the D.C. Circuit.[14] Controversy had arisen from allegations that Chua "groomed" potential clerks for the job by advising them to dress and act a certain way, so as to secure employment with Kavanaugh. Jed Rubenfeld, Amy Chua's husband, reportedly stated that Kavanaugh "hires women with a certain look."[15] Less than a year after Chua vigorously defended Kavanaugh against sexual abuse allegations,[16] which helped send him to the U.S. Supreme Court, her daughter was granted a clerkship under him.[17]

Gerken insisted that the allegations reported by the Guardian were "of enormous concern to me and the school,"[18] Students apparently continued to be invited to Chua's home (where Rubenfeld still resides and is suspended after allegations of unwanted touching and kissing involving students) [19] during the COVID pandemic. In April 2021, the Yale Daily News reported that Gerken had reassigned Chua from teaching a "small group" class to first-year students.[20] Chua responded by "positioning herself as a victim of 'cancel culture.'" [21]

Personal life[]

Gerken is married to David Simon.[22][23]

Bibliography[]

  • The Democracy Index: Why Our Election System is Failing and How to Fix It (Princeton University Press 2009) ISBN 9780691154374
  • Slipping the Bonds of Federalism, 128 Harvard Law Review 85 (2014)
  • The Political Safeguards of Horizontal Federalism, 113 Michigan Law Review 57 (2014) (with Ari Holtzblatt)
  • The Real Problem with Citizens United: Campaign Finance, Dark Money, and Shadow Parties, 97 Marquette Law Review 904 (2014)
  • Uncooperative Federalism, 118 Yale Law Journal 1256 (2009) (with Jessica Bulman-Pozen)

References[]

  1. ^ Heather Gerken biography, Yale Law School. Retrieved February 21, 2017.
  2. ^ San Francisco Affirmative Litigation Project, Yale Law School. Retrieved February 21, 2017.
  3. ^ Neyfakh, Leon (October 7, 2012). "How to fix America from below: A bold new vision for improving democracy has propelled a charismatic young professor into the legal firmament. She calls it 'federalism all the way down.'". Boston Globe. Retrieved February 19, 2017.
  4. ^ Gerken, Heather Kristin. Princeton University. Department of History (ed.). "Stepping Out of the Bounds of Womanhood: An Analysis of the Popular Image of Women and Women's Experiences during World War II". Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  5. ^ "Supreme Court Clerkships (1991-2017)". University of Michigan Law School. Retrieved October 2, 2018.
  6. ^ "Obama chooses 1st young appeals court nominee". New Haven Register. Associated Press. March 14, 2010. Retrieved October 2, 2018.
  7. ^ Gerken, Heather (March 31, 2016). "Lecture: The Loyal Opposition: Is it time for the nationalists to put up or shut up?" Program in Law and Public Affairs, Princeton University. Retrieved February 20, 2017.
  8. ^ "Heather Gerken - Yale Law School". law.yale.edu. Retrieved 2018-04-23.
  9. ^ O'Leary, Mary E. (June 28, 2012). "Supreme Court ruling on health care lauded by Connecticut advocates; others vow to keep fighting it". New Haven Register. Retrieved October 2, 2018.
  10. ^ "New Yale Law dean stresses standing up for rule of law". New Haven Register. February 23, 2017. Retrieved October 2, 2018.
  11. ^ "Five professors elected to American Academy of Arts and Sciences". Yale News. 11 April 2017. Retrieved 2017-04-18.
  12. ^ "President Biden to Sign Executive Order Creating the Presidential Commission on the Supreme Court of the United States". The White House. 9 April 2021. Retrieved 2021-06-23.
  13. ^ "'No accident' Brett Kavanaugh's female law clerks 'looked like models', Yale professor told students". the Guardian. 2018-09-20. Retrieved 2021-05-17.
  14. ^ "Yale Law dean: Reports that professor groomed female clerks for Kavanaugh 'of enormous concern'". NBC News. Retrieved 2021-05-17.
  15. ^ "'No accident' Brett Kavanaugh's female law clerks 'looked like models', Yale professor told students". the Guardian. 2018-09-20. Retrieved 2021-05-17.
  16. ^ Hauser, Christine (2018-09-26). "The Women Who Have Accused Brett Kavanaugh". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2021-05-17.
  17. ^ Journal, A. B. A. "A year after 'tiger mom' law prof praised Kavanaugh in op-ed, her daughter gets clerkship with him". ABA Journal. Retrieved 2021-05-17.
  18. ^ "Yale Law dean: Reports that professor groomed female clerks for Kavanaugh 'of enormous concern'". NBC News. Retrieved 2021-05-17.
  19. ^ Sheehy, Kate (2021-04-12). "Original 'Tiger Mom' bares claws at Yale over allegations she boozed with students)". New York Post. Retrieved 2021-05-17.
  20. ^ "Law professor Amy Chua loses small group following allegations of parties, misconduct". Yale Daily News. 8 April 2021. Retrieved 2021-07-08.
  21. ^ Lyall, Sarah; Saul, Stephanie (7 June 2021). "Gripped by 'Dinner Party-gate,' Yale Law Confronts a Venomous Divide". New York Times. Retrieved 2021-07-08.
  22. ^ Bhayani, Paras D. (April 18, 2006). "Con Law Prof Off to New Haven". Harvard Crimson. Retrieved October 2, 2018.
  23. ^ "Faculty Bio-David Simon". Yale University Department of Political Science. Retrieved October 2, 2018.

External links[]

Academic offices
Preceded by
Robert Post 		Dean of Yale Law School
2017–present 		Incumbent
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