Yale Law School this week named its first woman law dean — professor Heather Gerken, a federalism and election law expert who’ll take the reins July 1.
Consistently ranked as the No. 1 law school by U.S. News & World Report, Yale is often in the public eye, and its dean has a megaphone most other legal academics don’t. (For proof, check out this recent op-ed by outgoing Yale dean Robert Post and Harvard Law School dean Martha Minow, which takes President Trump to task for his attacks on the judiciary and the rule of law.) And, as Gerken admits, the school’s long history and entrenched traditions mean change often comes slowly.
