Harvard Law School

Sure, she was dumped before she got a hearing to run the Civil Rights Division of the Justice Department. But Harvard University seems to think Lani Guinier has the right stuff. Yesterday, the university gushingly announced that Guinier will become a tenured professor at Harvard Law School. She is the first woman of color to join the tenured faculty. "She is a gifted and extraordinarily effective teacher, as the students who had her when she visited here will attest," said Law School Dean Robert Clark.

Under most circumstances, Earl Matthews is one cool customer, but he was nervous last Thursday as he entered a reception room in the Hotel Atop the Bellevue. The room was filled with Philadelphia lawyers and judges, some of the most prominent men and women of the city's legal establishment, and many of them heroes to young Matthews. Matthews was so uptight that he didn't eat a morsel of food all afternoon during the reception or luncheon that followed - the Philadelphia Bar Association's quarterly meeting and luncheon.

In the earliest iteration of the Third Reich's Nuremberg Laws, people with three or four Jewish grandparents were classified as Jews and stripped of their livelihoods and property. Individuals with one or two Jewish grandparents were deemed to be "crossbreeds" who were entitled, under certain conditions, to less discriminatory treatment. Terrible? Of course. But recent events have demonstrated that America's academic community operates under an even more precise and exacting racial code.

9 tonight HBO Documentary on Hilde Back, a Swedish preschool teacher whose sponsorship of a young Kenyan student, Chris Mburu (right), helped him attend Harvard Law School and become a U.N. human rights advocate.

Despite 40 years of practicing law, I am no expert when it comes to arguing appeals. But I do know enough not to gratuitously insult and try to humiliate the appellate judges who will decide my client's case. Apparently they don't teach those fundamentals at Harvard Law School. How else to explain the absolutely boneheaded attempts by President Obama, a past president of the Harvard Law Review, to intimidate the U.S. Supreme Court as it decides the constitutional fate of Obamacare?

William A. Graham IV had lunch the other day with George Norcross III , his cut-throat rival in the insurance brokerage and consulting business. Norcross brought up the day, 17 years ago, when Norcross' then-business patron, Commerce Bank chief Vernon Hill , called Graham to ask how much money he'd have to pay to buy the Graham Co. "I might consider it - if you told me you might pay $85 million," Graham had told Hill. A "ridiculously" high price, Graham figured, nearly three times his annual sales.

H. Ober Hess, 91, a Philadelphia lawyer whose civic contributions spanned more than five decades, died Wednesday at his home in Gladwyne. Born in Upper Providence Township, Mr. Hess attended Collegeville High School. He graduated magna cum laude from Ursinus College in 1933 and went on to Harvard Law School, where he graduated cum laude in 1936. He received honorary doctorates from Ursinus, Muhlenberg College, and the Philadelphia College of Art. In 1940, he married Dolores Groke Hess, who died two years ago after 61 years of marriage.

Born: May 25, 1946, in Chicago Education: Cornell University, University of Chicago Experience: Judge, U.S. Court of Appeals, Washington, D.C. Assistant attorney general for antitrust, Justice Department Administrator for information and regulatory affairs, Office of Management and Budget Deputy assistant attorney general for antitrust, Justice Department Professor, Harvard Law School, specializing...

Michael J. Eagen, 80, former chief justice of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, died yesterday at his home in Scranton. A short, stocky man with a gift of gab and a fondness for good stories and rich food, he spent 40 years on the bench in a career that won praise from all quarters. He first ran for office in 1933, a time when Republicans were so far ahead in voter registration that they didn't bother to worry about the opposition. Things were so bad that the Democrats couldn't find anybody to put on the ballot for Lackawanna County district attorney.

Here is how Solicitor General Elena Kagan's path to succeed Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens is likely to play out, in terms of the most prominent lines of support for and attack against the nomination. 1. Qualifications; breadth and depth of experience. Kagan has never been a judge. She has spent very little time as an advocate. Her exposure to the judicial process is thus largely academic. On the other hand, she held significant positions in the Clinton administration's domestic policy operation.

In the earliest iteration of the Third Reich's Nuremberg Laws, people with three or four Jewish grandparents were classified as Jews and stripped of their livelihoods and property. Individuals with one or two Jewish grandparents were deemed to be "crossbreeds" who were entitled, under certain conditions, to less discriminatory treatment. Terrible? Of course. But recent events have demonstrated that America's academic community operates under an even more precise and exacting racial code.

Despite 40 years of practicing law, I am no expert when it comes to arguing appeals. But I do know enough not to gratuitously insult and try to humiliate the appellate judges who will decide my client's case. Apparently they don't teach those fundamentals at Harvard Law School. How else to explain the absolutely boneheaded attempts by President Obama, a past president of the Harvard Law Review, to intimidate the U.S. Supreme Court as it decides the constitutional fate of Obamacare?

William A. Graham IV had lunch the other day with George Norcross III , his cut-throat rival in the insurance brokerage and consulting business. Norcross brought up the day, 17 years ago, when Norcross' then-business patron, Commerce Bank chief Vernon Hill , called Graham to ask how much money he'd have to pay to buy the Graham Co. "I might consider it - if you told me you might pay $85 million," Graham had told Hill. A "ridiculously" high price, Graham figured, nearly three times his annual sales.

Bernard Wolfman, 87, the University of Pennsylvania Law School dean from 1970 to 1975, died of heart failure Saturday, Aug. 20, while visiting a relative in West Orange, N.J. He resided in Cambridge, Mass. Michael A. Fitts, current Penn Law dean, wrote in an appreciation on the Penn Law website: "For more than 60 years, Bernie was a highly distinguished tax academic and expert - as well as a very loyal Penn alumnus. He will be greatly missed. " Mr. Wolfman went on to be Fessenden Professor of Law at Harvard Law School from 1976 to 2007.

Arnold R. Ginsburg, 94, a lawyer in Philadelphia for more than 60 years and a leader in the Jewish community, died Friday, June 24, at his home in Center City. In the mid-1950s, Mr. Ginsburg established a solo practice in Philadelphia, specializing in corporate law. In the 1960s, he was counsel and served on the board of the Philadelphia Transportation Co. During his career, he appeared before the Supreme Court four times, his son Leonard said. One case he argued before the justices involved a dispute between a tractor dealer in Kennett Square and the Ford Motor Co. A lower court had awarded $6 million to his client, the dealer, but the award was overturned on appeal to the Supreme Court in 1986.

H. Peter Somers, 88, of Willistown Township, a retired lawyer, equestrian, and conservationist, died of melanoma, Friday, June 17, at Neighborhood Hospice in West Chester. Mr. Somers began his career with a law firm in Boston before joining Morgan, Lewis & Bockius in Philadelphia in 1956. He became a senior partner, chaired the firm's personal-law section, and served on its management committee. He retired in 1989. For 50 years, Mr. Somers was a member of the Radnor Hunt Club and was still riding to the hounds with the Cheshire Hunt at 87, his son Stephen said.

David E. Kenty, 65, of Bryn Mawr, who retired in October 2010 as a partner in the tax and wealth-management department of the Philadelphia law firm Schnader, Harrison, Segal & Lewis, died of brain cancer Tuesday, May 17, at home. Nicholas J. LePore, Schnader managing partner, said in a statement: "David was an incredibly talented attorney, a dedicated professional. . . . I know his spirit and counsel will truly be missed. " Born in Columbus, Ohio, Mr. Kenty graduated from Newark (Ohio)

DAVID BRAVERMAN, a distinguished Philadelphia lawyer, and Richard Posner, a distinguished jurist and philosopher, had maintained a longtime correspondence since their student days at Harvard. What did they write about? Cats. "Their correspondence mostly concerned their love of cats," said David Braverman's son, William. "Here was this supersmart Philadelphia lawyer and supersmart judge and what they wrote about was cats. " David Braverman, a trusts and estates lawyer who recently specialized in health-care litigation, a proud retired Marine and a hiker who liked to test himself on the Appalachian Trail, died Wednesday of heart failure.

Paul Miller, 49, a lawyer who was born with achondroplasia - dwarfism - who overcame discrimination to become a leader in the disability-rights movement, died Tuesday at his home on Mercer Island, Wash. The cause was cancer, said his wife, Jennifer. More than 40 times after graduating from the University of Pennsylvania and the Harvard Law School, Mr. Miller received rejection letters from law firms. One time, he said, he was told the firm feared that clients would see his hiring as a "circus freak show.

Kagan formally seated at court WASHINGTON - Justice Elena Kagan took her seat at the Supreme Court for the first time Friday in front of a packed courtroom that included President Obama. The court session was merely ceremonial. Kagan and the rest of the court will return Monday for the start of the new term. In August, Kagan, 50, became the third woman on the current court, and its fourth ever. She replaced Justice John Paul Stevens. Kagan took the oath again Friday in a ceremony by which the court formally welcomes its newest member.