List of Harvard Law School alumni

This a list of notable alumni of Harvard Law School. For a list of notable Harvard University graduates, see Harvard University people.

Law and Government

United States government

Executive branch

=U.S. Presidents=

*Rutherford B. Hayes

=U.S. Attorneys General=

*Francis Biddle
*Charles Joseph Bonaparte, also United States Secretary of the Navy and founder of the precursor to the FBI
*William M. Evarts, also Secretary of State and a Senator from New York
*Alberto Gonzales
*Ebenezer R. Hoar
*Richard Kleindienst
*Richard Olney, later also Secretary of State
*Janet Reno
*Elliot Richardson
*William French Smith

Deputy Attorneys General

*Mark Filip
*Jamie Gorelick
*Philip B. Heymann

Presidential cabinet advisors

*Spencer Abraham - United States Secretary of Energy, Senator from Michigan
*Elliott Abrams - Deputy National Security Advisor
*Dean Acheson - United States Secretary of State; instrumental in the creation of Lend Lease, the Marshall Plan, NATO, the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank, together with the precursors of the European Union and the World Trade Organization, and influential in the decision to enter the Korean War
*Brockman Adams - United States Secretary of Transportation, Senator and Representative from Washington
*Charles Francis Adams III - United States Secretary of the Navy
*Bruce Babbitt - United States Secretary of the Interior, Governor of Arizona
*William Bennett - United States Secretary of Education, "Drug Czar", and conservative political pundit
*Sandy Berger - United States National Security Advisor
*Charles Joseph Bonaparte - United States Secretary of the Navy, United States Attorney General, founded the precursor to the FBI
*Joseph Califano - United States Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare
*John Chafee, Secretary of the Navy, Governor of Rhode Island, Senator from Rhode Island
*Michael Chertoff - Secretary of Homeland Security
*William Thaddeus Coleman, Jr. - United States Secretary of Transportation
*Elizabeth Dole, Secretary of Labor, Secretary of Transportation, Senator from North Carolina
*Robert Todd Lincoln - United States Secretary of War, United States Ambassador to the United Kingdom
*Ogden Mills - United States Secretary of the Treasury, United States Ambassador to the United Kingdom
*William Ruckelshaus - Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency (1970-73; 1983-85)
*Henry L. Stimson - United States Secretary of State, United States Secretary of War, Governor General of the Philippines
*Caspar Weinberger - Secretary of Defense (1981-1987)
*Willard Wirtz - Secretary of Labor (1962-1969)
*Robert Zoellick - Deputy Secretary of State, US Trade Representative, President of the World Bank

Legislative branch (U.S. Congress)

enators

*Spencer Abraham - Senator from Michigan, United States Secretary of Energy
*Brockman Adams - Senator and Representative from Washington, United States Secretary of Transportation
*Ralph Owen Brewster - Senator from Maine, Governor of Maine
*John Chafee - Senator from Rhode Island, Governor of Rhode Island, Secretary of the Navy
*Mike Crapo - Senator (1999-present) and Representative (1993-1999) from Idaho
*Elizabeth Dole - Senator from North Carolina (2002-present), Secretary of Labor, Secretary of Transportation
*Thomas Eagleton - Senator from Missouri (1968-1987), Democratic Vice-Presidential nominee (1972)
*Sam Ervin - Senator from North Carolina (1954-74)
*Russ Feingold - Senator from Wisconsin (1993-present)
*George G. Fogg - Senator from New Hampshire (1866-67)
*David H. Gambrell - Senator from Georgia (1971-72)
*Frederick H. Gillett - Senator (1925-1931) and Representative (1893-1925) from Massachusetts, Speaker of the House (1919-1925)
*Bob Graham, Senator from Florida, Governor of Florida
*George Frisbie Hoar, Senator from Massachusetts
*Jim Jeffords - Senator from Vermont
*Kenneth Keating - Senator and Representative from New York
*Carl Levin - Senator from Michigan
*Henry Cabot Lodge - Senator and Representative from Massachusetts
*Spark Matsunaga - Senator and Representative from Hawaii
*Barack Obama - Senator from Illinois, Democratic Presidential candidate (2008)
*Claude Pepper - Senator and Representative from Florida
*Larry Pressler - Senator from South Dakota
*Jack Reed - Senator from Rhode Island
*William Roth - Senator and Representative from Delaware
*Leverett Saltonstall - Senator from Massachusetts, Governor of Massachusetts
*Paul Sarbanes - Senator and Representative from Maryland
*Charles Schumer - Senator from New York
*Ted Stevens - Senator from Alaska
*Adlai Stevenson III, Senator from Illinois
*Charles Sumner - Senator from Massachusetts
*Robert Taft - Senator from Ohio
*Robert Taft Jr. - Senator and Representative from Ohio

Representatives

*Tom Allen, Representative from Maine
*John Anderson, Representative from Illinois and independent candidate in the 1980 Presidential election
*John Barrow, Representative from Georgia (2005-present)
*Anson Burlingame, Representative from Massachusetts (1855-1861)
*Tom Campbell, Representative from California (1989-93, 1995-2001) and dean of the Haas School of Business
*Patrick A. Collins, Representative from Massachusetts (1883-1889), Mayor of Boston, Massachusetts (1902-1905)
*Jim Cooper, Representative from Tennessee (2003-present)
*Chris Cox, Representative from California (1989-2005), Chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission (2005-present)
*William C. Cramer, Representative from Florida (1955-1971)
*Artur Davis, Representative from Alabama
*Barney Frank, Representative from Massachusetts (1981-present)
*Jane Harman, Representative from California
*Bill Jefferson, Representative from Louisiana
*Sander Levin, Representative from Michigan
*Walter I. McCoy, Representative from New Jersey (1911-1914)
*Tom Petri, Representative from Wisconsin
*Adam Schiff, Representative from California
*Pat Schroeder, Representative from Colorado (first woman elected to position)
*Brad Sherman, Representative from California
*William H. Sowden, Representative from Pennsylvania
*Laurence Hawley Watres, Representative from Pennsylvania

Judicial branch

=Supreme Court justices=

*Harry Blackmun
*Louis Brandeis
*William Brennan
*Stephen Breyer (sitting)
*Harold Hitz Burton
*Benjamin Curtis
*Felix Frankfurter
*Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.
*Anthony Kennedy (sitting)
*Lewis Powell
*John G. Roberts (Chief Justice, sitting)
*Edward T. Sanford
*Antonin Scalia (sitting)
*David Souter (sitting)

Federal Court judges

*Morris S. Arnold - senior-status judge on the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals based in Little Rock
*Richard S. Arnold - late judge on the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals, federal courthouse in Little Rock bears his name
*Deborah Batts - judge on the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York
*Michael Boudin - (LL.B. 1964) Chief Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit
*John P. Fullam - (LL.B. 1948), judge on the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania
*Henry Friendly - (LL.B. 1927), judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, 1959-1974; senior circuit judge, 1974-1976
*Merrick Garland - (J.D. 1977) judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit
*Neil Gorsuch - (J.D. 1991) judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit
*Learned Hand - (LL.B. 1896) judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit and the most famed American jurist never to make it to the Supreme Court bench.
*Whitman Knapp - investigated corruption in the NYPD
*Pierre Leval (J.D. 1963) senior circuit judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit
*John T. Noonan, Jr. (LL.B. 1954) - senior judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit
*Diarmuid O'Scannlain (J.D. 1963) - circuit judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit
*Richard A. Posner (LL.B. 1962) - circuit judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit
*Bruce Marshall Selya (LL.B. 1958) - senior judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit
*Laurence H. Silberman (J.D. 1961) - senior judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit
*A. Wallace Tashima (LL.B. 1961), third Asian American to be appointed to the United States Court of Appeals
*Kimba Wood (J.D. 1969), chief judge of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York

tate Government

Governors

*Bruce Babbitt - Governor of Arizona, United States Secretary of the Interior
*Percival Proctor Baxter (1901) - Governor of Maine (1921-25)
*Owen Brewster - Governor of Maine, Senator from Maine
*John Chafee, Governor of Rhode Island, Senator from Rhode Island, Secretary of the Navy
*Jim Doyle - Governor of Wisconsin
*Michael Dukakis - Governor of Massachusetts; Democratic presidential nominee (1988)
*Pierre S. du Pont, IV - Governor of Delaware; US Representative from Delaware
*Bob Graham - Governor of Florida, Senator from Florida
*Jennifer Granholm - Governor of Michigan
*Tim Kaine - Governor of Virginia
*Deval Patrick - Governor of Massachusetts
*Sylvester Pennoyer - Governor of Oregon
*Mitt Romney - Governor of Massachusetts, Republican presidential candidate (2008)
*Leverett Saltonstall - Governor of Massachusetts, Senator from Massachusetts
*Eliot Spitzer - Governor of New York
*Aníbal Acevedo Vilá - Governor of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico
*Mark R. Warner - Governor of Virginia
*William Weld - Governor of Massachusetts

tate politicians

*John O. Bailey - state Senator and Representative in Oregon, Chief Justice of the Oregon Supreme Court
*Sheila Kuehl - first openly gay member of the California legislature, child actress
*Steve Pajcic - State Representative of Florida, democratic candidate for Governor of Florida, 1986
*Jonathan Miller - State Treasurer of Kentucky, democratic candidate for Governor of Kentucky, 2007

tate judges

*John O. Bailey - Chief Justice of the Oregon Supreme Court, state Senator and Representative in Oregon
*James T. Brand - Chief Justice of the Oregon Supreme Court
*Bruce Bromley - Associate Judge of the New York Court of Appeals, partner at Cravath, Swaine & Moore
*Jennifer Elrod (J.D. 1992) - Texas state district judge
*W. Michael Gillette - Oregon Supreme Court justice
*Stuart Rabner - Chief Justice of the New Jersey Supreme Court

City government

*Neville Miller (LL.B. 1920), mayor of Louisville, Kentucky (1933-1937)
*Anthony A. Williams - mayor of Washington, D.C.

U.S. diplomatic figures

*Norman Armour - career diplomat, chief of mission in eight countries, Assistant Secretary of State
*Richard L. Baltimore - United States Ambassador to Oman (2002-6)
*Nicholas Fish II - held various diplomatic posts across Europe
*Charles W. Freeman, Jr. - United States Ambassador to Saudi Arabia (1989-1992)
*Evan G. Galbraith - United States Ambassador to France (1981-5)
*Philip Lader - United States Ambassador to the United Kingdom, White House Deputy Chief of Staff, Aministrator of the Small Business Administration
*Robert Todd Lincoln - United States Ambassador to the United Kingdom, United States Secretary of War
*Jamie Metzl (J.D.), holder of various diplomatic and human rights positions
*Ogden Mills - United States Ambassador to the United Kingdom, United States Secretary of the Treasury
*William Phillips - twice an Undersecretary in the State Department
*Robert Zoellick - Deputy Secretary of State, US Trade Representative, President of the World Bank

Other U.S. political figures

*John B. Bellinger III - legal advisor to the Secretary of State
*Pedro Albizu Campos - leader of the Puerto Rico independence movement and the Puerto Rican Nationalist Party
*Paul Clement, current Solicitor General of the United States
*Archibald Cox - United States Solicitor General and special prosecutor during the Watergate scandal
*Viet D. Dinh - Assistant Attorney General of the United States
*Glenn A. Fine (J.D. 1985) - Inspector General of the Justice Department (2000-present)
*David Frum - author and speechwriter for President George W. Bush
*David Gergen - political consultant and presidential advisor
*Michael Leiter - Principal Deputy Director of the National Counterterrorism Center and former Deputy Chief of Staff for the Office of the Director of National Intelligence
*David Lilienthal - head of the Tennessee Valley Authority
*Kent Markus - advisor to Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland and former nominee to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit
*John J. McCloy - assistant Secretary of War, administered US occupation of Germany, president of the World Bank
*Ken Mehlman - chairman of the Republican National Committee; campaign manager for George W. Bush's second presidential run
*Ralph Nader - Green Party presidential candidate (1996, 2000, 2004); consumer advocate
*Franklin Raines, directed the United States Office of Management and Budget
*Bob Shrum - political consultant
*Lee S. Wolosky - former White House counterterrorism official

Non-United States Government

Non-United States political figures

Canada

*Francis Fox - Canadian senator, government aide, Solicitor General of Canada, Secretary of State for Canada, Minister of Communications (Canada) and Minister of International Trade (Canada)
*Joseph Ghiz - Premier of Prince Edward Island, Canada
*Robert Stanfield - Premier of Nova Scotia, Canada

India

*Shankar Dayal Sharma - President of India
*Kapil Sibal (LLM) - Indian Minister of Science and Technology

Taiwan

*Annette Lu - former vice president of Taiwan
*Ma Ying-jeou (S.J.D. '81)- President of the Republic of China, former chairman of Republic of China's Kuomintang party, former mayor of T'aipei

United Kingdom

*Greville Janner, Baron Janner of Braunstone - British Labour Party politician
*David Lammy (LLM) - UK Minister of State for Higher Education, former Minister of Culture, MP for Tottenham
*Anthony Lester, Baron Lester of Herne Hill - Liberal Democrat member of the British House of Lords

Other countries

*Ben Bot - former Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Netherlands
*Daniel Friedmann - Israeli Minister of Justice
*Ho Peng Kee - Member of Parliament in Singapore and president of the Football Association of Singapore
*Jovito Salonga - Philippine senator
*Surakiart Sathirathai - Deputy Prime Minister of Thailand
*Kiraitu Murungi - Kenyan Minister of Justice and Constitutional Affairs and Energy
*Fientje Moerman - Belgian and later Flemish Minister of Economy, Enterprises, Innovation, Science and Foreign Trade.
*Ahmed Zaki Yamani - Saudi Arabian Oil Minister and OPEC official

Non-United States judicial figures

International court judges

*Kenneth Keith - New Zealand judge appointed to the International Court of Justice
*Koen Lenaerts (LL.M. 78) - Belgian judge at the European Court of Justice

National court judges

*Bernard Rix (LLM 1969) - Lord Justice, English Court of Appeals
*Vicente Abad Santos - associate justice on the Supreme Court of the Philippines
*Freda Steel (1978), Manitoba Court of Appeal judge

International law figures

*Navanethem Pillay (LLM 1982, SJD 1988) - presumptive UN High Commissioner for Human Rights

Academia

University presidents

*Lawrence S. Bacow, president of Tufts University
*Derek Bok, twice president of Harvard University
*Kingman Brewster, Jr., president of Yale University and United States Ambassador to the United Kingdom
*Colin Diver, president of Reed College
*David Leebron, president of Rice University
*William C. Powers, president of the University of Texas
*Jennifer Raab, president of Hunter College, City University of New York
*Joel Seligman, president of the University of Rochester
*John Sexton, president of New York University
*Michael Young, president of University of Utah

Legal academia

Law school deans

*Andres D. Bautista (LL.M. 1993), law faculty dean at Far Eastern University in the Philippines
*Robert C. Clark (J.D. 1972), dean (1989-2003) and professor at Harvard Law
*Clarence Clyde Ferguson Jr. (LL.B. 1951), dean and professor at Harvard Law, diplomat and U.S. Ambassador to Uganda
*Charles Hamilton Houston, dean of Howard University Law School and NAACP litigation director
*Elena Kagan (J.D. 1986), dean of Harvard Law (2003-present)
*W. Page Keeton, dean of the University of Texas School of Law
*Harold Hongju Koh (J.D. 1980), dean of Yale Law School and Assistant Secretary of State
*Charles T. McCormick, dean of the University of Texas Law School and the University of North Carolina School of Law
*William L. Prosser, dean of the Boalt Hall School of Law at UC Berkeley
*Symeon C. Symeonides (LL.M. 1974, S.J.D. 1980), dean of the Willamette University College of Law
*Cesar L. Villanueva (LL.M. 1989), dean of the Ateneo de Manila Law School in the Philippines

Constitutional law

*Jack Balkin, studies constitutional law and the impact of technology on law
*Erwin Chemerinsky, professor of constitutional law and civil procedure at Duke Law
*Michael C. Dorf, professor of constitutional law at Columbia Law School
*Richard Pildes, professor of constitutional law and public law at NYU School of Law
*Kathleen Sullivan, constitutional law scholar at Stanford Law School
*Laurence Tribe (J.D. 1966), professor of constitutional law at Harvard Law

Criminal law

*Bernard Harcourt (J.D. 1989), criminological critical theorist

Legal history

*Richard B. Bernstein (J.D. 1980), constitutional historian at New York Law School
*Richard H. Helmholz (LL.B. 1965), property, natural resource, and legal history scholar at the University of Chicago Law School
*Morton Horwitz (LL.B. 1967), torts and legal history scholar
*John H. Langbein (LL.B. 1968), Sterling Professor of law and legal history at Yale Law
*Charles Warren, Pulitzer Prize winning legal historian and Assistant Attorney General

International law

*Frank Attar, professor of law and international relations
*Francis Boyle, international law professor at the University of Illinois
*Amy Chua (J.D. 1987), international law and economics scholar at Yale Law
*Louis Henkin (LL.B 1940), international law and human rights authority
*David Kennedy, critical theorist of international law
*Joe Oloka-Onyango (LL.M., S.J.D.), Ugandan legal academic at Makerere University
*Eric Posner, international law scholar at the University of Chicago Law School
*Brad R. Roth, professor of international law and political science at Wayne State University

Law and literature

*Jane Ginsburg, art and literary law property professor at Columbia Law
*James Boyd White (1964) - founder of the Law and Literature movement

Legal philosophy

*Randy Barnett, libertarian legal theorist
*Ronald Dworkin - legal and political philosopher
*Richard Posner (LL.B. 1962), professor at the University of Chicago Law School, started the law and economics movement, judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit

Law and technology

*Jack Balkin, studies constitutional law and the impact of technology on law
*William W. Fisher, intellectual property law professor at Harvard Law and director of the Berkman Center for Internet and Society
*Peter Junger (LL.B. 1958), internet law activist and professor at Case Western Reserve University
*Charles Nesson, professor at Harvard Law and founder of the Berkman Center for Internet & Society
*Michael Rustad, intellectual property scholar, author, and professor at Suffolk University Law School
*Tim Wu (J.D. 1998) - professor of law and technology at Columbia; coined the term "net neutrality"; writer for "Slate"
*Jonathan Zittrain - scholar of internet governance at Oxford

Other legal academia

*George Bisharat, expert on Middle East legal and political affairs
*Susan Estrich, feminist and legal commentator for Fox News
*Owen M. Fiss, a Sterling Professor at Yale Law
*Robert P. George, professor of jurisprudence at Princeton University
*John Chipman Gray (LL.B. 1861), property professor and founder of the law firm Ropes & Gray
*Livingston Hall, Roscoe Pound Professor of Law at Harvard Law School until his 1971 retirement
*Christine M. Jolls, professor of law and economics at Yale Law
*Lance Liebman, professor at Columbia Law and director of the American Law Institute
*Mari Matsuda - professor at Georgetown University Law Center, a leading voice in critical race theory, and first tenured female Asian American law professor in the U.S.
*Arthur R. Miller, professor at NYU School of Law, former professor at Harvard Law School
*John V. Orth (J.D. 1974), professor of law at UNC-Chapel Hill
*John Palfrey, Executive Director of the Berkman Center for Internet and Society and Harvard clinical professor of law
*Cass Sunstein (J.D. 1978), soon to join the Harvard Law faculty
*Patricia J. Williams (J.D. 1975), proponent of critical race theory in law

Other academia

*Herbert J. Davenport - economist
*John Fiske, philosopher and historian
*Norman Holland (1950) - literary critic and theorist
*John Matteson - English professor and Pulitzer Prize-winning literary biographer
*Cheryl Mendelson - ethics philosopher and novelist
*Samuel Moyn (J.D. 2001) - intellectual historian
*Eli Noam (J.D. 1975) - professor of finance and economics at Columbia Business School
*David Riesman - sociologist; author of "The Lonely Crowd"
*Anne-Marie Slaughter - dean of the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University
*Robert Somol - director of the University of Illinois at Chicago architecture school

Activism

*George Thorndike Angell - anti-animal cruelty activist
*Richard Barnet (1954) - disarmament activist and co-founder of the leftist think tank Institute for Policy Studies
*Larissa Behrendt (LLM 1994) - Australian aboriginal rights activist, novelist
*John P. Davis (LL.B. 1933), African-American activist
*George Esser - civil rights advocate
*Sandra Froman - president of the National Rifle Association
*Jennifer Gordon - immigrant labor organizer
*Mark J. Green - public interest author, candidate for Senator from New York (1986), Mayor of New York City (2001) and New York State Attorney General (2006)
*Archibald Grimké - co-founder of the NAACP
*Marjorie Heins - free speech and civil liberties advocate
*Mary Howell (J.D. 1991) - fought to open medical schools to women
*Irene Khan - Secretary General of Amnesty International
*Brink Lindsey - Cato Institute libertarian activist
*Hans F. Loeser (1950) - anti-Vietnam War activist
*David A. Morse - winner of the Nobel Peace Prize for leadership of the International Labor Organization
*Ethan Nadelmann - anti-War on Drugs activist
*Ralph Nader - consumer advocate and frequent Green Party presidential candidate
*Basil O'Connor, polio research advocate and president of the American Red Cross
*Wendell Phillips (1934) - abolitionist and Native American rights advocate
*Louis L. Redding (LL.B. 1928), NAACP lawyer and civil rights advocate; first African American admitted to the Delaware bar
*Randall Robinson - anti-apartheid and pro-Haitian immigrant activist; founded the TransAfrica Forum
*Harvey A. Silverglate - founder of the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education
*Silda Wall Spitzer - founder of Children for Children, former First Lady of New York State
*Moorfield Storey - president of the NAACP and the Anti-Imperialist League
*Nadine Strossen - president of the American Civil Liberties Union
*William English Walling - co-founder of the NAACP and founder of the Women's Trade Union League
*Evan Wolfson - civil rights attorney
*Alfred-Maurice de Zayas - human rights advocate and historian

Arts

Acting

*Jared Delgin - child actor
*Hill Harper - film, television, and stage actor
*Samuel S. Hinds, starred in "It's a Wonderful Life" and Abbott & Costello films
*Justin Deabler - starred in (1992)
*Sheila Kuehl - child actress, first openly gay member of the California legislature

Architecture

*Paul Byard - architect and director of the Columbia architecture school historic preservation program

Comedy

*Greg Giraldo, stand-up comedian and television personality

Film

*Sidney Salkow - director

Literature

*Benjamin Vaughan Abbott (LL.B. 1851) - novelist and author of the New York State penal code
*Seth Abramson (J.D. 2001) - poet
*Louis Begley (LL.B. 1959) - PEN/Hemingway Award winning novelist; author of "About Schmidt"
*Alexander Boldizar (J.D. 1999) - writer and critic
*Viola Canales (J.D. 1989) - novelist and short story writer
*John Casey - novelist
*Amy Gutman (J.D. 1993) - novelist
*Mohsin Hamid (J.D. 1997) - novelist; author of the PEN/Hemingway Award finalist "Moth Smoke" and the Booker Prize-nominated "The Reluctant Fundamentalist"
*Philip Jeyaretnam - Singaporean novelist and lawyer
*Murad Kalam (J.D. 2002) - novelist and short story writer
*Brad Leithauser - poet, novelist, essay
*James Russell Lowell - romantic poet, satirist, literary critic, United States Ambassador to Spain, and United States Ambassador to the United Kingdom
*Archibald MacLeish (LL.B. 1919) - Pulitzer Prize-winning modernist poet, playwright and Librarian of Congress
*James Alan McPherson - Pulitzer Prize-winning short story writer and essayist
*Cheryl Mendelson - novelist and philosopher of medical ethics
*John Jay Osborn, Jr. - author of "The Paper Chase"
*Susan Power - PEN/Hemingway Award winning novelist
*William Henry Rhodes (LL.B. 1846) - poet, essayist, short story writer
*Akhil Sharma - PEN/Hemingway Award-winning short story writer, novelist
*Arthur Train (LL.B. 1899), author of legal thrillers
*Scott Turow (J.D. 1978), author of legal thrillers
*Walter Wager - mystery and spy fiction novelist
*Ayelet Waldman (J.D. 1991) - novelist; wrote Mommy-Track Mysteries, Love and Other Impossible Pursuits; former columnist for "Slate"
*Sabin Willett (J.D. 1983) - novelist and defense lawyer for Guantanamo Bay detainment camp inmates
*Lauren Willig - historical romance novelist
*William Winter (LL.B. 1857) - author and literary critic
*Owen Wister (LL.B. 1888) - writer of westerns, including "The Virginian"
*Austin Tappan Wright (L.L.B. 1908) - writer and legal scholar, wrote "Islandia"

Music

*Samim Bilgen (1962) - Turkish composer
*Ruben Blades - salsa singer-songwriter and Panamanian Minister of Tourism
*Jackie Fox - bassist for the music group The Runaways
*James Cutler Dunn Parker - composer

Visual arts

*George Hitchcock - painter

Business

*Sandy Alderson
*John Jacob Astor III
*Lloyd Blankfein - chairman and CEO of Goldman Sachs
*David Bonderman - founder of Texas Pacific Group (LBO)
*Charles Burson
*Doug Carlston - founder of computer game company Brøderbund Software
*Kenneth Chenault
*Russ DeLeon - founder of online gambling site PartyGaming
*Roger W. Ferguson, Jr. (J.D. 1979), chairman of Swiss Re America
*Russ Granik
*Gerald Grinstein - CEO of Delta Air Lines
*Douglas Hagerman - General Counsel, Secretary, and Senior Vice President of Rockwell Automation
*Jeff Kindler
*Radcliffe Killam - oilman, businessman, rancher, large landowner, and philanthropist from Laredo, Texas
*Reginald Lewis
*Kenneth Lipper - investment banker, novelist, film producer
*Alfred Lee Loomis
*Charlie Munger
*Abram Nicholas Pritzker - founder of the Hyatt hotel chain
*Sumner Redstone
*Leonid Rozhetskin, financier
*Karen Russell
*Charlemagne Tower
*Bruce Wasserstein
*William Woodward, Sr. - banker and thoroughbred horse racer
*Mortimer Zuckerman

Entertainment industry

*Paul Attanasio - TV/film screenwriter and producer; worked on "House" and ""
*Ron Bass - Academy Award-winning screenwriter and film producer; wrote "Rain Man"
*Peter Blake - consulting producer for "House"
*Debra Martin Chase - Hollywood producer
*Frederick de Cordova (1933) - film and television director and producer
*Clive Davis - Grammy Award winning music producer
*Bill Jemas - comic book writer and producer
*Christopher Keyser, TV screenwriter for "Party of Five"
*Ken Ludwig - playwright and theater director
*Cary Sherman - president of the Recording Industry Association of America
*David Sonenberg - music manager and film producer
*David Zippel - Tony Award-winning musical theater lyricist

Media and journalism

Commentators

*Keith Boykin - author, commentator; hosts "My Two Cents" on BET
*Jim Cramer - host of CNBC's "Mad Money" and co-founder of TheStreet.com
*Debra Dickerson - essayist on race
*Rebecca Eisenberg (J.D. 1993), early blogger and writer on technology
*Susan Estrich, feminist and legal commentator for Fox News
*David Frum - author and speechwriter for President George W. Bush
*Thomas Geoghegan - legal commentator
*Lawrence Otis Graham - writer on contemporary race and class issues
*Norman Hapgood - editor and critic
*John H. Hinderaker - conservative blogger
*George Stillman Hillard - biographer, journalist, and Maine state politician
*Mickey Kaus - journalist and blogger for "Slate"
*Carol Platt Liebau (1992) - political analyst and commentator
*Eric Liu - writer on race and mentorship; columnist for "Slate"
*Ruth Marcus (J.D. 1984) - columnist for the "Washington Post"
*Kevin Philips - political commentator, Richard Nixon campaign strategist
*Samantha Power - Pulitzer Prize winning writer on genocide, human rights, and foreign policy
*Laurie Puhn - commentator, self helf author, and television hostess
*Dong Puno - Philippine columnist, television host and producer
*Karen Russell - television political pundit, daughter of basketball star Bill Russell
*Ben Shapiro - conservative commentator
*Jeffrey Steingarten - columnist for "Vogue" and "Slate" magazines; food critic
*James B. Stewart - Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist
*Jeffrey Toobin - legal analyst for CNN and staff writer for "The New Yorker"
*Lis Wiehl (1987) - legal analyst for Fox News and NPR
*Tim Wu - writer for "Slate"; coined the term "net neutrality"; professor of law and technology at Columbia

Journalists

*Adam Cohen, editorial page editor for the "New York Times"
*Lisa Daniels (1997) - anchorwoman for NBC's "Weekend Today"
*William L. Laurence - Pulitzer Prize winning science journalist who covered the testing and dropping of the atomic bomb
*Meka Nichols, anchor/journalist for Channel One News
*Rob Simmelkjaer, anchor/correspondent for ABC News Now
*James B. Stewart - 1988 Pulitzer Prize winner for explanatory journalism

Publishers

*Phil Graham - publisher of the "Washington Post"
*Boisfeuillet Jones, Jr. - publisher and CEO of the "Washington Post"
*Cliff Sloan - publisher of "Slate (magazine)" magazine

Military

*Raynal Bolling - first high ranking American officer killed in the First World War
*David M. Brahms - brigadier general in the United States Marine Corps
*Manning Force (1849) - Union leader in the American Civil War
*George Henry Gordon - Union general during the American Civil War and military historian
*Albert G. Jenkins (1850) - Confederate brigadier general during the American Civil War and Congressman from Virginia (1857-61)
*Samuel Underhill - naval aviator
*Charles White Whittlesey - led the Lost Battalion in the Argonne Forest during the First World War

pies

*Helge Boes - CIA agent
*John T. Downey - CIA agent captured in China
*Alger Hiss - alleged spy of the Soviet Union

ports

*Dick Button - figure skater and figure skating commentator
*Lou DiBella - boxing promoter
*Bob Arum - boxing promoter
*Len Elmore - professional basketball player, sportscaster
*Lawrence Fleisher - sports agent; helped found the NBA Players Association
*Russ Granik - deputy commissioner of the NBA
*Ho Peng Kee - president of the Football Association of Singapore and Member of Parliament in Singapore
*Tony Petitti - executive vice president of CBS Sports in charge of NFL football

Other

*Myron Avery - Appalachian Trail hiker and guide writer
*Andy Bloch - champion poker player
*Ruben Bolling - cartoonist, authors Tom the Dancing Bug
*Richard Henry Dana, Jr. (1837) - writer on sea life and expert on maritime law
*William Austin Dickinson - older brother of poet Emily Dickenson
*Amanda Goad - winner of the Scripps National Spelling Bee and Jeopardy! Teen Tournament
*Charles Goldfarb - computer language inventor
*Erika Harold - winner of the Miss America contest
*Gardiner Greene Hubbard - founder and first president of the National Geographic Society
*Arnold W. G. Kean - developed civil aviation law
*Joseph P. Kennedy, Jr. - older brother of President John F. Kennedy
*Joel I. Klein - New York City School Chancellor
*Richard Lederer - author of books on language and wordplay
*Robert Malley - analyst of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict
*Scotty McLennan, author and Dean of Religious Life at Stanford University
*George S. Morison (1866) - bridge designer
*Michelle Obama - wife of senator and presidential candidate Barack Obama
*George Padmore - Pan-Africanist figure
*Francis Parkman - freelance historian and horticulturalist
*Joan Whitney Payson - philanthropist and patron of the arts
*Michael Scanlan (1956) - Catholic priest and religious book author
*Walter H. Seward (LL.B. 1924), third oldest living American and seventh-oldest living human
*David Spindler - independent scholar of the Great Wall of China
*William Stringfellow - lay theologian
*Sonam Dechen Wangchuck (LL.M. 2007) - Princess of Bhutan

Non-graduates

These students attended Harvard Law but for various reasons did not graduate.

*Brooks Adams - historian
*Larz Anderson - diplomat and businessman, United States Ambassador to Japan (1912-13)
*William Bullitt (dropped out 1914) - United States Ambassador to the Soviet Union (1933-6)
*William Bundy - CIA figure who had a role in planning the Vietnam War
*Allan B. Calhamer - developed the board game Diplomacy
*Daniel Henry Chamberlain (dropped out 1863), Governor of South Carolina
*Frank Church (transferred) - US Senator from Idaho (1957-81)
*John Sherman Cooper (dropped out) - US Senator from Kentucky (1946-1949, 1952-1955, 1956-1973)
*Danny Fields (dropped out 1959) - figure in the underground New York punk rock scene
*Melville Fuller (dropped out 1855), Chief Justice of the US Supreme Court
*Ruth Bader Ginsburg (transferred) - US Supreme Court Justice (1993-present)
*Arthur A. Hartman (dropped out 1948), United States Ambassador to France (1977-1981), United States Ambassador to the Soviet Union (1981-1987)
*Henry James - novelist; author of "The Bostonians" and "Washington Square"
*Jodi Kantor (dropped out), reporter and editor on culture and politics for the "New York Times"
*Philip Kaufman - film screenwriter and director
*Michael Kinsley (transferred) - journalist, editor, and host of "Crossfire"
*Nicholas Longworth (transferred) - Speaker of the House (1925-31)
*Greg Mankiw (dropped out 1984) - economist
*Gordon McLendon - created Top 40 radio format
*Louis Menand (dropped out 1974) - American cultural and intellectual historian
*Pat McCormick - comic actor and writer
*William Henry Moody (dropped out), US Supreme Court Justice (1906-1910), United States Attorney General (1904-6), United States Secretary of the Navy (1902-4), congressman from Massachusetts (1895-1902)
*George Murdock - anthropologist
*John Negroponte (dropped out 1960), US Deputy Secretary of State, Director of National Intelligence
*Cole Porter - composer and songwriter
*Roscoe Pound (dropped out 1890) - dean of Harvard Law
*Donald Regan - United States Secretary of the Treasury (1981-5), White House Chief of Staff (1985-7)
*Angelo Rizzuto - photographer
*Robert Rubin (dropped out), Secretary of the Treasury
*William James Sidis (dropped out 1919) - famous child prodigy
*Alfred D. Sieminski (dropped out 1936) - congressman from New Jersey (1951-1959)
*Adlai Stevenson II (dropped out) - Governor of Illinois (1949-1953) and Democratic presidential candidate (1952, 1956)
*Robert W. Welch Jr. (dropped out) - founder of the anticommunist John Birch Society

Fictitious alumni

*Jerry Espenson, character on the TV series "Boston Legal"
*Miranda Hobbes, character on the TV series "Sex and the City"
*Elle Woods, main character in the "Legally Blonde" films and musical
*Daniel Kaffe, Tom Cruise's character in "A Few Good Men"
*Mitchell McDeere, main character in John Grisham's The Firm
*Amy Madison Gray, main character on the TV series "Judging Amy"
*Lindsay Dole, character on the TV series "The Practice"