Sacks Will Resign Next Year After Decade as Law Dean

Albert M. Sacks, dean of the Law School since 1971, will resign his post June 30, 1981, because he believes a decade in the job is "about right."

In a letter to President Bok last Monday, Sacks noted that before he became dean, members of the law faculty, including himself and Bok, agreed that a ten-year limit on the deanship was proper.

"As a result, I have over the past year asked myself whether there were solid reasons for deviating from the time frame we initially set," Sacks wrote in the letter. "My conclusion is that, for this dean and this era in the school's history, we planned very well indeed," he added.

Several members of the Law School administration and faculty this week expressed surprise at Sacks' decision and said they had no idea who the next dean might be.

Time Passages

"Time goes by so quickly people had forgotten it has been ten years," James Vorenberg '49, associate dean of the Law School, said Wednesday.

"The precise timing was a surprise, but the fact that it occurred at the end of ten years was not," Stephen B. Young '67, assistant dean and research associate at the Law School, said Wednesday, adding, "More and more people seem to feel ten years is good--if people stay too long, the arteries begin to clog."

Lance M. Liebman, professor of Law, said Wednesday it appeared that Bok was "bringing about dean changes after ten years without ever having bound himself to that as a policy, and I think that's a good thing." Since Bok became president in 1971, the deanships at every graduate school except Dentistry have changed hands. Bok has been unavailable for comment since Tuesday.

Clinical

Noted for his work on the legal process, Sacks opened up the field of clinical education at the Law School by teaching skills that are important at the trial level, Young said.

Sacks also set up a committee last year to undertake a major review of the Law School curriculum. "Every ten to 15 years, the time seems ripe to take a look at the educational program," Frank I. Michelman, professor of Law and chairman of the review committee, said yesterday.

"The dean has to try to have some feel for when it's an auspicious moment to try to get an activity like that in gear. My impression is that most people agree with Al Sacks' timing," Michelman added.

Credit Where...

In his letter to Bok, Sacks wrote that "one of my major qualms about resigning in June, 1981, is that I would be abandoning an undertaking that I had myself begun, and perhaps placing it in jeopardy."

But Sacks went on to say, "On reflection, I am persuaded that there is a major advantage in involving a new dean in the work of the Michelman committee as early as possible. In this way, its recommendations will probably have a greater impact in the long run." The committee plans to start making recommendations during the next school year.

"I think the process of discussion, reflection, initiation and follow-through will stretch over such a long period of time that one could argue that this isn't a bad time to let a new dean take over," Michelman added.

Alan M. Dershowitz, professor of Law, said Wednesday Sacks' major contribution while dean has been "to bring a real sense of humanity and civility to the deanship--he's a fine person with no axes to grind, and he's completely fair about everything."

Dershowitz also pointed out that Sacks was the first Jewish dean of the Law School. "The appointment of Sacks broke that bigoted approach that Harvard had for hundreds of years and broke it finally and permanently," he said, adding. "It was a very significant appointment."

Vorenberg noted that one of Sacks' greatest strengths as dean has been "the sense he has given the faculty of a very open institution. He is a classically rational person with whom you can discuss any topic."

Young agreed, saying that Sacks has allowed the faculty to do what it wants. "He doesn't try to impose things from the top," Young added.

Sacks became dean after serving as acting dean for four months following the selection of Bok--who preceded Sacks as dean of the Law School--as president. Before naming Sacks dean, Bok and then-President Nathan M. Pusey '28 consulted the Law School's Governance Committee, which includes students.

At the time of his appointment as acting dean in January 1971, Sacks said he could not imagine a term as dean extending beyond ten or 12 years. "After that length of time, a dean becomes a consolidator of the past." he said.

Currently president of the American Association of Law Schools, Sacks joined the law faculty as an assistant professor in 1952. He became a full professor in 1955 and Dane Professor of Law (a title he still holds) in 1969. He served as associate dean under Bok from 1968-71.

Before coming to Harvard, Sacks served as a clerk to former Supreme Court Justice Felix Frankfurter. He received his B.A. from the City College of New York and his law degree from Harvard