Harvard Law Review Elects Michael Thomas Next President

The Harvard Law Review elected second-year Law student Michael Thomas the 132nd president of the journal last week.

Thomas, who was born in St. Vincent and the Grenadines, grew up in Brooklyn, N.Y. and graduated from Princeton University in 2012 with a degree in sociology. Between studying at Princeton and at Harvard Law School, Thomas worked in the office of Counsel to the Mayor in New York City and served as a summer associate at Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison last year.

Thomas succeeds ImeIme A. Umana, the publication’s first black woman president. In an email, Umana praised her successor and wrote she thinks the Law Review is in good hands under Thomas.

“The Law Review is lucky to have Michael at the helm. He is an incisive and thoughtful editor. More importantly, he is a compassionate peer,” she wrote.

Looking back on her time as president, Umana wrote that she is pleased with everything the Law Review accomplished in 2017.

“Thanks to our fantastic team of committed editors, the Law Review has had an exciting year. We welcomed the first-ever majority-female volume, selected our inaugural Public Interest Fellow, and launched a Blog, all in addition to publishing a wide range of premier legal scholarship,” she wrote.

Thomas did not respond to requests for comment by publication time.

Thomas is the second black president of the Law Review in two years. His election comes after the publication undertook a series of initiatives in recent years meant to diversify its ranks. The journal, which expanded its affirmative action policy in 2013, elected the most diverse class of editors in its history in 2016 and its first majority female class last year.

—Staff writer Aidan F. Ryan can be reached at aidan.ryan@thecrimson.com. Follow him on Twitter @AidanRyanNH.