Former Penn President Liz Magill Appointed HLS Visiting Fellow

Former University of Pennsylvania President Elizabeth Magill will join Harvard Law School’s Center on the Legal Profession as a visiting senior fellow this fall, according to a recently updated copy of Magill’s curriculum vitae.

Magill resigned as president just days after her disastrous testimony during a congressional hearing about campus antisemitism late last year, where she appeared alongside former Harvard President Claudine Gay and MIT President Sally A. Kornbluth.

The university presidents’ answers to questions about whether calls for the genocide of Jews violate their codes of conduct sparked national backlash and contributed to Gay’s resignation less than one month later.

Both Gay and Magill have kept low profiles in the initial months after their sudden resignations. Magill’s research appointment at HLS marks her first new role since she stepped down from office on Dec. 9, 2023.

A spokesperson for the Law School did not comment for this article. A representative for Magill did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Magill’s role at HLS was first reported by the Daily Pennsylvanian, the University of Pennsylvania’s student newspaper.

In addition to her appointment at HLS’ Center on the Legal Profession, Magill will also join the London School of Economics as a visiting professor.

This will be Magill’s second affiliation with HLS after serving as a visiting professor of law in spring 2009. Her appointment at the Center on the Legal Profession will be research focused, unpaid, and temporary. She will also remain a tenured professor on Penn’s faculty.

The Center on the Legal Profession is led by HLS professor David B. Wilkins ’77 and lecturer Bryon Fong. The Center’s advisory board members include Kenneth I. Chenault and Kenneth C. Frazier — two members of the Harvard Corporation, the University’s highest governing body.

The Center researches the “​​structures, norms, and dynamics” of the global legal profession, according to its website.

—Staff writer S. Mac Healey can be reached at mac.healey@thecrimson.com. Follow him on X @MacHealey.

—Staff writer Saketh Sundar can be reached at saketh.sundar@thecrimson.com. Follow him on X @saketh_sundar.