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.
Government
United States government
Executive branch
- Francis Biddle
- Paul Clement, current Solicitor General of the United States, will serve as acting Attorney General starting September 17, 2007
- Charles Joseph Bonaparte, also United States Secretary of the Navy and founder of the precursor to the FBI
- Alberto Gonzales
- Ebenezer R. Hoar
- Richard Kleindienst
- Richard Olney
- Janet Reno
- Elliot Richardson
- William French Smith
Deputy Attorneys General
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
- 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)
Senators
- 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)
- 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 North 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
- Jim Cooper, Representative from Tennessee (2003-present)
- Chris Cox, Representative from California (1989-2005), Chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission (2005-present)
- 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 - also a Zionist leader
- William Brennan
- Stephen Breyer (sitting)
- Harold Hitz Burton
- Benjamin Curtis
- Felix Frankfurter
- Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.
- Anthony Kennedy (sitting)
- Lewis Powell
- John Roberts (Chief Justice, sitting)
- Edward T. Sanford
- Antonin Scalia (sitting)
- David Souter (sitting)
Federal Court judges
- Morris S. Arnold - senior-status judge of the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals based in Little Rock
- Richard S. Arnold - late judge of 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
- John P. Fullam (LL.B. 1948), judge on the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania
- Neil Gorsuch - judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit
- Whitman Knapp - investigated corruption in the NYPD
- John T. Noonan, Jr. (LL.B. 1954) - senior judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit
- Atsushi Wallace Tashima (LL.B. 1961), third Asian American to be appointed to the United States Court of Appeals
State 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
State 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
- Jonathan Miller - State Treasurer of Kentucky, democratic candidate for Govenor of Kentucky, 2007
State 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
- 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)
- 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
- 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
- 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
- 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
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
China, Republic of (Taiwan)
- Annette Lu - vice president of Republic of China
- Ma Ying-jeou - chairman of Republic of China's Kuomintang party, former mayor of T'aipei, contender for the presidency of the Republic of China
India
- Shankar Dayal Sharma - President of India
- Kapil Sibal (LLM) - Indian Minister of Science and Technology
United Kingdom
- Greville Janner, Baron Janner of Braunstone - British Labour Party politician
- David Lammy - British 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
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
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
- David C. Hardesty, Jr., president of West Virginia University
- Steven G. Poskanzer, president of SUNY-New Paltz
- 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
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
- 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 School of Law 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
- 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 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
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
- David Kennedy, critical theorist of international law
- Joe Oloka-Onyango (LL.M., S.J.D.), Ugandan legal academic at Makerere University
- Brad R. Roth, professor of international law and political science at Wayne State
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
- 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
- Susan Estrich, feminist and legal commentator for Fox News
- Owen M. Fiss, a Sterling Professor at Yale Law
- John Chipman Gray (LL.B. 1861), property professor and founder of the law firm Ropes and Gray
- Christine M. Jolls, professor of law and economics at Yale Law
- Lance Liebman, professor at Columbia Law and director of the American Law Institute
- Arthur R. Miller, professor at Harvard Law
- 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
Other academia
- Herbert J. Davenport - economist
- John Fiske, philosopher and historian
- Norman Holland (1950) - literary critic and theorist
- Cheryl Mendelson - ethics philosopher and novelist
- 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
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 Grimke - 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
- 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
- Silda Wall Spitzer - founder of Children for Children, 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 The Real World (1992)
- Sheila Kuehl - child actress, first openly gay member of the California legislature
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
- John Casey - novelist
- Amy Gutman (J.D. 1993) - novelist
- Mohsin Hamid (J.D. 1997) - PEN/Hemingway Award winning novelist; author of Moth Smoke and 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
- 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
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
- Jeff Kindler
- Jim Koch - founder of Boston Beer Company
- 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
- 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 Homicide: Life on the Street
- 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
- Ellen Rapoport - TV writer and producer
- 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
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
Spies
- Helge Boes - CIA agent
- John T. Downey - CIA agent captured in China
- Alger Hiss - alleged spy of the Soviet Union
Sports
- Dick Button - figure skater and figure skating commentator
- Lou DiBella - 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
- Rob Manfred - executive vice president of Major League Baseball
- 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
- Greg Giraldo - stand-up comedian
- 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
- 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
- Mark Outland (1974) - writer on the psychiatry of politics
- George Padmore - Pan-Africanist figure
- Francis Parkman - freelance historian and horticulturalist
- Joan Whitney Payson - philanthropist and patron of the arts
- Jeremy Alexander Rist (1998) - freelance Marxian economist and operatic librettist
- 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.
- William Bullitt (dropped out 1914) - United States Ambassador to the Soviet Union (1933-6)
- 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
- 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
- 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
- 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