Harvard Law Review - History

History

The Harvard Law Review published its first issue on April 15, 1887, making it the oldest operating student-edited law review in the United States. The establishment of the journal was largely due to the support of Louis Brandeis, then a recent Harvard Law School alumnus and Boston attorney who would later go on to become a Justice on the Supreme Court of the United States. The first female editor of the journal was Priscilla Holmes (1953-1955, Volumes 67-68); the first woman to serve as the journal's president was Susan Estrich (1978), who later was active in Democratic Party politics and became the youngest woman to receive tenure at Harvard Law School; its first minority president was Raj Marphatia (1987, Volume 101), who is now a partner at the Boston law firm of Ropes & Gray; its first African-American president was Barack Obama (1991); its first openly gay president was Mitchell Reich (2011).

The Harvard Law Review headquarters, Gannett House, is located on the Harvard Law School campus. It is a white building constructed in the Greek Revival style that was popular in New England during the mid-to-late 19th century. Before moving into Gannett House in 1925, the journal resided in the Law School's Austin Hall.

Membership in the Harvard Law Review is offered to select Harvard law students based on first-year grades and performance in a writing competition held at the end of the first year. The writing competition includes two components: an edit of an unpublished article and an analysis of a recent United States Supreme Court or Court of Appeals case. The writing competition submissions are graded blindly to assure anonymity. Fourteen editors (two from each 1L section) are selected based on a combination of their first-year grades and their competition scores. Twenty editors are selected based solely on their competition scores. The remaining editors are selected on a discretionary basis. The president of the Harvard Law Review is elected by the other editors.