Executive Branch
Harvard Law Alum With ‘Highest GPA’ Joins the Obama-Biden Team
Posted Nov 13, 2008 6:16 PM CST
By Martha Neil
Ronald Klain, a former partner of O'Melveny & Myers who served as chief of staff to vice president Al Gore, will now reportedly reprise that role as chief of staff to vice president-elect Joe Biden.
And Klain has another qualification, too: Not only is he a Harvard law grad, like many other members of the transition team for Biden and president-elect Barack Obama, but he's also one of the best and the brightest, according to the Am Law Daily.
As a student at Harvard Law School, Klain won the Sears Prize, four of which are awarded annually to the first- and second-year students with the highest grade point averages. He graduated magna cum laude in 1987 and started clerking for U.S. Supreme Court Justice Byron White in the same year, Politico reports.
Related ABAJournal.com coverage:
Better Question: Who Isn't a Lawyer on Obama's Transition Team?
Obama is Second US President with a Harvard Law Degree
Updated at 7:45 a.m. Nov. 14 to make a headline change, and at 11:08 a.m to correct misdated information.
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Comments
JD
Nov 13, 2008 8:48 PM CST
Who comes up with the titles for these articles? Why say “Super-Smart Harvard Law Grad” when he has been so successful in his career since then? Calling him a super-smart Harvard grad gives the impression that he is barely out of law school and has earned the position on Barack Obama’s team based on his grades.
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B. McLeod
Nov 13, 2008 9:29 PM CST
Maybe HARVARD is contributing to the HEADLINES. Kind of a USEFUL way to get mentioned for SOMETHING besides having a NICE campus with MARBLE and BRASS restrooms, COSTING a great deal.
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No fool
Nov 13, 2008 11:30 PM CST
Nice comment, Ellen. Just one thing - you should have used caps to say “MARBLE AND BRASS” rather than just “MARBLE and BRASS.” I think it would have a lot more EFFECT that way, and you’re already using so MANY so why not,
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Ellen Barshevsky
Nov 14, 2008 5:09 AM CST
I am not even POLITICAL, but I am getting weery of reading all about HARVARD. I already said that I did NOT even APPLY to Harvard.
Now with all of the Obamma headlines, mabye I am GLAD I never did. My boyfriend agrees that it is NOT where you get a degree, but what you DO with it.
NO ONE cares where you went to high school, or college, and after a while Law school. The manageing partner at my firm went to Stetsen School of Law, and he is VERY smart.
I did not even know what a Stetsen lawer was, but now I will recomend it if some one wants to go there.
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CJ
Nov 14, 2008 7:11 AM CST
Totally agree with your comment, JD. If I were Mr. Klain, I would be disappointed in the ABA’s article and headline.
Oh, and Ellen, please use spell check before you post.
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Al Tidom
Nov 14, 2008 7:22 AM CST
The ABA sensationalizes the titles to draw us in. Forturnately, the posts are more interesting than the articles. OY! And Ellen Barshevsky is always the most interesting. Boy, it’s too bad Im no longer a young man. I would give a boyfriend a run for his money! Oy!
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B. McLeod
Nov 14, 2008 8:39 AM CST
MAIDS, when ye’re YOUNG,
NEVER wed an AULD MAN!
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s.s
Nov 14, 2008 10:17 AM CST
I can see the headline now “Harvard Law Alum shoots two in liquor store hold-up.”
“Thurston Howell III, Class of 1943, shot two armed suspects while looking for a bottle of Lafayette Escargot Burgundy in the Premium Vintage section of a Bakersfield CA wine store.”
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HLS-87
Nov 14, 2008 10:31 AM CST
A correction and some clarifications: Ron Klain, who was a classmate of mine, graduated from HLS in 1987, not 1985. He did win the Sears Prize in 1985, but the Sears Prize is not awarded to the student who graduates with the highest GPA. Rather, the Sears Prize is awarded to four students each year—two from each of the first- and second-year classes, based on GPA. It should not be confused with the Fay Diploma, which is awarded to the third-year student who graduates with the highest GPA. Ron Klain won the Sears Prize in 1985 as one of the top two students in his first-year class. He did not subsequently win the Fay Diploma in 1987.
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banterslanter88
Nov 14, 2008 10:34 AM CST
Valid points by all, but it is impressive that Klain graduated #1 in his class (whether @ Harvard or any othe top notch law school), so the title , though a bit sensational, did not overstep bounds by today’s media standards.
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