John R. Kramer

John R. Kramer (August 17, 1937 – March 7, 2006) served as the 19th dean of the Tulane University Law School from 1986 to 1996,[1] and previous to that was an associate dean at Georgetown University. At Tulane he started a law clinic to serve low-income people in New Orleans and made Tulane the first law school in the United States to require a specific number of community service hours for graduation.[1] Under his leadership, African American students came to constitute a greater percentage of the law school student body than in any other non-historically black law school.[1]

John R. Kramer
Born(1937-08-17)August 17, 1937
New York City
DiedMarch 7, 2006(2006-03-07) (aged 68)
New Orleans, Louisiana
Nationality United States
CitizenshipUSA
Alma materHarvard University
Harvard Law School
Scientific career
FieldsLaw
InstitutionsTulane University Law School, Georgetown University

A cheerful and outspoken liberal,[1] he relished controversy.[1] He publicly defended the Tulane Environmental Law Clinic when it ran afoul of powerful chemical and oil companies in Louisiana.[1] He also defended the Tulane Appellate Advocacy Program's involvement in a Supreme Court suit against a local utility.[1] During his tenure, Tulane published the nation's first gay law journal.[1] He was succeeded by Tulane Law School Dean Edward F. Sherman.[2]

Education and early life

Mr. Kramer graduated magna cum laude from Harvard University in 1958.[1] He was a Fulbright Scholar at Cambridge University in 1958-59 and received his law degree from Harvard Law School in 1962.[1] He clerked at the NAACP Legal Defense Fund for Thurgood Marshall, who later became the first black justice on the U.S. Supreme Court.[1]

In 1965, he became counsel to U.S. Rep. Adam Clayton Powell Jr. (D-N.Y.) on the House Committee on Education and Labor, handling anti-poverty legislation and the first Higher Education Act.[1] In 1987, Kramer was elected to the Common Cause National Governing Board.

References
  1. Obituary published by the Washington Post
  2. http://www.law.tulane.edu/tlsfaculty/profiles.aspx?id=466
Academic offices
Preceded by
Paul R. Verkuil		 Tulane University Law School Dean
1986 – July 1996		 Succeeded by
Edward F. Sherman
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