Jeffrey S. Lehman
Jeffery Sean Lehman (b. 1956) is president of Cornell University. A native of Bronxville, New York, Lehman is a member of Cornell's Class of 1977, the first alumnus of that institution to serve as its president.
While a student, Lehman was active in Alpha Phi Omega service fraternity and wrote the book 1000 Ways to Win Monopoly Games on the way to earning his undergraduate degree in mathematics. He went on to receive a J.D. and a Master's in Public Policy from the University of Michigan. After his graduation he clerked for Chief Judge Frank M. Coffin of the United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit, and served as law clerk to Associate Justice John Paul Stevens of the U.S. Supreme Court.
After practicing law in Washington DC, Lehman returned to the University of Michigan in 1987 to serve on the faculty of the law school. He also served as a visiting professor at Yale Law School and the University of Paris. Named Dean of Michigan Law in 1994, he received much national attention in the 2003 Supreme Court case of Grutter v. Bollinger, defending the law school's affirmative action policies in admissions.
He was named the 11th president of Cornell University on December 14, 2002 and assumed the duties of that office on July 1, 2003. He will be stepping down as president on June 30, 2005 to assume a role in the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington, DC. One year later, he will become a tenured professor of law at the Cornell Law School.
External links
- LegalInsight.net audio: A Conversation with Jeffrey Lehman
- Cornell University: About Jeffrey S. Lehman, including photographs, speeches, and biography