Law School Deans’ and Professors’ Statement of Support

We are Law School deans and professors. We are also former high school or college debaters or those who, through other means, have become familiar with debate as an academic activity.

Based on our own experiences, we believe that high school debate is an excellent training ground for students to develop interests and skills that apply directly to legal thought and practice. Debate cultivates critical thinking, research, analysis, argumentation, and presentation skills. Not surprisingly, debaters are successful law students and lawyers.

We therefore believe that the introduction of debate through Urban Debate Leagues builds a larger pipeline of students who are interested in, and well-prepared for, law school and legal practice. These Leagues, reflecting the populations of the urban districts they serve, overwhelmingly comprise minority students. They, therefore, train a new generation of students, many of whom, if our own experience is any guide, will choose legal careers.

As such, we enthusiastically endorse Urban Debate Leagues as a valuable method by which to diversify the legal pipeline and profession. We agree that increasing that diversity is an important objective. And, we encourage others who are concerned with the diversity of the legal profession to support the NAUDL and efforts to build new Urban Debate Leagues and to expand existing ones.

Elena Kagan
Dean of the Faculty of Law and Charles Hamilton Houston Professor of Law
Harvard Law School

Evan H. Caminker
Dean of the Law School and Professor of Law
University of Michigan Law School

Erwin Chemerinsky
Founding Dean and Professor of Law
Donald Bren School of Law, University of California at Irvine

Laurence H. Tribe
Carl M. Loeb University Professor
Harvard Law School

Amy Chua
John M. Duff, Jr. Professor of Law
Yale Law School

Elizabeth Garrett
Sydney M. Irmas Professor of Public Interest Law, Legal Ethics, Political Science, and Vice President for Academic Planning and Budget
Gould School of Law, University of Southern California

James B. Speta
Professor of Law
Northwestern University School of Law

Richard H. McAdams
Bernard D. Meltzer Professor of Law
University of Chicago Law School

Karla Leeper
Professor of Law and Chief of Staff to the President of the University
Baylor University

Stephen M. Griffin
Rutledge C. Clement Jr. Professor of Constitutional Law and
Vice Dean of Academic Affairs
Tulane University School of Law

Jonathan Baert Wiener
William R. & Thomas L. Perkins Professor of Law
Duke University School of Law

Steven H. Shiffrin
Charles Frank Reavis Sr. Professor of Law
Cornell Law School

Neal K. Katyal
Professor of Law
Georgetown University Law Center

Rebecca L. Tushnet
Professor of Law
Georgetown University Law Center

Louis Kaplow
Finn M.W. Caspersen and Household International Professor of Law and Economics
Harvard Law School

Ryan Goodman
Rita E. Hauser Professor of Human Rights and Humanitarian Law and
Director of the Human Rights Program
Harvard Law School

Marcy Strauss
Professor of Law
Loyola Law School

Samuel J. Levine
Professor of Law
Pepperdine University School of Law

John Q. Barrett
Professor of Law
St. John's University School of Law

Joseph A. Grundfest
W.A. Franke Professor of Law and Business
Stanford Law School

Pamela S. Karlan
Kenneth & Harle Montgomery Professor of Public Interest Law
Stanford Law School

Jesse H. Choper
Earl Warren Professor of Public Law
University of California at Berkeley School of Law – Boalt Hall

Seana Shiffrin
Professor of Law and Philosophy
University of California at Los Angeles School of Law

Kathryn Abrams
Herma Hill Kay Distinguished Professor of Law
University of California at Berkley School of Law – Boalt Hall

Roberto L. Corrada
Professor of Law
University of Denver Sturm College of Law

Donald A. Dripps
Professor of Law
University of San Diego School of Law

Thomas D. Lyon
Judge Edward J. and Ruey L. Guirado Chair in Law and Psychology
University of Southern California Gould School of Law

Derek P. Jinks
The Marrs McLean Professor in Law
University of Texas School of Law

Thomas Orin Main
Professor of Law
University of the Pacific McGeorge School of Law

Daria Roithmayr
Professor of Law
University of Southern California Gould School of Law

Albert Alschuler
Professor of Law
Northwestern University School of Law

Donna M. Nagy
Ben Dutton Professor of Law
Indiana University School of Law - Bloomington

Christopher Fairman
Professor of Law
Ohio State University, Michael E. Moritz College of Law

Derek Jinks
The Marrs McLean Professor in Law
University of Texas School of Law

Christopher R. Leslie
Professor of Law
Chicago-Kent College of Law, Illinois Institute of Technology

Lars Noah
Professor of Law
University of Florida College of Law

James P. Fleissner
Professor of Law
Mercer University Law School

Cristina Rodriguez
Associate Professor of Law
New York University School of Law

Carissa Byrne Hessick
Associate Professor of Law
Arizona State University Sandra Day O'Connor College of Law

David Zaring
Assistant Professor of Law
Vanderbilt University Law School

Diane J. Klein
Associate Professor of Law
University of LaVerne College of Law

Edward Swaine
Associate Professor
George Washington School of Law

Heidi Dawn Kitrosser
Associate Professor of Law
University of Minnesota School of Law

James Park
Assistant Professor of Law
Brooklyn Law School

Kevin K. Washburn
Associate Professor of Law
University of Minnesota School of Law

Kristin E. Hickman
Associate Professor of Law
University of Minnesota School of Law

Robin Effron
Bigelow Fellow
The University of Chicago Law School

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