"Harvard is already a CLS stronghold," says Daniel Trubek, a law professor at the University of Wisconsin. "The presence of a prominent left at Harvard is a permanent presence. It's had an immense impact on Harvard. Harvard turns out a significant percentage of all law professors."

But Trubek himself found out that other voices have significant impacts on legal education at Harvard. In 1987, he and Dalton lost their bids for tenure at Harvard in controversial faculty votes and ensuing reviews by President Bok. CLS supporters have charged that in both instances the faculty discriminated against the left-wing scholars for their adherence to CLS, a charge which has taken the CLS debate from the classroom to the national news.

Right-wing and moderate Harvard Law School professors counter that argument, saying that Trubek and Dalton did meet the school's tenure standards. This spring, Bok, acting on the advice of a review committee of experts, upheld the faculty's decision to deny Dalton tenure.

"I think [Dalton] was a victim of the battle that was going on at Harvard," says conference-goer Drury. "It was more a matter of the rest of the faculty trying to keep the Crits from getting a stronghold. If Clare Dalton is any indication, it seems as though the faculty is pretty set against letting the Crits get any real stronghold there."

However, Trubek says left-wing thought will always be a part of legal education, even at Harvard.

"Short of a Draconian right-wing purge, which I don't imagine would happen there, CLS professors will continue to gain tenure at Harvard," Trubek predicts. "Somebody will, not this year, not in the immediate future, but CLS will continue to influence the Harvard faculty no matter what they do."

The Harvard decisions and ensuing claims of persecution increase the value of attending the convention for many CLS adherents. Crits--who make up only a small percentage of most law faculties--say the conference makes them fell that they are not alone.

"I think [the turnout] shows that although there's a lot of academic repression at a lot of institutions, CLS is still a very strong movement," says American University Professor of Law James Boyle, the t-shirt-clad director of the convention.

"We are not isolated," Dalton says. "There are numbers of people who share our concerns about the law and the legal system."

As they gather in their unconventional workshops and meetings--on everything from "CLS spirituality and nature" to "Sexuality, violence and male power"--the Crits decide what new directions CLS should take. While students bat around ideas for activism at a picnic caucus, professors--donning short sleeves and jeans like their pupils--debate how CLS can begin to construct and not just criticize.

"The theme of this conference, I would say, is reaching out beyond the academic community and making CLS more real and useful in practice," Pope says.

Critical Legal Studies is often attacked for presenting only a negative view of scholarship and viewed as an assault on other theories that provides no real alternative.

Turning the criticisms into positive action is a major theme of discussion at the conference. For an energetic Professor Peter Gabel, short-sleeve clad and with shoulder-length hair, taking CLS out of the classroom and onto the streets is the top priority for the next year.

"How can we as political lawyers continue to transform society and social relations, continue to practice work in that world and remain in touch with our central vision?" asks Gabel, who teaches at the New College of Law in San Francisco.

"We've developed the critique of law-we are an educational movement," Trubek says. "We also see there are limits to what can be done within this effort. The people who were most interested in the theoretical project and educational project are also very much in favor of practical applications."