After sorting through more than 400 applications, President Neil L. Rudenstine said he has narrowed his search for a new Vice President and General Counsel of the University to "a couple of dozen [attorneys] or less."

In late October, Rudenstine had said he hoped to make an appointment by February.

He attributed the delay in appointing Harvard's top legal position to the unexpected response his office received when the opening was announced.

"That has been the basic, nice kind of problem but still a problem--i.e. an enormous number, an overwhelming number of people we had never heard of applied--and so to simply find out enough information to make the right kind of sort has taken an enormous amount of time," Rudenstine said.

Though Rudenstine named Provost Albert Carnesale's replacement only 28 days after the formal announcement of Carnesale's acceptance of another post, the general counsel search continues into its sixth month.

The length of the search suggests that the position will be filled with someone outside the University, as

Rudenstine's internal searches have generally taken a matter of weeks.

The position has been vacant since October when former General Counsel Margaret H. Marshall was named to the Massachusetts Supreme Court.

"There cannot be an exact date, but given where we started three months ago, we now have a manageable set of people to work with," Rudenstine said.

The Crimson first reported on the search in early November, making the date closer to five months.

This month's issue of reported that Harvard's four vice-presidents were travelling the country conducting the final interviews, but sources in Mass. Hall said yesterday that they had not gone on such trips.

Harvard's search is being run by two high-level University officials, Secretary of the University Michael W. Roberts and Assistant to the President Marc L. Goodheart, both of whom did not return repeated phone calls yesterday.

Columbia University, which also just completed a search for a General Counsel, used an outside search firm to attract and sort through more than 500 applications.

To produce its original 400 person list, Harvard canvassed alumni and legal professionals across the country and advertised the position in the Chronicle of Higher Education, The New York Times, the Wall Street Journal and the Harvard Gazette.

The General Counsel manages a team of 11 attorneys and oversees the Harvard University Police Department.

Marshall had been Harvard's top litigator since Rudenstine appointed her General Counsel in October 1992