“I don’t think we’ve started a process here that is something rather destined to end with a product,” said Walmsley University Professor Frank I. Michelman, who chairs a five-person subcommittee that will draft the policy.

“Instinctively, I’m pretty skeptical,” he said.

Michelman added thathis subcomittee, which was created a few weeks ago and may take the rest of the year to adopt a position, could propose anything from a broad statement of goals to a more specific prohibition of certain types of “personal hounding.”

Clark said in a statement that he had “grave reservations” about any potential speech policy, which would need to win the approval of the full Law School Faculty.

“I have never thought we would end up with a speech code or were starting toward a speech code,” added Ames Professor of Law Philip B. Heymann, who serves on the committee.

But Anthony J. Phillips, a second-year law student and member of the Michelman subcommittee, said he wants to make sure that the committee’s decision recognizes the impact of race on how a student looks at a certain court case or experiences the law.

“I think it would be too bad if the opportunity were lost in some cloud of ‘This is about quieting speech,’” he said. “I don’t think this is about quieting speech.”

Todd D. Rakoff ’67, Byrne Professor of Administrative Law and Dean of the J.D. Program, said the committee is also discussing the creation of an office of multicultural affairs as well as the school’s admissions policy and teaching strategies and that discussion of the speech code was only a small part of the two-hour meeting Monday night.

—Staff writer Elisabeth S. Theodore can be reached at theodore@fas.harvard.edu.