Through persuasion, Clark was able to restart the flow of new appointments.

“In that atmosphere he was able to push appointments through, and in doing so dilute the factionalism by bringing in new people who didn’t care about it,” Fried said.

Dershowitz said despite Clark being more associated with the conservative camp, he was able to keep his own views in check and earned a reputation as even-handed.

Clark recalled lobbying colleaguesindividually for as much as 40 hours per tenure case—tirelessly “walking the halls” during those first several years.

The net result was that the appointment of 39 new tenure-track faculty—increasing the faculty size to 81 today— and, Fried and Dershowitz agree, a significant improvement to the school’s climate.

Money, Plans

Dershowitz said that Clark’s accomplishment in healing the faculty was tied into the other major success of the first half of his tenure—the completion in 1995 of a $183 million capital campaign.

The campaign was the biggest in HLS history, and, at the time, the largest campaign in the history of legal education.

In addition to paying for the growth of the faculty, the campaign allowed for the renovation and expansion of the school’s physical plant, improvements to the school’s financial aid and the broadening of its curriculum.

“He raised so much money that he didn’t have to make choices between the [ideological] camps,” Dershowitz said. “If it wasn’t all things for all people, then money at least didn’t provide an excuse for ideological tensions any more.”

Clark said the fundraising was physically exhausting, but agreed that it provided the foundation for many important changes.

While Clark’s soothing of faculty tensions and the improvements funded by the campaign both improved HLS as an educational institution, it is the accomplishments of the last part of his tenure, colleagues said, that most directly affect students.

“Toward the end of his deanship, he became very student-oriented,” said HLS Visiting Professor Dan Coquillette, who is writing a history of the Law School.

Clark lead the full faculty in a planning exercise that resulted in a strategic plan calling for—among other changes—a dramatic restructuring of HLS’ first-year (1L) program.

The size of 1L sections were last year cut by 60 students to 80, and students were grouped in “colleges” meant to stimulate both intellectual and social interaction.