With a strong background in constitutional law and the legal aspects of policymaking, he formerly worked as a law professor at the University of Michigan. He was chair of the Association of American Law Schools and vice president of the American Society for Political and Legal Philosophy.

One HLS faculty member says that Schauer’s name was mentioned very early on in the dean search.

“He is a natural candidate,” the professor says. “His wife is on the Law School faculty and he has great administrative experience from working as a dean at the Kennedy School.” “He seems much more plausible than most outside candidates that I have heard about because he is both familiar with the University and the Law School and he already knows the major players around here,” another professor says.

Dershowitz says that “Schauer is a definite possibility.”

Schauer was traveling in New York City and could not be reached for comment.

Among professors contacted for this story, reaction to these mainstream names was relatively positive.

But one rumored candidate sparked less tempered responses.

A number of professors say they heard Summers was interested in courting the controversial judge and self-proclaimed public intellectual, Posner.

“I’ve heard Judge Posner’s name around campus,” Murray says. “But we would all be surprised if he was even offered the deanship.”

“Judge Posner would be a disaster as dean of Harvard Law School,” one HLS professor says. “He is a lightning rod. The only good thing that would come out of him being dean would be that it would get him out of the court, and he would do less damage as a dean than as a judge.”

Posner would not confirm or deny whether he has been contacted about the dean search, though he, too, was at the Law School last week.

He did say, however, that he was uninterested in the job.

“In any case, I have never seriously considered the position because I would never quit my judgeship for it,” Posner says.

One official speculated that if Summers had indeed courted Posner, it was as an attempt to push others to think outside the box. He is the second sitting judge, after Marshall, to be mentioned as a candidate.

Although no formal deadline has been set for the completion of the search, HLS faculty say they think the end is in sight.