Several professors noted that they thought Kagan ran the Law School in the style of a government agency.
Kagan expanded the Law School faculty by about 10 percent during her tenure. She also pushed forward the building plans for Northwest Corner, and oversaw major curriculum overhaul with now-current Dean of the Law School Martha L. Minow.
Dershowitz said he believes that the institution improved under her term.
“She ran it like a university should be run,” he said.
Obama passed over federal appeals court Judges Diane P. Wood and Merrick B. Garland ’74, a member of the Harvard Board of Overseers, the other frontrunners for the position.
Kagan’s youth may also have been a significant factor in Obama’s choice, as Wood, 58, and Garland, 57, might have served shorter terms as Justices.
—Staff writer Zoe A. Y. Weinberg can be reached at zoe.weinberg@college.harvard.edu.