To the editor:

I was saddened by the news account of protests at the Brandeis ceremony where Law School Dean Martha Minow received a well-deserved award for her scholarship in human rights. While I share many of the concerns of the Reclaim Harvard Law students who led the protest—particularly their concerns about the Law School's shield (the Royall family coat of arms) and the racial bias (both subtle and overt) that infects our society, our legal system, and legal education—Dean Minow deserves credit for being one of the first leaders at the Law School to take these concerns seriously. She has the unenviable job of managing a lot of competing concerns and guiding the Law School through a thoughtful process in which all voices are heard. As a Law School alum and an HLS Lecturer on Law, I applaud her efforts to make the Law School a place where everyone—students, staff, faculty, and alumni—is treated with respect.

David A. Hoffman, a 1984 graduate of Harvard Law School, is a lecturer at Harvard Law School.