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Kannon K. Shanmugam ’93, a prominent appellate attorney with strong Republican ties, will join the Harvard Corporation on July 1, the University announced on Thursday.
Shanmugam was elected by the Corporation and confirmed by the Board of Overseers — the University’s two governing bodies. He will succeed Theodore V. Wells Jr., who has served on the Corporation for more than 12 years.
Shanmugam will join biochemist Richard P. Lifton as a new member of the Corporation this summer.
Shanmugam, a former member of the Office of the Solicitor General in the George W. Bush administration’s Department of Justice, is currently a partner at Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison. He has argued 39 cases before the United States Supreme Court and more than 150 cases in courts across the country.
His appointment comes as Harvard is entangled in two lawsuits against the Trump administration — both of which are likely to go up to the Supreme Court level, according to experts.
Shanmugam is a frequent speaker at events held by the Federalist Society, a national conservative law organization. He also clerked for the late Justice Antonin Scalia of the Supreme Court, a prominent originalist and mainstay of the court’s conservative wing.
Harvard President Alan M. Garber ’76 and Corporation Senior Fellow Penny S. Pritzker ’81 wrote in a press release that Shanmugam would provide “fresh perspectives and valuable insights” to the Corporation. The two also expressed their “profound gratitude” towards Wells and praised his “formidable legal expertise.”
Shanmugam, like most members of the Corporation, maintains strong ties to Harvard. He graduated from Harvard College with a degree in classics and served as the editor in chief of the Harvard Independent, a weekly undergraduate newspaper. He then went on to Harvard Law School, where he served as executive editor for the Harvard Law Review.
“My reason for agreeing to serve is simple: I owe everything to Harvard. Harvard gave
me opportunities I never would have had, and it exposed me to different people and new ideas,” Shanmugam wrote in the press release.
Shanmugam acknowledged that Harvard is currently going through a difficult time and facing substantial challenges, but affirmed that the University does “so much good for the world.”
“Harvard is one of our nation’s most important institutions, and when an institution has problems, I believe the solution is to work constructively to fix the problems, while holding true to its foundational commitment to academic excellence,” he wrote.
Paul, Weiss, where Shanmugam is a partner, is one of several major law firms that cut deals with President Donald Trump after he threatened to cut off their lawyers’ access to many federal proceedings. The firm offered to do $40 million in pro bono work for causes supported by Trump.
The firm’s capitulation — which caused an exodus of prominent partners within the firm and sparked fears that law firms would readily relinquish their independence — struck a stark contrast with Harvard’s later decision to defy demands from the Trump administration.
Wells, who Shanmugam will replace, is also a Paul, Weiss partner.
Shanmugam has maintained strong connections to education during his law career. He taught Supreme Court advocacy at Georgetown University Law Center. He was also the chair of the board of trustees at Thurgood Marshall Academy, a charter high school in Washington, D.C.
Shanmugam will serve a six-year term on the Corporation with the possibility of extending his tenure.
Correction: May 30, 2025
A previous version of this article incorrectly stated that Kannon K. Shanmugam graduated from Harvard College in 1998. In fact, Shanmugam graduated in 1993.
—Staff writer Grace E. Yoon can be reached at grace.yoon@thecrimson.com. Follow her on X @graceunkyoon.
