Distinguished Speakers

John Manning

Interim Provost, Harvard University
Dean Emeritus, Harvard Law School
Morgan and Helen Chu Dean and Professor of Law (on leave)
Vice President, Board of Trustees, Advantage Testing Foundation
J.D., magna cum laude, Harvard Law School
B.A., summa cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa, Harvard College

John F. Manning is Harvard University’s interim provost and the Morgan and Helen Chu Dean and Professor of Law at Harvard Law School (on leave). He joined the HLS faculty in 2004 and was Bruce Bromley Professor of Law from 2007 to 2017 and Deputy Dean from 2013 to 2017. Prior to coming to Harvard, John was the Michael I. Sovern Professor of Law at Columbia Law School, where he began teaching in 1994. John teaches administrative law, federal courts, legislation and regulation, separation of powers, and statutory interpretation. His writing focuses on statutory interpretation and structural constitutional law. 

John is a co-editor of Hart & Wechsler’s Federal Courts and the Federal System (6th ed., 2009) (with Richard Fallon, Daniel Meltzer, and David Shapiro) and Legislation and Regulation (2nd ed., 2013) (with Matthew Stephenson). 

Prior to entering teaching, John served as an assistant to the Solicitor General in the U.S. Department of Justice (1991–94), an associate in the D.C. office of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher (1989–91), and an attorney-advisor in the Office of Legal Counsel in the U.S. Department of Justice (1986–88). He served as a law clerk to Honorable Antonin Scalia on the Supreme Court of the United States (1988–89) and to Honorable Robert H. Bork on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit (1985–86). Manning graduated from Harvard Law School in 1985 and Harvard College in 1982. He is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.