Paul Brest

Paul A. Brest
Brest in 2013
Dean of Stanford Law School
In office
January 2024 – June 17, 2024
Preceded byJenny S. Martinez
Succeeded byGeorge Triantis
In office
1987–1999
Preceded byJohn Hart Ely
Succeeded byKathleen M. Sullivan
Personal details
Born1940 (age 84–85)
EducationSwarthmore College (BA)
Harvard University (LLB)

Paul Brest (born 1940) is an American legal scholar. He is professor emeritus at Stanford Law School, where he served as dean from 1987 to 1999. After retiring as dean, he became president of the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation.[1] From 2000-2012, and then returned to Stanford, where he currently teaches.[2] Brest is recognized for his work in constitutional law, philanthropy, impact investing, and nonprofit strategy.[3]

Family

Brest is the son of Alexander Brest, a civil engineer[4], and Mia Glazer, who involuntarily emigrated from Vienna, Austria in 1938.[5] His brother Peter is retired from a career managing social welfare organizations. [6]

He has been married to Iris Lang Brest, whom he met at Swarthmore College, since 1962. [7] They have two children: Hilary Meltzer, Chief of the Environmental Law Division of the New York City Law Department[8], and Jeremy Brest, Managing Partner of Framework Capital Solutions.[9] They have five grandchildren.

Education and early career

Brest received his Bachelor of Arts degree from Swarthmore College in 1962 and his Bachelor of Laws from Harvard Law School in 1965.[10]

Following law school, Brest clerked for Judge Bailey Aldrich of the Court of Appeals for the First Circuit and for Justice John Marshall Harlan II of the Supreme Court of the United States.[2] He also practiced as a civil rights litigator with the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund in Mississippi.[2]

Academic career

Brest joined the faculty of Stanford Law School in 1969.[11] He was a visiting professor at Yale Law School for the 1977-78 academic year, and a fellow at the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences during the 1983-84 academic year.[10] He served as Dean of Stanford Law School from 1987 until 1999. After a brief sabbatical, he became president of the Hewlett Foundation.[2]

Brest returned to Stanford Law School in 2012. He is the faculty co-director of the Effective Philanthropy Learning Initiative[12] at the Stanford Center on Philanthropy and Civil Society, and a lecturer at the Stanford Graduate School of Business.

In addition to graduate-level courses on philanthropy, nonprofit strategy, impact investing, and academic freedom, he teaches two undergraduate courses: Democracy and Disagreement (together with Debra Satz, Dean of the School of Humanities and Sciences) and Citizenship in the 21st Century, a freshman course.[13] He also directs numerous policy practicums through the Stanford Law and Policy Lab.[2]

Between 1983 and 1984, Brest served as a fellow of the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences; he is now the chairman of the board of directors.[14] Brest is also the faculty co-director of the Stanford Center on Philanthropy and Civil Society, and he serves as a lecturer at the Stanford Graduate School of Business.[14] He served briefly as interim Dean of Stanford Law School from January 2024 until June 2024.[15]

Academic work

Brest has made contributions to the fields of constitutional law, legal theory, decision-making, philanthropy, and social change strategy. Across his career, his scholarship has combined theoretical rigor with practical application, influencing multiple domains including legal education and philanthropic and nonprofit strategy.[3]

Constitutional law

Brest’s early scholarship (1966–1987) focused on constitutional law, where he addressed foundational issues such as constitutional interpretation and the role of legislative motivation, as well as race discrimination and affirmative action. Notable works include the casebook, Processes of Constitutional Decisionmaking[16], which he wrote in 1975 and to which he later added Sanford Levinson and others as co-authors, and influential articles such as “Palmer v. Thompson: An Approach to the Problem of Unconstitutional Motivation,” (1971 Supreme Court Review)[17], “Foreword: In Defense of the Antidiscrimination Principle” (Harvard Law Review, 1976)[18], and “The Misconceived Quest for the Original Understanding” (Boston University Law Review, 1980). [19]He is credited with coining the term “originalism” in the last of these articles, which argued that it was a poor strategy for constitutional interpretation.[20]

Related to his expertise in constitutional law, Brest played a major role in drafting Stanford’s first Statement on Academic Freedom in 1974.[21]

Honors

Brest is an elected fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.[10] He is one of the 50 most-cited legal scholars of all-time and the author of two of the 100 most-cited law review articles of all time.[22] Brest holds honorary degrees from Northwestern University School of Law and Swarthmore College.[10]

Selected publications

  • Paul Brest, Sanford Levinson, J.M. Balkin and Akhil Reed Amar, Reva B. Siegel, Processes of Constitutional Decision-Making, New York: Aspen, 5th ed., 2010 Supplement, 2010.
  • Paul Brest and Linda Hamilton Krieger, Problem Solving, Decision Making, and Professional Judgment: A Guide for Lawyers and Policymakers, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010.
  • Paul Brest and George Lowenstein, In Defense of Fear, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, July 12, 2009, pg. B1.
  • Paul Brest and Hal Harvey, Dealing with Hard Times: Advice for Foundations, Chronicle of Philanthropy, November 13, 2008.
  • Paul Brest and Hal Harvey, Money Well Spent: A Strategic Plan for Smart Philanthropy, New York: Bloomberg Press, October 2008.
  • Paul Brest, California's Diversity Legislation is Misguided, The Chronicle of Philanthropy, March 6, 2008.
  • Paul Brest, Sanford Levinson, J.M. Balkin and Akhil Reed Amar, Processes of Constitutional Decision-Making, New York: Aspen, 5th ed., 2007 Supplement, 2007.
  • Paul Brest, Sanford Levinson, J.M. Balkin, Akhil Reed Amar and Reva B. Siegel, Processes of Constitutional Decisionmaking: Cases and Materials, New York: Aspen Publishers, 5th ed., 2006.
  • Paul Brest, Preface: How This Symposium Came About, 97 Northwestern University Law Review 1079-1080 (Spring 2003).
  • Paul Brest, Some Comments on Grutter v. Bollinger, 51 Drake Law Review 683-696 (2003).

See also

References

  1. ^ "Paul Brest | Stanford Law School". Archived from the original on 2011-07-20. Retrieved 2011-03-13.
  2. ^ a b c d e "Paul Brest Biography". law.stanford.edu. Stanford Law School. Retrieved July 18, 2015.
  3. ^ a b Shapiro, Ari (June 23, 2009). "Conservatives Have 'Originalism'; Liberals Have ... ?". npr.org. NPR. Retrieved July 18, 2015.
  4. ^ "ALEXANDER BREST". Orlando Sentinel. 1996-09-05. Retrieved 2025-08-18.
  5. ^ "MIA GLAZER Obituary (2012) - New York, NY - New York Times". Legacy.com. Retrieved 2025-08-18.
  6. ^ "Interview with Peter Brest | The LREI Eighth Grade Citizen Action Project". blog.lrei.org. Retrieved 2025-08-18.
  7. ^ "Paul Brest and Iris Brest Oral History". ldfrecollection.org. Retrieved 2025-08-18.
  8. ^ "CORPORATION COUNSEL NAMES NEW DIVISION CHIEFS". The official website of the City of New York. 2019-01-22. Retrieved 2025-08-18.
  9. ^ "Jeremy Brest". Framework Capital Solutions. Retrieved 2025-08-18.
  10. ^ a b c d "Paul Brest | Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences". casbs.stanford.edu. Retrieved 2025-08-18.
  11. ^ "Hewlett Foundation President Paul Brest to Deliver Keynote Speech at Laney College Commencement Ceremony". 18 May 2010.
  12. ^ "Faculty and Senior Staff". Stanford PACS. Retrieved 2025-08-18.
  13. ^ "Democracy and Disagreement | Stanford School of Humanities and Sciences". humsci.stanford.edu. Retrieved 2025-08-18.
  14. ^ a b "Board". casbs.org. Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences. Retrieved July 18, 2015.
  15. ^ University, Stanford (2024-01-08). "Transition in law school interim leadership announced". Stanford Report. Retrieved 2024-01-09.
  16. ^ Monaghan, Henry (1977-01-01). "Processes of Constitutional Decisionmaking: Cases and Materials". Harv. L. Rev. 90: 1362.
  17. ^ Brest, Paul (1971). "Palmer v. Thompson: An Approach to the Problem of Unconstitutional Legislative Motive". The Supreme Court Review. 1971: 95–146. ISSN 0081-9557.
  18. ^ Brest, Paul (1976). "The Supreme Court, 1975 Term". Harvard Law Review. 90 (1): 1–282. doi:10.2307/1340306. ISSN 0017-811X.
  19. ^ School, Stanford Law. "The Misconceived Quest for the Original Understanding". Stanford Law School. Retrieved 2025-08-18.
  20. ^ Greif, Kristen (2016-02-23). "Who Invented Originalism?". History News Network. Retrieved 2025-08-18.
  21. ^ Paul Brest, Policies Protecting Academic Freedom at Stanford https://law.stanford.edu/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/Paul-Brest-Policies-Protecting-Academic-Freedom-at-Stanford-July-2-2025.pdf
  22. ^ Shapiro, Fred R. (2000). "The Most Cited Legal Scholars". The Journal of Legal Studies. 29 (S1): 409–426. doi:10.1086/468080. ISSN 0047-2530. {{cite journal}}: no-break space character in |first= at position 5 (help)
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