John F. Manning

John Francis Manning (born April 11, 1961) is an American legal scholar who serves as the 13th Dean of Harvard Law School.

As of March 2024, Manning is on a leave of absence from his deanship after being appointed as the interim provost of Harvard University.

He was previously the Bruce Bromley Professor of Law at Harvard Law School (HLS), where he is a scholar of administrative and constitutional law.

Manning received his undergraduate and legal education at Harvard University.

After clerking for Judge Robert Bork and Justice Antonin Scalia, he was named the Michael I. Sovern Professor of Law at Columbia University.

Manning was born on April 11, 1961, in Los Angeles, California.

He matriculated at Harvard College, where he was a resident of Quincy House, as a history major.

He graduated with a Bachelor of Arts (B.A.), summa cum laude, in 1982 with membership in Phi Beta Kappa.

Manning then attended Harvard Law School, graduating in 1985 and obtaining his Juris Doctor (J.D.), magna cum laude.

Following law school, he served as a law clerk to Judge Robert Bork at the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit from 1985 to 1986.

From 1986 to 1988, Manning was an attorney-advisor at the Office of Legal Counsel of the U.S. Department of Justice.

He was admitted to the bar of Pennsylvania in 1986, and to the bar of California in 1990.

He left to clerk for Justice Antonin Scalia at the Supreme Court of the United States during the 1988–1989 term.

In 1989, Manning became an associate attorney at the law firm of Gibson Dunn in Washington, D.C. He left the firm to serve as an assistant to the Solicitor General of the United States at the Justice Department from 1991 until 1994, when he began teaching at Columbia Law School, becoming the school's Michael I. Sovern Professor of Law.

He was the co-editor of two notable casebooks: Hart and Wechsler’s Federal Courts and the Federal System as well as Legislation and Regulation. Manning's scholarship persuaded Justice Antonin Scalia to reconsider his majority opinion in Auer v. Robbins (1997).

Manning was considered as a possible candidate by the Harvard Corporation to be President of Harvard University, though ultimately the position went to Claudine Gay instead.

On March 1, 2024, Harvard interim president Alan Garber announced that Manning would serve as the university's interim provost beginning on March 14, with John C.P. Goldberg taking Manning's place as acting dean.

Manning has received the American Bar Association's Award for Scholarship in Administrative Law, and won twice the Willis Reese Prize for Excellence in Teaching of Columbia University.

Manning became a visiting professor at Harvard Law School in 2002, and was named a professor there in 2004.

He was invited to join the law school by dean Elena Kagan as part of an effort to increase conservative members of the faculty.

Manning's hiring came among a new series of public legal scholars, also including Jack Goldsmith and Adrian Vermeule.

He received the school's appointment as its Bruce Bromley Professor of Law in 2007 and remained in that capacity until 2017.

In 2013, he became the deputy-dean of Harvard Law School.

On April 30, 2013, Manning was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

After the University of Arizona's James E. Rogers College of Law began accepting Graduate Record Examinations (GRE) results for student admission in 2016, Manning influenced Harvard Law's decision to also accept the GRE for admission, which the school announced in March 2017.

Manning moved to Harvard Law in 2002, becoming its deputy-dean, and assumed the deanship on July 1, 2017, succeeding Martha Minow.

Martha Minow, the 12th dean of HLS, announced her intention to retire from the deanship on January 5, 2017, at the end of the academic year.

After a selection process conducted by Harvard president Drew Gilpin Faust and a faculty committee, it was announced on June 1, 2017, that Manning would serve as the next Dean of Harvard Law School.

He assumed the position on July 1, 2017.

His appointment to the role as Minow's successor was praised by former dean Elena Kagan, who had become an associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court.

It was also endorsed by Danielle Allen, director of the Edmond J. Safra Center for Ethics, and Judge David J. Barron of the United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit.

Affinity groups on campus had opposed Manning's appointment, and they instead supported David B. Wilkins.

Manning is an authority in administrative law and structural constitutional law, and has argued nine cases before the Supreme Court.

Manning is also an expert on issues concerning separation of powers.

He teaches administrative law, federal courts, legislation and regulation, separation of powers, and statutory interpretation.

He was elected as a member of the American Law Institute on August 1, 2018.