Harvard Law School Cleared of Discrimination Charge Against Jewish Graduates

The Law School of Harvard University was cleared yesterday by the Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination of a charge that the school discriminated against Jewish graduates in job placements.

The commission began an investigation of the complaint last February in response to an article in the Harvard Law Record of December 1 which suggested that Jewish law graduates might have trouble in getting jobs in Anglo-Saxon firms. The article quoted Miss Eleanor Appel, head of the law school placement office, as asserting that “there is no question that the Jewish boy is slower to receive an offer for employment than a Gentile.”

The commission said that Miss Appel was unable to name any firms which did practice such discrimination. The commission report, which also absolved the placement office, included a letter from Dean Erwin Griswold of the law school to firms which hire Harvard graduates. The letter said that the law school did not knowingly discriminate and would not knowingly deal with any firm that did. The dean wrote also he hoped his letter would “make it very clear” where the Harvard Law School stood on the issue.

Soon after the Law Record article appeared. Dean Griswold named a three-man faculty committee to evaluate placement and other procedures affecting graduates.