Freund, Paul A. (Paul Abraham), 1908-1992

Paul Abraham Freund, 1908-1992, was a preeminent legal scholar. Under the guidance of Professor Thomas Reed Powell, Felix Frankfurter and others, Freund became a standout student at Harvard Law School, and was elected as President of the Harvard Law Review from 1930-1931.

After receiving his S.J.D. magna cum laude in 1932, Freund spent a year as clerk to Supreme Court Justice, Louis Brandeis. He remained in Washington for the rest of the decade, working as a government lawyer in the Treasury Department (under Thomas Corcoran and Dean Acheson), Reconstruction Finance Corporation (under Stanley Reed), and finally in the Solicitor Generals Office (again with Stanley Reed, followed by Robert Jackson). In Washington, Freund argued before the United States Supreme Court and wrote briefs for New Deal cases such as gold clause and Tennessee Valley Authority.

Freund returned to Harvard in the fall of 1939 and began an academic career that would take up the rest of his life. (The only interruption was a return to the Department of Justice from 1942-1946.) He became a respected professor at the Law School and, after appointment as Carl M. Loeb University Professor in 1958, at Harvard College as well. Freund created a course for undergraduates, Social Sciences 137: "The Legal Process." It became so popular that he lectured to a packed Sanders Theater. His commitment to his role as teacher and writer was so great that when, in late 1960, a newly-elected John F. Kennedy offered him the Solicitor Generalship, Freund declined, stating his feeling that he could accomplish more for the public good from his post at Harvard.

Besides teaching, Freund’s main academic endeavor for a full 34 years of his life was as Editor of the History of the Supreme Court of the United States. This project was funded by money that Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes left to the United States Government after his death, known as the Holmes Devise. Freund oversaw the production of seven volumes but was not able to see the project to its completion.

During his tenure as professor, Freund vowed not to act as attorney on any cases. However, he did lend his expertise as an academic and advisor beyond the confines of Harvard. In the 1950s he aided Thurgood Marshall and the N.A.A.C.P. legal defense team with the school desegregation cases and was one of John F. Kennedy's team of advisors during his 1960 presidential campaign. Freund also took public stances on many contemporary issues including the Equal Rights Amendment, school prayer, presidential disability, and the elimination of the Electoral College.

In the 1970s Freund led a Federal Judicial Center study that produced the Report of the Study Group on the Caseload of the Supreme Court. Also known as the Freund Report, it recommended the formation of a National Court of Appeals to alleviate some of the Supreme Court's caseload. While Congress never enacted Freund’s recommendations, the report sparked a significant national debate that continues to the present day.

As a leading authority on the U.S. Constitution and the Supreme Court, Freund’s name was mentioned several times as a candidate for the Supreme Court. Freund was considered a top candidate for Supreme Court vacancies during both the Kennedy and Johnson administrations but was never nominated.

• 16 February 1908: Paul Abraham Freund (PAF) born to Charles J. and Hulda (Arenson) Freund
• 1919: PAF graduates from Wyman School in St. Louis at age 11
• 1923: Graduates from McKinley High School in St. Louis at age 15, ranking second in his class
• 1928: A.B. from Washington University
• 1928: Enters Harvard Law School
• 1930 - 1931 : Editor of Harvard Law Review
• 1931: LL.B. HLS
• 1932: S.J.D from HLS
• 1932 - 1933 : PAF clerks for United States Supreme Court Justice Louis Dembitz Brandeis
• June 1933: Takes position in the U.S. Treasury as an attorney in the office of Mr. Corcoran, Special Assistant to the Secretary (Dean Acheson, Undersecretary)
• December 1933: PAF moved to legal team of the Reconstruction Finance Corporation (RFC)
• 1934: PAF helps to write briefs for gold clause cases
• 18 February 1935: Government won private gold clause cases
• March 1935: Stanley Reed asks PAF to join him in the Solicitor General’s office
• 17 July 1936: Promoted from Attorney to Principal Attorney in the Office of the Solicitor General
• 15 February 1937: Appointed Special Assistant to the Attorney General [Homer S. Cummings], assigned to the Office of the Solicitor General
• November 1937: Argues his first case, White v. Aronson, before the United States Supreme Court. “Puzzle case” in which PAF makes a much-publicized quip about the U.S. Supreme Court being a puzzle. PAF loses the case.
• 1939: Appointed Lecturer in Law, Harvard Law School
• 1940: Appointed Professor of Law, Harvard Law School
• 3 October1941: Louis Dembitz Brandeis dies, PAF speaks at his memorial
• 1942: PAF returns to Washington D.C.; becomes Special Assistant to Attorney General Francis Biddle
• 28 December 1945: Resigns as Special Assistant to the Attorney General
• Fall 1945: Resumes teaching at Harvard Law School
• 1 July 1950: Appointed Charles Stebbins Fairchild Professor of Law
• 2 April 1951: PAF’s mother dies
• 1953 - 1954 : PAF part of group of legal advisors who advised Thurgood Marshall and the N.A.A.C.P. during school segregation cases
• 1954: LLD (honorary degree), Columbia University
• 9 March 1955: Elected to serve as a member of the N.A.A.C.P. National Legal Committee
• September 1956: PAF named Editor-in-Chief of Oliver Wendell Holmes Devise History of the Supreme Court of the United States
• 1956: LLD (honorary degree), University of Louisville, delivered lecture on Brandeis
• 1957: Appointed Royall Professor of Law
• September 1957 - March 1958 : PAF appointed Pitt Professor of American History and Institutions, Cambridge University, receives honorary M.A. from Cambridge
• February 1958: PAF appointed Carl M. Loeb University Professor
• November 1960: Kennedy offers PAF Solicitor Generalship, PAF declines
• 1961: LLD (honorary degree), University of Chicago and LHD (honorary degree), Hebrew Union College
• October 1962: Elected to membership on the Board of Directors for Washington University
• 1964: Elected President of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, 1964-1967
• April 1964: PAF’s sister, Virginia dies
• 1964: LLD (honorary degree), Boston University
• 1964: Teaches at summer session, University of Colorado Boulder
• 1968: LittD (honorary degree), Cornell College
• 1968: DCL (honorary degree), Union College
• 1969: Teaches for year at Stanford’s Center for Advanced Studies in Behavioral Sciences
• 1969: Appointed chair of the Committee of Five formed in response to possible misconduct by Harvard teaching staff during student occupation of University Hall
• June 1969: Receives honorary Doctor of Laws from Tufts and delivers commencement address
• 1970: LLD (honorary degree), Queens University, Ontario
• 1971: Elected to membership in the Institute of Medicine
• 1972: Report of the Study Group on the Caseload of the Supreme Court, i.e. Freund Commission released
• 1972: LLD (honorary degree), Brown University
• 1972: LLD (honorary degree), Yale
• 1973: LittD (honorary degree), Bates College
• 1973: LittD (honorary degree), Temple University
• 1974: LLD (honorary degree), Brandeis University
• 1974: LLD (honorary degree), Williams College
• 1975: LittD (honorary degree), Yeshiva University
• 1976: Retires-becomes emeritus
• 1977: LLD (honorary degree), Clark University
• 1977: LLD (honorary degree), Harvard University
• 1978: Awarded Learned Hand Medal for excellence in Federal Jurisprudence by Federal Bar Council
• 1978: HHD (honorary degree), Stonehill College
• 1978: Stanley Katz becomes co-editor of Supreme Court History
• December 1978: Attends International Congress of Jewish Lawyers in Jerusalem
• 1981: LLD (honorary degree), University of Bologna
• 1982: LLD (honorary degree), Georgetown University
• 1986: Receives Harvard Medal at 350th Celebration
• 1989: Awarded the Henry J. Friendly Award by ALI for distinguished achievement in the law
• 1990: “Quits” as Supreme Court History editor
• 1990: Honorary member of Order of the Coif
• February 5 1992: PAF dies of cancer

From the guide to the Papers, 1918-1993, (Harvard Law School Library, Harvard University)