Paul Brest

Paul Brest and Molly Van Houweling

Paul Brest is an American scholar of constitutional law, a former president of the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, and a former dean of Stanford Law School. He is an influential theorist on the role of non-profit organizations in society, and is widely credited with coining the name originalism to describe a particular approach to interpreting the United States Constitution.

Biography

Brest attended Swarthmore College and Harvard Law School, and clerked for Judge Bailey Aldrich of the Court of Appeals for the First Circuit and Justice John M. Harlan of the Supreme Court of the United States. In 1969 he joined the faculty of Stanford Law School, serving as Dean from 1987 until 1999, when he took up the presidency of the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation. At Stanford, his work focused on constitutional law and judgment and decisionmaking in law; as of 2011, he teaches a course there on judgment and decisionmaking for policymakers. Between 1983 and 1984 Brest was a fellow of the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences; he is now a member of the board.

Brest holds honorary degrees from Northeastern Law School and Swarthmore College. He is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He has done civil rights litigation in Mississippi with the NAACP, and has blogged for the Huffington Post.

Works

• 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).