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Kannon Shanmugam elected to Harvard’s senior governing board
An Indian American attorney, Shanmugam will assume the role on Jul. 1.
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Pranavi Sharma - Sat, 31, May 2025
- 02:30 EDT
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Kannon K. Shanmugam. / Harvard
Kannon K. Shanmugam, a prominent appellate lawyer and alumnus of Harvard College and Harvard Law School, has been elected to the Harvard Corporation, the university’s senior governing board. Harvard announced the decision on May 30.
Shanmugam, who is of Indian origin, will begin his term on Jul. 1, succeeding Theodore V. Wells Jr., who is stepping down after 12 years of service.
Born and raised in Kansas, Shanmugam is the son of Indian immigrants. His father, Kumarasamy "Sam" Shanmugam, was a professor of electrical engineering at the University of Kansas. Kannon Shanmugam graduated from Lawrence High School at age 16 as co-valedictorian and went on to earn his A.B. summa cum laude in classics from Harvard in 1993. He later received a Master of Letters from Oxford as a Marshall Scholar and earned his J.D. magna cum laude from Harvard Law School in 1998.
Shanmugam is a partner at the law firm Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison, where he chairs the firm’s Supreme Court and Appellate Litigation Practice and serves as the head of its Washington, D.C. office. He has argued 39 cases before the U.S. Supreme Court and more than 150 appeals in courts across the country.
In a message to the Harvard community, University president Alan Garber and Senior Fellow Penny Pritzker cited Shanmugam’s “deep devotion to Harvard and to the importance of academic values and academic freedom.”
“Kannon Shanmugam is one of the nation’s most accomplished and admired appellate attorneys, who has also served an array of educational institutions,” Garber and Pritzker said. “Beyond his extensive experience counseling and representing major organizations in complex matters, he is known for his intellectual acuity and curiosity, his remarkable work ethic, his warm and collegial manner, his adroitness in engaging people with varied points of view, and his commitment to academic excellence,” Harvard Gazette stated.
Shanmugam told the Harvard Gazette, “My reason for agreeing to serve is simple: I owe everything to Harvard. Harvard gave me opportunities I never would have had, and it exposed me to different people and new ideas,” he told Harvard Gazette.
He added that “I look forward to doing my part to help Harvard meet those challenges and to make the University a better, stronger place for the future.”
He clerked for Judge J. Michael Luttig of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit and for Justice Antonin Scalia on the U.S. Supreme Court. He has also taught Supreme Court advocacy at Georgetown Law and is an elected member of the American Law Institute.
The Harvard Corporation, formally known as the President and Fellows of Harvard College, was established in 1650 and oversees the University’s academic, financial, and institutional operations. Its members are appointed by vote of the Corporation with the consent of the board of overseers. With Shanmugam’s election, he becomes part of the 13-member body responsible for Harvard’s long-term strategic planning and governance.
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