U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren and Harvard Law Professor and Legal Historian Bruce H. Mann to Receive Honorary Degrees at 2023 Commencement of the Elisabeth Haub School of Law at Pace University
The Elisabeth Haub School of Law at Pace University is pleased to announce that U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren will deliver the Law School’s commencement address at its 45th Commencement Ceremony, to be held on May 15, 2023 at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in Queens. Senator Warren and Harvard Law Professor and Legal Historian Bruce H. Mann will both receive the Doctor of Laws, honoris causa, the highest honor conferred by the Law School, recognizing their lifelong contributions to public service and the legal profession.
“We are honored that Senator Warren and Professor Mann will join the Law School’s 2023 Commencement Ceremony,” said Horace E. Anderson Jr., Dean of the Elisabeth Haub School of Law. “Senator Warren has had a distinguished career as a law professor and, in her current role as senior Senator from Massachusetts, is one of the nation’s leading voices advocating for common sense policies to support the middle class. Professor Mann is an award-winning professor and legal scholar whose work has impacted many lives, including my own law school journey. Both have made significant individual contributions to the legal profession during their careers. Together, they represent the diverse paths and opportunities that are available to those who choose to use their legal education to pursue their passions and make an impact on society.”
Senator Elizabeth Warren was elected to the United States Senate on November 6, 2012, by the people of Massachusetts, becoming the first woman to represent the Commonwealth in the Senate. She is recognized as one of the nation's top experts on bankruptcy and the financial pressures facing middle class families. She is widely credited for the creative thinking and relentless persistence that led to the creation of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
In the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis, Senator Warren served as Chair of the Congressional Oversight Panel for the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP). Her independent and tireless efforts to protect taxpayers, to promote stability in the financial services sector, and to ensure tough oversight of both the Bush and Obama Administrations won praise from both sides of the aisle.
Prior to her election to the United States Senate, Senator Warren was a law professor for more than 30 years, including nearly 20 years as the Leo Gottlieb Professor of Law at Harvard Law School. The graduating class at Harvard twice recognized her with the Sacks-Freund Award for excellence in teaching. She taught courses on commercial law, contracts, and bankruptcy and wrote more than a hundred articles and ten books, including three national best-sellers, A Fighting Chance, The Two-Income Trap, and All Your Worth. National Law Journal named her one of the Most Influential Lawyers of the Decade, TIME Magazine has named her one of the 100 most influential people in the world four times, and she has been honored by the Massachusetts Women's Bar Association with the Lelia J. Robinson Award.
Senator Warren is a graduate of the University of Houston and received her law degree from Rutgers School of Law.
Professor Bruce H. Mann is an American legal scholar and legal historian who has been teaching at Harvard Law School since 2006, where he is the Carl F. Schipper, Jr. Professor of Law. He teaches courses in American Legal History and Property. His research focuses on the relationship among legal, social, and economic change in the American Revolutionary era.
Professor Mann’s academic career includes visiting or permanent professor positions at Washington University in St. Louis, University of Connecticut School of Law, University of Houston Law Center, University of Texas School of Law, University of Michigan Law School, University of Pennsylvania Law School, and Princeton University. He has received five teaching awards—one at Washington University and four at the University of Pennsylvania, including the university-wide Christian R. and Mary F. Lindback Foundation Award for Distinguished Teaching.
Professor Mann is the author of Republic of Debtors: Bankruptcy in the Age of American Independence (2002), which received the SHEAR Book Prize from the Society for Historians of the Early American Republic, the Littleton-Griswold Prize from the American Historical Association, and the J. Willard Hurst Prize from the Law and Society Association. He is also the author of Neighbors and Strangers: Law and Community in Early Connecticut (1987) and multiple articles published in law reviews and history journals. He is the co-editor of the book The Many Legalities of Early America (2001). He is a Fellow of the Massachusetts Historical Society, an elected Member of the American Antiquarian Society, and a past President of the American Society for Legal History.
Professor Mann is a graduate of Brown University. He received his JD, MPhil and PhD from Yale University.
Senator Warren and Professor Mann have been married for 42 years and live in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
The Elisabeth Haub School of Law at Pace University Commencement Ceremony will be live-streamed at 9:45 a.m. EST on Monday, May 15, 2023. For more information, visit: www.law.pace.edu/commencement
About Elisabeth Haub School of Law at Pace University
Pace University’s Elisabeth Haub School of Law offers JD and Masters of Law degrees in both Environmental and International Law, as well as a Doctor of Juridical Science (SJD) in Environmental Law. The school, housed on the University’s campus in White Plains, NY, opened its doors in 1976 and has over 9,000 alumni around the world. The school maintains a unique philosophy and approach to legal education that strikes an important balance between practice and theory. Haub Law launched its Environmental Law Program in 1978, and it has long been ranked among the world’s leading university programs, with a current #1 ranking by U.S. News & World Report.
