List of Yale Law School alumni

This is a list of notable alumni of Yale Law School, the law school of the American Yale University, located in New Haven, Connecticut. (For a list of notable Yale University graduates, see the list of Yale University people.) Records are kept by the Association of Yale Alumni.

All degrees listed below are LL.B. (the primary professional degree in law conferred by Yale Law School until 1971) or J.D. (the primary professional degree in law conferred since 1971), unless noted otherwise.

Yale Law's three–year J.D. (LL.B., prior to 1971) program enrolls an incoming class of approximately 200 students, one of the smallest incoming class sizes of all top law schools.

Law and government




U.S. presidents

 * Gerald Ford (1941), 38th President of the United States, 1974–1977
 * Bill Clinton (1973), 42nd President of the United States, 1993–2001

U.S. attorneys general

 * Herbert Brownell Jr. (1927), 62nd U.S. Attorney General, 1953–1957
 * Homer Stille Cummings (1893), 55th U.S. Attorney General, 1933–1939
 * Nicholas Katzenbach (1947), 65th U.S. Attorney General, 1965–1966
 * Peter Keisler (1985), acting U.S. Attorney General, 2007
 * Edward H. Levi (1938), 71st U.S. Attorney General, 1975–1977
 * Wayne MacVeagh (1856), 36th U.S. Attorney General, 1881
 * Michael B. Mukasey (1967), 81st U.S. Attorney General, 2007–2009
 * Edwards Pierrepont (1840), 33rd U.S. Attorney General, 1875–1876
 * Alphonso Taft (1838), 34th U.S. Attorney General, 1876–1877

U.S. solicitors general

 * Drew S. Days, III (1966), 40th U.S. Solicitor General, 1993–1996
 * Walter E. Dellinger III (1966), Acting Solicitor General, 1996–1997
 * Neal Katyal (1995), Acting Solicitor General, 2010–2011
 * Thomas D. Thacher (did not graduate), 21st U.S. Solicitor General, 1930–1933
 * Seth P. Waxman (1977), 41st U.S. Solicitor General, 1997–2001

Other cabinet and cabinet-level officials

 * Clifford Alexander Jr. (1958), 13th Secretary of the Army, 1977–1981
 * Alex Azar (1991), 24th Secretary of Health and Human Services, 2018–2021
 * John R. Bolton (1974), 25th U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, 2005–2006
 * John Bryson (1969), 37th Secretary of Commerce, 2011–2012
 * Hillary Clinton (1973), 67th Secretary of State, 2009–2013
 * Greg Craig (1972), 33rd White House Counsel, 2009–2010
 * Lloyd Cutler (1939), 25th White House Counsel, 1994
 * John Danforth (1963), 24th U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, 2004–2005
 * Richard Danzig (1971), 71st Secretary of the Navy, 1998–2001
 * Henry H. Fowler (1932), 58th Secretary of the Treasury, 1965–1968
 * Gordon Gray (1933), 2nd Secretary of the Army, 1949–1950
 * Carla Anderson Hills (1958), 5th Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, 1975–1977
 * John King Jr., Secretary of Education, 2015–2017
 * Victor H. Metcalf (1876), 2nd Secretary of Commerce and Labor, 1904–1906; 38th Secretary of the Navy, 1906–1908
 * Gina Raimondo (1998), 40th Secretary of Commerce, 2021-
 * Robert Reich (1973), 22nd Secretary of Labor, 1993–1997
 * Stanley Rogers Resor (1942), 9th Secretary of the Army, 1965–1971
 * Robert Rubin (1964), 70th Secretary of the Treasury, 1995–1999
 * Gene Sperling (1985), Director of the National Economic Council, 1996–2000, 2011–2014
 * Alphonso Taft (1838), 31st Secretary of War, 1876
 * Cyrus Vance (1942), 57th Secretary of State, 1977–1980
 * Christopher A. Wray (1992), 8th Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, 2017–present
 * Eugene M. Zuckert (1936), 7th Secretary of the Air Force, 1961–1965
 * Jake Sullivan (2003), 28th National Security Advisor, 2021-present

Senators

 * Raymond E. Baldwin (1921), U.S. Senator (R-Connecticut), 1946–1949
 * Thomas F. Bayard, Jr. (1893), U.S. Senator (D-Delaware), 1922–1929
 * Michael Bennet (1993), U.S. Senator (D-Colorado), 2009–present
 * Richard Blumenthal (1973), U.S. Senator (D-Connecticut), 2011–present
 * Cory Booker (1997), U.S. Senator (D-New Jersey), 2013–present, 36th mayor of Newark, New Jersey, 2006–2013
 * James L. Buckley (1950), U.S. Senator (R-New York), 1971–1977
 * Hillary Clinton (1973), U.S. Senator (D-New York), 2001–2009
 * Chris Coons (1992), U.S. Senator (D-Delaware), 2010–present
 * John A. Danaher (1922), U.S. Senator (R-Connecticut), 1939–1945
 * John Danforth (1961), U.S. Senator (R-Missouri), 1976–1995
 * David Davis (1835), U.S. Senator (R-Illinois), 1877–1883
 * Thomas J. Dodd (1933), U.S. Senator (D-Connecticut), 1959–1971
 * Peter H. Dominick (1940), U.S. Senator (R-Colorado), 1963–1975
 * Charles Goodell (1951), U.S. Senator (R-New York), 1968–1971
 * Gary Hart (1964), U.S. Senator (D-Colorado), 1975–1987
 * Josh Hawley (2006), U.S. Senator (R-Missouri), 2019–present
 * Estes Kefauver (1927), U.S. Senator (D-Tennessee), 1949–1963
 * Alfred B. Kittredge, U.S. Senator (R-South Dakota), 1901–1909
 * Joseph Lieberman (1967), U.S. Senator (D/I-Connecticut), 1989–2012
 * Augustine Lonergan (1902), U.S. Senator (D-Connecticut), 1933–1939
 * Brien McMahon (1927), U.S. Senator (D-Connecticut), 1945–1952
 * Trusten Polk (1831), U.S. Senator (D-Missouri), 1857–1862
 * Julius Rockwell (1826), U.S. Senator (D-Massachusetts), 1854–1855
 * Arlen Specter (1956), U.S. Senator (D-Pennsylvania), 1981–2011
 * Paul Tsongas (1967), U.S. Senator (D-Massachusetts), 1979–1985
 * J. D. Vance (2013), U.S. Senator (R-Ohio), 2023-present
 * Harris Wofford (1954), U.S. Senator (D-Pennsylvania), 1991–1995

Representatives

 * Lewis Beach (1856), U.S. Representative (D-New York), 1881–1886
 * Carroll L. Beedy (1906), U.S. Representative (R-Maine), 1921–1935
 * Jackson Edward Betts (1929), U.S. Representative (R-Ohio), 1951–1973
 * Jonathan Brewster Bingham (1939), U.S. Representative (D-New York), 1965–1983
 * Clay Stone Briggs (1899), U.S. Representative (D-Texas), 1919–1933
 * C. Pope Caldwell (1899), U.S. Representative (D-New York), 1915–1921
 * Charles T. Canady (1979), U.S. Representative (R-Florida), 1993–2001
 * James Colgate Cleveland (1948), U.S. Representative (R-New Hampshire), 1963–1981
 * Thomas C. Coffin, U.S. Representative (D-ID), 1933-1934
 * Sam Coppersmith (1982), U.S. Representative (D-Arizona), 1993–1995
 * Albert W. Cretella (1921), U.S. Representative (R-Connecticut), 1953–1959
 * Peter Deutsch (1982), U.S. Representative (D-Florida), 1993–2005
 * Allen Ertel (1965), U.S. Representative (D-Pennsylvania), 1977–1983
 * Elizabeth Esty (1985), U.S. Representative (D-Connecticut), 2013–2018
 * Richard P. Freeman (1894), U.S. Representative (R-Connecticut), 1915–1933
 * Peter Frelinghuysen Jr. (1941), U.S. Representative (R-New Jersey), 1953–1975
 * Foster Furcolo (1936), U.S. Representative (D-Massachusetts), 1949–1952
 * Edwin W. Higgins (1897), U.S. Representative (R-Connecticut), 1905–1913
 * Peter Hoagland (1968), U.S. Representative (D-Nebraska), 1989–1995
 * Colin M. Ingersoll, U.S. Representative (D-Connecticut), 1851–1855
 * Donald J. Irwin (1954), U.S. Representative (D-Connecticut), 1959–1961
 * Stephen Wright Kellogg (1848), U.S. Representative (R-Connecticut), 1869–1875
 * Ro Khanna (2001), U.S. Representative (D-California), 2017–present
 * Franklin F. Korell (did not graduate), U.S. Representative (R-Oregon), 1927–1931
 * William Lemke, U.S. Representative (R-North Dakota), 1932–1936
 * John Lindsay (1948), U.S. Representative (R-New York), 1959–1965
 * Dwight Loomis (1847), U.S. Representative (R-Connecticut), 1859–1863
 * Allard K. Lowenstein (1954), U.S. Representative (D-New York), 1969–1971
 * John Miller (1964), U.S. Representative (R-Washington), 1985–1993
 * Bruce Morrison (1973), U.S. Representative (D-Connecticut), 1983–1991
 * Eleanor Holmes Norton (1964), Congressional delegate (D-Washington, D.C.), 1991–present
 * Miner G. Norton (1880), U.S. Representative (D-Ohio), 1921–1923
 * George M. O'Brien (1947), U.S. Representative (R-Illinois), 1973–1986
 * Tom Perriello (2001), U.S. Representative (D-Virginia), 2009–2011
 * Aaron F. Perry, U.S. Representative (R-Ohio), 1871–1872
 * William Scranton, U.S. Representative (D-Pennsylvania), 1961–1963
 * David Skaggs (1967), U.S. Representative (D-Colorado), 1987–1999
 * J. Joseph Smith (1927), U.S. Representative (D-Connecticut), 1935–1941
 * Wint Smith (1922), U.S. Representative (R-Kansas), 1947–1961
 * John Spratt (1969), U.S. Representative (D-South Carolina), 1983–2011
 * Joseph E. Talbot (1925), U.S. Representative (R-Connecticut), 1942–1947
 * Frank Tejeda (LL.M. 1989), U.S. Representative (D-Texas), 1993–1997
 * John Q. Tilson (1893), U.S. Representative (R-Connecticut), 1909–1913, 1915–1932
 * William H. Upson (1845), U.S. Representative (R-Ohio), 1869–1873
 * Stuyvesant Wainwright (1947), U.S. Representative (R-New York), 1953–1961
 * Mel Watt (1970), U.S. Representative (D-North Carolina), 1993–present
 * Washington F. Willcox (1862), U.S. Representative (D-Connecticut), 1889–1893
 * David Wu (1982), U.S. Representative (D-Oregon), 1999–2011
 * Dick Zimmer (1969), U.S. Representative (R-New Jersey), 1991–1997

Supreme Court justices

 * Samuel Alito (1975), Associate Justice, 2006–present
 * Henry Billings Brown (did not graduate), Associate Justice, 1891–1906
 * David Davis (1835), Associate Justice, 1862–1877
 * Abe Fortas (1933), Associate Justice, 1963–1969
 * Brett Kavanaugh (1990), Associate Justice, 2018–present
 * Sherman Minton (1916), (also graduated from Indiana University Maurer School of Law), Associate Justice, 1949–1956
 * George Shiras Jr. (1853), Associate Justice, 1892–1903
 * Sonia Sotomayor (1979), Associate Justice, 2009–present
 * Potter Stewart (1941), Associate Justice, 1958–1981
 * Clarence Thomas (1974), Associate Justice, 1991–present
 * Byron White (1946), Associate Justice, 1962–1993

Federal courts of appeals

 * Robert P. Anderson (1929), Judge for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, 1964–1978
 * Herschel W. Arant (1915), Judge for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit, 1939–1941
 * Edward R. Becker (1957), Judge for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, 1998–2003; Chief Judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, 1998–2003
 * Duane Benton (1975), Judge for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit, 2004–present
 * Stephanos Bibas (1994), Judge for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, 2017–present
 * Wilbur F. Booth (1888), Judge for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit, 1925–1932
 * José A. Cabranes (1965), Judge for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, 1994–present
 * Guido Calabresi (1958), Judge for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, 1994–2009
 * Charles Edward Clark (1913), Judge for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, 1939–1963
 * Eric L. Clay (1972), Judge for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit, 1997–present
 * Richard Clifton, Judge for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, 2002–present
 * R. Guy Cole Jr. (1975), Judge for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit, 1995–present; Chief Judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit, 2014–2021
 * Steven Colloton (1988), Judge for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit, 2003–present
 * Richard Cudahy (1955), Judge for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit, 1979–1994
 * Conrad K. Cyr (1956), Judge for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit, 1989–1997
 * William A. Fletcher (1975), Judge for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, 1998–present
 * Arianna J. Freeman (2007), Judge for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, 2022-present
 * Susan P. Graber (1972), Judge for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, 1998–present
 * Morton Ira Greenberg (1957), Judge for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, 1987–2021
 * Pamela Harris (1990), Judge for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, 2014–present
 * David Hamilton (1983), Judge for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit, 2009–present
 * A. Leon Higginbotham Jr. (1952), Judge for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, 1977–1993
 * Stephen A. Higginson (1987), Judge for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, 2011–present
 * Carroll C. Hincks, Judge for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, 1954–1964
 * Andrew D. Hurwitz (1972), Judge for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, 2012–present
 * Robert Katzmann (1980), Judge for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, 1999–2020
 * Carolyn Dineen King (1962), Judge for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, 1979–2013
 * Kermit Lipez (1967), Judge for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit, 1998–2011
 * Scott Matheson Jr. (1980), Judge for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit, 2010–present
 * William Ernest Miller (1933), Judge for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit, 1970–1976
 * Jon O. Newman (1956), Judge for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, 1979–1997
 * Barrington Daniels Parker Jr. (1969), Judge for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, 2001–2009
 * Jill A. Pryor (1988), Judge for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit, 2012–present
 * Stephen Reinhardt (1954), Judge for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, 1980–2018
 * Roger Robb (1931), Judge for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, 1969–1982
 * Oliver Seth (1940), Judge for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit, 1962–1984; Chief Judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit, 1977–1984
 * Richard G. Taranto (1981), Judge for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, 2013–present
 * Albert Tate Jr. (1947), Judge for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, 1979–1986
 * William H. Timbers, Judge for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, 1971–1981
 * William Kneeland Townsend, Judge for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, 1902–1907
 * Patricia Wald (1951), Judge for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, 1979–1999; Chief Judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, 1986–1991
 * George Thomas Washington (1932), Judge for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, 1949–1965
 * Ralph Winter (1960), Judge for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, 1981–2020

Federal district courts

 * Ronnie Abrams (1993), Judge for the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, 2012–present
 * William Acker (1952), Judge for the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Alabama, 1982–1996
 * Roy Altman (2007), Judge for the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida, 2019–present
 * Cecilia Altonaga (1986), Judge for the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida, 2003–present
 * Harold Baer Jr. (1957), Judge for the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, 1994–2014
 * David Barlow, Judge for the U.S. District Court for the District of Utah, 2020–present
 * James E. Boasberg (1990), Judge for the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, 2011–present
 * Paul D. Borman (LL.M. 1964), Judge for the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan, 1994–present
 * Howard C. Bratton (1947), Judge for the U.S. District Court for the District of New Mexico, 1964–1987; Chief Judge of the U.S. District Court for the District of New Mexico, 1978–1987
 * Philip A. Brimmer (1985), Judge for the U.S. District Court for the District of Colorado, 2008–present
 * Ellen Bree Burns (1923), Judge for the U.S. District Court for the District of Connecticut, 1978–1992; Chief Judge of the U.S. District Court for the District of Connecticut, 1988–1992
 * Edward N. Cahn (1958), Judge for the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, 1974–1998
 * Charles Hardy Carr (1926), Judge for the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California, 1962–1966; Judge for the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, 1966–1973
 * Paul Charlton, Judge for the U.S. District Court for the District of Puerto Rico, 1911–1913
 * Frank C. Damrell Jr. (1964), Judge for the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California, 1997–2008
 * Joseph A. Diclerico Jr. (1966), Judge for the U.S. District Court for the District of New Hampshire, 1992–2007; Chief Judge of the U.S. District Court for the District of New Hampshire, 1992–1997
 * Jan DuBois (1957), Judge for the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, 1988–2002
 * Warren William Eginton (1951), Judge for the U.S. District Court for the District of Connecticut, 1979–1992
 * David A. Faber (1967), Judge for the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of West Virginia, 1991–2008
 * Eldon E. Fallon (LL.M. 1963), Judge for the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana, 1995–present
 * A. Joe Fish (1968), Judge for the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas, 1983–2007; Chief Judge of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas, 2002–2007
 * Dabney L. Friedrich (1992), Judge for the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, 2017–present
 * Jesse Furman (1998), Judge for the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, 2012–present
 * Nina Gershon (1965), Judge for the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York, 1996–2008
 * Nancy Gertner (1971), Judge for the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts, 1994–2011
 * Gerhard Gesell (1935), Judge for the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, 1967–1993
 * James Tyrone Giles (1967), Judge for the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, 1979–2008
 * Charles Haight (1955), Judge for the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, 1976–1995
 * Jean Constance Hamilton (LL.M. 1982), Judge for the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri, 1990–present; Chief Judge of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri, 1990–present, 1995–2002
 * A. Andrew Hauk (1942), Judge for the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California, 1966; Judge for the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, 1966–1982; Chief Judge of the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, 1980–1982
 * Truman McGill Hobbs (1948), Judge for the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Alabama, 1980–1991; Chief Judge of the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Alabama, 1984–1991
 * Marvin Katz (1954), Judge for the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, 1983–2010
 * Bruce William Kauffman (1959), Judge for the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, 1997–2009
 * Samuel Pailthorpe King (1940), Judge for the U.S. District Court for the District of Hawaii, 1972–1984
 * John A. Kronstadt (1976), Judge for the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, 2011–present
 * Morris E. Lasker (1941), Judge for the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, 1968–1983
 * Victor Marrero (1968), Judge for the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, 1999–2010
 * Frank Hampton McFadden (1955), Judge for the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Alabama, 1969–1982
 * Richard Wellington McLaren (1942), Judge for the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, 1972–1976
 * Louis F. Oberdorfer (1946), Judge for the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, 1977–present
 * James Francis Thaddeus O'Connor (1909), Judge for the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California, 1940–1949
 * J. Paul Oetken (1991), Judge for the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, 2011–present
 * Jill Parrish (1985), Judge for the U.S. District Court for the District of Utah, 2015–present
 * James Perry Platt (1875), Judge for the U.S. District Court for the District of Connecticut, 1902–1913
 * Thomas Collier Platt Jr. (1950), Judge for the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York, 1974–2001
 * Louis H. Pollak (1948), Judge for the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, 1978–1991
 * Michael Ponsor (1975), Judge for the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts, 1994–2011
 * Michael Shea (1993), Judge for the U.S. District Court for the District of Connecticut, 2012–present
 * Oliver Perry Shiras (1856), Judge for the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Iowa, 1882–1903
 * Dominic J. Squatrito (1965), Judge for the U.S. District Court for the District of Connecticut, 1994–2004
 * Leonard P. Stark (1996), Judge for the U.S. District Court for the District of Delaware, 2010–present
 * Edwin DeHaven Steel Jr. (1931), Judge for the U.S. District Court for the District of Delaware, 1958–1969
 * Sidney Stein (1969), Judge for the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, 1995–2010
 * Richard J. Sullivan (1990), Judge for the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, 2007–2019;
 * Robert Sweet (1948), Judge for the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, 1978–1991
 * Robert Taylor (1924), Judge for the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Tennessee, 1950–1984; Chief Judge of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Tennessee, 1961–1969
 * Charles Henry Tenney (1936), Judge for the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, 1963–1979
 * Edwin Stark Thomas (1895), Judge for the U.S. District Court for the District of Connecticut, 1913–1939
 * Alvin Thompson (1978), Judge for the U.S. District Court for the District of Connecticut, 1994–present
 * Myron H. Thompson (1972), Judge for the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Alabama, 1980–1998; Chief Judge of the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Alabama, 1991–1998
 * Stefan R. Underhill (1982), Judge for the U.S. District Court for the District of Connecticut, 1999–present
 * William H. Walls (1957), Judge for the U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey, 1994–2005
 * Henry Travillion Wingate (1972), Judge for the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Mississippi, 1985–present; Chief Judge of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Mississippi, 2003–present
 * Caleb Merrill Wright (1933), Judge for the U.S. District Court for the District of Delaware, 1955–1973; Chief Judge of the U.S. District Court for the District of Delaware, 1957–1973
 * William H. Yohn Jr. (1960), Judge for the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, 1969–1980
 * Robert Carmine Zampano (1954), Judge for the U.S. District Court for the District of Connecticut, 1964–1994

Other courts

 * Gary S. Katzmann (1979), Judge for the United States Court of International Trade, 2016–present
 * J. Rich Leonard (1976), U.S. Bankruptcy Judge for the Eastern District of North Carolina, 1992–present
 * Albert Levitt (1923), Judge for the District Court of the Virgin Islands, 1935–1968
 * Lyman E. Munson (1851), Justice of the Territorial Montana Supreme Court
 * William Josiah Tilson (1896, LL.M. 1897), Judge for the United States Court of International Trade

Governors

 * Jerry Brown (1964), 34th and 39th Governor of California, 1975–1983, 2011–2019
 * Foster Furcolo (1936), 60th Governor of Massachusetts, 1957–1961
 * Bibb Graves (1896), 38th Governor of Alabama, 1927–1931
 * Henry Baldwin Harrison, 52nd Governor of Connecticut, 1885–1887
 * William W. Hoppin, 24th Governor of Rhode Island, 1854–1857
 * William J. Mills (1877), 19th Governor of New Mexico Territory, 1910–1912
 * Gina Raimondo (1998), 75th Governor of Rhode Island, 2015–2021, United States Secretary of Commerce 2021–present.
 * Raymond P. Shafer (1941), 39th Governor of Pennsylvania, 1967–1971

State politicians

 * Peter H. Behr (1940), member of the California State Senate, 1970–1978
 * Asa S. Bloomer (1916), member of the Vermont House of Representatives, 1937–1945, and Speaker of the House, 1943–1945; member of the Vermont Senate, 1947–1963, and President Pro Tem, 1949, 1955, 1959–1963
 * Rob Bonta (1998), Attorney General of California, 2021–present
 * James M. Brown (1967), Attorney General of Oregon, 1980–1981
 * Eliphalet Adams Bulkeley (1824), Connecticut State Senator, 1838–1840, Connecticut State Representative, 1834–1838
 * John A. Busterud (1949), member of the California State Assembly, 1956–1962
 * Kimberly B. Cheney (1964), Attorney General of Vermont, 1973–1975
 * Robert E. Cooper Jr. (1983), Attorney General of Tennessee, 2006–2014
 * Robert Del Tufo (1958), Attorney General of New Jersey, 1990–1993
 * Nelson Antonio Denis (1980), member of the New York State Assembly from the 68th district, 1997–2001
 * Matthew Denn (1991), lieutenant governor of Delaware, 2009–present
 * Tilton E. Doolittle (1846), Speaker of the House of the Connecticut House of Representatives, and US Attorney for the district of Connecticut
 * John R. Dunne (1954), member of the New York Senate from the 6th district, 1966–1989
 * Daniel C. Esty (1986), commissioner of the Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection, 2011–2014
 * Shirley Adele Field, member of the Oregon House of Representatives, 1956–1960, 1962–1966
 * Tom Foley, Secretary of Labor and Industry of Pennsylvania, 1991–1994
 * Ammi Giddings, member of the Connecticut Senate, 1858–1864
 * Harrison Goldin (1960), member of the New York Senate, 1966–1973
 * Cyrus Habib, 16th Lieutenant Governor of Washington, former State Senator from Washington state, 2014–2016, former member of the Washington House of Representatives, 2012–2014
 * L. W. Housel (1900), member of the Connecticut House of Representatives, 1900–1902
 * Michael Johnston, member of the Colorado Senate from the 33rd district, 2009–present
 * Daniel Kagan, member of the Colorado House of Representatives, 2009–present
 * Jeff King, member of the Kansas Senate from the 15th district, 2011–present
 * Kris Kobach (1995), 31st Secretary State of Kansas, 2001–present
 * John Latta (1859), 1st Lieutenant Governor of Pennsylvania, 1875–1879
 * Frederick Lippitt (1946), member of the Rhode Island House of Representatives, 1961–1983
 * J. Edward Meyer (1961), member of the Connecticut Senate, 2005–present
 * Robert W. Naylor (1969), member of the California State Assembly for the 20th district, 1978–1986; chair of the California Republican Party, 1987–1989
 * Charles R. Nesbitt (1947), 9th Attorney General of Oklahoma, 1963–1967; Secretary of Energy of Oklahoma, 1991–1995
 * Larry Obhof, President of the Ohio Senate from 2017 to 2020, State Senator for the 22nd district, 2011–2020
 * Edwin Archer Randolph, the first African-American to graduate from the law school, Randolph served in both houses of the Virginia Legislature
 * James Paull, president of the West Virginia Senate, 1943–1945
 * Jamie Pedersen, member of the Washington House of Representatives from the 43rd district, 2007–present
 * Charles B. Perry, Speaker of the Wisconsin State Assembly, 1929
 * Stephen Sachs, Attorney General of Maryland, 1979–1987
 * Shirley Adelson Siegel (1941), Solicitor General of New York, 1979–1982
 * Bryan Townsend, member of the Delaware Senate, 2012–present
 * Francis W. Treadway (1892), 30th Lieutenant Governor of Ohio, 1909–1911
 * Ralph E. Van Norstrand (1961), minority leader of the Connecticut General Assembly, 1979–1985; Speaker of the Connecticut House of Representatives, 1985—1987
 * Anthony Van Wyck (1844), member of the Wisconsin State Senate 1864–1865, 1868–1869
 * John Wesley Wescott, Attorney General of New Jersey, 1914–1919

State judges

 * William B. Chandler III, Chancellor, Delaware Court of Chancery, 1985–1996
 * John M. Comley (1920), Associate Justice of the Connecticut Supreme Court, 1963–1965
 * Rick Haselton, Chief Judge, Oregon Court of Appeals, 2012–present; Judge, Oregon Court of Appeals, 1994–2012
 * Ernest A. Inglis, Chief Justice, Connecticut Supreme Court, 1953–1957; Associate Justice, Connecticut Supreme Court, 1950–1953
 * Jeffrey W. Johnson (1985), Judge, California Court of Appeal, 2009–present
 * Leondra Kruger (2001), Associate Justice, California Supreme Court, 2015–present
 * Hans A. Linde (1966), Justice, Oregon Supreme Court, 1977–1990; correspondent for CBS Evening News
 * Goodwin Liu (1998), Associate Justice, California Supreme Court, 2011–present
 * William M. Maltbie (1905), Chief Justice, Connecticut Supreme Court, 1930–1950; Judge, Connecticut Supreme Court, 1925–1930
 * Monica Márquez (1997), Associate Justice, Colorado Supreme Court, 2010–present
 * Margaret H. Marshall, Chief Justice, Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, 1999–2010 (first woman to hold this position); Associate Justice, Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, 1996–1999
 * Marshall F. McComb (1919), Associate Justice, California Supreme Court, 1955–1977
 * Walter Myers Jr. (1938), Associate Justice, Indiana Supreme Court, 1963-1967
 * George W. Wheeler (1883), Chief Justice, Connecticut Supreme Court, 1920–1930
 * J. Craig Wright (1954), Associate Justice, Ohio Supreme Court, 1985–1996

City government

 * Jane Bolin (1931), judge for the New York City Domestic Relations Court, 1939–1979; also the first African–American woman to serve as a judge in the United States
 * Luke Bronin (2006), 67th mayor of Hartford, Connecticut
 * Chesa Boudin (2011), 34th District Attorney of San Francisco (2020–22)
 * Richard Buery (1997), former deputy mayor of New York City
 * George Williamson Crawford (1903), second black graduate of the Law School and Corporation Counsel of the City of New Haven
 * David Hansell (1983), commissioner of the New York City Administration for Children's Services
 * Bruce Harris, mayor of Chatham Borough, New Jersey, 2012–present
 * Robert J. Harris, mayor of Ann Arbor, Michigan, 1969–1973
 * John Lindsay (1948), 103rd mayor of New York City, New York, 1966–1973
 * Robert M. Morgenthau (1948), New York County District Attorney, 1975–2009
 * Charles Phelps Taft II (1921), mayor of Cincinnati, Ohio, 1955–1957
 * Caroline Van Zile (2012), 3rd solicitor general of Washington, D.C., 2022–present

U.S. diplomatic figures

 * Winthrop G. Brown (1930), 16th U.S. Ambassador to South Korea, 1964–1967
 * William Smith Culbertson (1910), president of the United States Tariff Commission, 1922–1925
 * Richard N. Gardner (1951), U.S. Ambassador to Spain, 1993–1997; U.S. Ambassador to Italy, 1977–1981
 * Ulric Haynes (1956), 6th U.S. Ambassador to Algeria, 1977–1981
 * David Huebner (1986), 17th U.S. Ambassador to New Zealand, 2009–present
 * Eugene M. Locke (1940), 9th U.S. Ambassador to Pakistan, 1966–1967
 * Robert McCallum Jr. (1973), 23rd U.S. Ambassador to Australia, 2006–2009
 * John O'Leary (1969), 48th U.S. Ambassador to Chile, 1998–2001
 * Sargent Shriver (1941), 44th U.S. Ambassador to France, 1968–1970; also the driving force behind the Peace Corps
 * Gerard C. Smith (1938), Chief Delegate to the Strategic Arms Limitation Talks and Director, Arms Control and Disarmament Agency, 1969–1972
 * R. Douglas Stuart Jr. (1946), 22nd U.S. Ambassador to Norway, 1984–1989
 * Peter Tufo, U.S. Ambassador to Hungary, 1997–2001

Other U.S. political figures

 * Mark D. Agrast (1985), Deputy Assistant Attorney General for the Office of Legislative Affairs of the United States Department of Justice, 2009–present
 * Meade Alcorn, chairman of the Republican National Committee, 1957–1959
 * Dillon Anderson (1929), 2nd National Security Advisor, 1955–1956
 * Joe Andrew (1985), chairman of the Democratic National Committee, 1999–2001
 * Michael Barr (1992), Assistant Secretary for Financial Institutions of the U.S. Department of the Treasury
 * Rubén Berríos (1961), Puerto Rico senator at large, 1972–1976, 1984–1988, 1993–1996
 * Matthew Berry, Republican primary challenger in Virginia's 8th congressional district election, 2010
 * Boris Bershteyn (2004), Associate White House Counsel, 2010–present
 * William L. Borden (1947), executive director of United States Congress Joint Committee on Atomic Energy, 1949–1953
 * Beth Brinkmann (1985), Assistant to the U.S. Solicitor General, 1993–2001
 * Antonia Handler Chayes (did not graduate), 14th Under Secretary of the Air Force, 1979–1981
 * William Thaddeus Coleman III, 17th General Counsel of the Army, 1994–1999
 * Mathea Falco (1968), 1st Assistant Secretary of State for International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs, 1979–1981
 * Roswell Gilpatric (1931), Deputy Secretary of Defense, 1961–1964
 * Fred T. Goldberg Jr. (1973), Commissioner of Internal Revenue, 1989–1992
 * Stephen Hadley (1972), 21st National Security Advisor, 2005–2009
 * Coleman Hicks (1968), General Counsel of the Navy, 1979–1981
 * Steven S. Honigman (1973), General Counsel of the Navy, 1993–1998
 * Jerry MacArthur Hultin (1972), 27th Under Secretary of the Navy, 1997–2000
 * Reed Hundt (1974), chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, 1993–1997
 * Rashad Hussain (2005), 2nd Special Envoy to the Organisation of the Islamic Conference, 2010–present
 * Harrison Loesch (1939), Assistant Secretary of the Interior, 1969–1972
 * Malcolm A. MacIntyre, 5th Under Secretary of the Air Force, 1957–1959
 * Burke Marshall (1951), Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division of the United States Department of Justice, 1961–1964
 * Joe Miller (1995), Republican Senate candidate from Alaska, 2010
 * Roderic L. O'Connor (1947), 2nd Assistant Secretary of State for Security and Consular Affairs, 1957–1958
 * Stephen A. Oxman, 19th Assistant Secretary of State for European and Canadian Affairs, 1993–1994
 * Troy A. Paredes, commissioner of the Securities and Exchange Commission, 2008–2013
 * Michael Pertschuk (1959), chairman of the Federal Trade Commission, 1977–1981
 * Randal Quarles (1984), 15th Under Secretary for Domestic Finance, 2005–2006
 * Vivek Ramaswamy (2013), candidate for president of the United States in 2024
 * Eugene Rostow (1937), Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs, 1966–1969
 * Kevin K. Washburn (1993), 12th Assistant Secretary of Indian Affairs for the U.S. Department of the Interior, 2012–2015
 * Neal S. Wolin, Deputy Secretary of the Treasury, 2009–present
 * R. James Woolsey Jr. (1968), 16th Director of the Central Intelligence Agency, 1993–1995
 * Adam Yarmolinsky, political appointee who served in numerous capacities in the Kennedy, Johnson and Carter administrations
 * David Yassky, member of the New York City Council from the 33rd District, 2002–2009

Heads of state or heads of government

 * Karl Carstens (LL.M. 1949), 5th President of Germany, 1979–1984
 * Jose P. Laurel (J.S.D. 1920), 3rd President of the Philippines, 1943–1945
 * Salvador Laurel (J.S.D. 1960), 10th Vice President of the Philippines, 1986–1992; 5th Prime Minister of the Philippines, 1986
 * Peter Mutharika (LL.M., J.S.D.), President of the Republic of Malawi, 2014–present; former Minister of Foreign Affairs of Malawi, 2011–2012

Other political figures

 * Ron Atkey (LL.M. 1966), member of the House of Commons of Canada, 1972–1974, 1979–1980
 * Kwesi Botchwey (LL.M.), Minister of Finance of Ghana, 1982–1995
 * Irwin Cotler (LL.M. 1966), Minister of Justice of Canada, 2003–2006
 * Wan Exiang (LL.M. 1987), Vice Chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress of the People's Republic of China, 2013–present
 * Francisco Afan Delgado (LL.M. 1909), Senator of the Philippines, 1951–1957
 * Philip S. Deloria, founder and 1st Secretary-General of the World Council of Indigenous Peoples
 * Eoghan Fitzsimons (LL.M. 1966), Attorney General of Ireland, 11 November to 15 December 1994
 * David Howarth (LL.M. 1983), Member of Parliament for Cambridge, 2005–2010
 * S. Jayakumar (LL.M. 1966), Senior Minister of Singapore, 2009–2011
 * Antonio La Viña, Undersecretary of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources of the Philippines
 * Stavros Lambrinidis (1988), Member of the European Parliament, 2004–2009; Vice President of the European Parliament, 2009–2011; 23rd Minister for Foreign Affairs of Greece, 2011; European Union Special Representative for Human Rights, 2012–2019; European Union Ambassador to the United States, 2019–present
 * Jovito Salonga (J.S.D. 1949), 14th President of the Senate of the Philippines, 1987–1992
 * Lebbeus R. Wilfley (1892), 1st Attorney General of the Philippines, 1901–1906
 * Michael Yaki, commissioner on the United States Commission on Civil Rights, 2005–2016

International court judges

 * Rosalyn Higgins (J.S.D. 1962), English judge, 1995–2009, and president, 2006–2009, of the International Court of Justice
 * Philip Jessup (1924), American judge for the International Court of Justice, 1961–1970
 * Shigeru Oda (J.S.D. 1953), Japanese judge for the International Court of Justice, 1976–2003
 * Ksenija Turkoviç, Croatian judge at the European Court of Human Rights 2015–present

National court judges

 * Luís Roberto Barroso (LL.M. 1989), Judge for the Supreme Court of Brazil, 2013–present
 * Leo Barry (LL.M. 1968), Justice for the Supreme Court of Newfoundland and Labrador, 2007–present
 * Daryl Dawson (LL.M. 1956), Justice of the High Court of Australia, 1982–1997
 * Todd Ducharme (LL.M. 1991), Judge for the Ontario Superior Court of Justice
 * Enrique Fernando (1948), Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the Philippines
 * Stephan Harbarth (LL.M. 2000), President of the Federal Constitutional Court of Germany, 2020–present
 * Gérard La Forest (LL.M. 1965), Puisne Justice of the Supreme Court of Canada, 1985–1997
 * Johnnie Lewis (LL.M. 1971), 18th Chief Justice of Liberia, 2006–present
 * Cecilia Muñoz-Palma (LL.M. 1954), first woman appointed to the Supreme Court of the Philippines

International organization figures

 * Stavros Lambrinidis (J.D. 1988), European Union Special Representative for Human Rights (since 2012)
 * Johan C. Verbeke (LL.M. 1978), head of the United Nations Observer Mission in Georgia (UNOMIG)
 * Josefina Phodaca-Ambrosio (LL.M. 1957), first Asian and only Filipino to become President of Federacion Internacional de Abogadas

Notable attorneys

 * Floyd Abrams (1960), attorney at Cahill Gordon & Reindel who has had a substantial influence on constitutional law in the United States through the argument of important cases
 * Douglas Arant (1923), attorney in Birmingham, Alabama
 * Michael F. Armstrong, attorney
 * Francis N. Bangs (1847), founding partner of Bangs & Stetson, a precursor to the modern firm of Davis, Polk & Wardwell
 * Thomas D. Barr (1931–2008), prominent lawyer at Cravath, Swaine & Moore
 * Bouvier Beale, attorney and first cousin of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis and Lee Radziwill
 * Dana Berliner, public interest attorney at the Institute for Justice
 * Hunter Biden, founding partner of Oldaker, Biden & Belair, LLP; son of President Joe Biden
 * David Boies (1966), chairman of Boies, Schiller & Flexner
 * Ralph Cavanagh, environmental attorney and co–director of the Air/Energy Program at the Natural Resources Defense Council
 * William Coblentz (1947), attorney and power broker who played an important role in California politics in the years after World War II
 * Julien Davies Cornell, attorney noted for his defense of Ezra Pound following Pound's indictment for treason
 * J. Richardson Dilworth (1942), attorney for the Rockefeller family
 * Tali Farhadian (born 1974 or 1975), former US federal prosecutor
 * Peter E. Fleming Jr. (1958), criminal defense attorney
 * Bob Giuffra (1987), partner, Sullivan & Cromwell
 * Charles Halpern (1964), co-founder of the Center for Law and Social Policy, the first public interest law firm in the United States
 * James Hamilton (1969), assistant chief counsel for the United States Senate Watergate Committee
 * Whitfield Jack (1932), attorney in his native Shreveport, Louisiana; United States Army colonel in World War II under General Matthew Ridgway, and United States Army Reserve major general
 * David Kendall (1971), attorney who advised President Bill Clinton during the Lewinsky scandal and Clinton's subsequent impeachment proceedings
 * George Kern (1952), partner of Sullivan & Cromwell
 * Ernest Knaebel (1896, LL.M. 1897), 11th Reporter of Decisions of the Supreme Court, 1916–1944
 * Arthur Kramer, founding partner of Kramer Levin
 * Dawn Johnsen (1986), attorney twice nominated by President Barack Obama to head the Office of Legal Counsel
 * Mark I. Levy (1975), appellate attorney who argued 16 cases before the Supreme Court
 * Arthur Mag, legal counsel to Harry S. Truman
 * Bessie Margolin (1933), labor attorney who argued numerous cases before the Supreme Court
 * Arvo Mikkanen (1986), attorney nominated by President Barack Obama to the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Oklahoma
 * Ann Olivarius (1986), Chair of McAllister Olivarius, plaintiff in Alexander v. Yale, and notable sexual harassment lawyer
 * Jesselyn Radack (1995), ethics adviser to the Department of Justice who disclosed that the FBI committed an ethics violation in their interrogation of John Walker Lindh
 * Robert Raymar (1972), attorney nominated by President Bill Clinton to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit
 * Stephen Shulman (1958), attorney most notable for representing Egil Krogh during the Watergate scandal
 * John Thomas Smith (1901), first general counsel and a director of General Motors, 1910 – 1947
 * Paul M. Smith (1979), attorney at Jenner & Block who argued many notable cases including Lawrence v. Texas
 * Leonard Weinglass (1958), notable criminal defense attorney and constitutional law advocate
 * Andrea R. Wood (1998), senior counsel for the United States Securities and Exchange Commission
 * Gregory Howard Woods (1995), general counsel of the United States Department of Energy
 * Arnold M. Zack (1956), notable arbitrator and mediator of labor management disputes

Public policy leaders

 * Deborah Archer (1996), President of the American Civil Liberties Union and Professor at NYU School of Law, Archer is the first African-American to lead the ACLU.
 * John P. Hannah, senior fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy
 * Carla Anderson Hills, 5th chairwoman of the Council on Foreign Relations
 * Bruce J. Katz (1985), vice president of the Brookings Institution
 * Bayless Manning (1949), 1st president of the Council on Foreign Relations
 * Krish O'Mara Vignaraja, President and CEO of Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service, former Senior Policy Director to Michelle Obama

University presidents and other administrators

 * Michelle Anderson (born 1967), President of Brooklyn College, and a scholar on rape law
 * Nancy Y. Bekavac (1973), president of Scripps College, 1990–2007
 * Alfred Benjamin Butts (1930), chancellor of the University of Mississippi, 1935–1946
 * Gerhard Casper (LL.M. 1962), president of Stanford University, 1992–2000
 * Hiram Chodosh (1990), president of Claremont McKenna College, 2013–present
 * Ronald J. Daniels (1988), president of Johns Hopkins University, 2009–present
 * JoAnne A. Epps (1976), provost Temple University, 2016-2021
 * William R. Greiner, president of the University at Buffalo, 1991–2004
 * Robert S. Harrison, chairman of the Cornell University Board of Trustees
 * Ira Michael Heyman (1956), chancellor of the University of California, Berkeley, 1980–1990
 * Robert Hutchins (1925), president of the University of Chicago, 1929–1945; chancellor of the University of Chicago, 1945–1951
 * Joseph S. Iseman (1941), acting president of Bennington College, 1976
 * Thomas H. Jackson (1975), president of University of Rochester, 1994–2005
 * Marvin Krislov (1988), president of Oberlin College, 2007–present
 * Ted Landsmark (1973), president of the Boston Architectural College, present
 * Frederick M. Lawrence (1980), president of Brandeis University, 2011–present
 * Edward H. Levi (1938), president of the University of Chicago, 1968–1975
 * Wallace Loh, president of the University of Maryland, College Park, 2010–present
 * Linda Lorimer, vice president of Yale University; president of Randolph-Macon Woman's College, 1986–1993
 * Cyrus Northrop, president of the University of Minnesota, 1884–1911
 * Russell K. Osgood (1974), president of Grinnell College, 1998–2010
 * Louis H. Pollak (19433), federal judge and dean of Yale Law School and the University of Pennsylvania Law School
 * Ariel Porat (1990), president of Tel Aviv University
 * Robert Prichard (LL.M. 1976), president of the University of Toronto, 1990–2000
 * L. Song Richardson (1966/67), President of Colorado College, 2021 - PRESENT
 * Michael H. Schill (1984), president of the University of Oregon, 2015–
 * Clayton Spencer (1985), president of Bates College, 2012–present
 * Stephen Joel Trachtenberg (1962), president of George Washington University, 1988–2007
 * Louis Vogel (LL.M. 1982), president of Panthéon-Assas University, 2006–2012
 * Nora Demleitner (1992), president of St. John's College - Annapolis, 2022–present

Law school deans

 * T. Alexander Aleinikoff (1977), dean of Georgetown University Law Center, 2004–2009
 * Nicholas Allard (1979), Dean and President of Brooklyn Law School
 * Michelle Anderson (1994), dean of City University of New York Law School, 2006–2016
 * Evan Caminker (1986), dean of the University of Michigan Law School, 2003–2013
 * Nora Demleitner (1992), dean of the Washington and Lee University School of Law, 2012–2015
 * John Hart Ely (1963), dean of Stanford Law School, 1982–1987
 * JoAnne A. Epps (1976) dean of Temple Law School, 2008- 2016
 * Sarah Harding, dean of Schulich School of Law, Dalhousie University, 2023–present
 * Robert Klonoff (1979), dean of Lewis & Clark Law School, 2007–2014
 * Anthony T. Kronman (1975), dean of Yale Law School, 1994–2004
 * Saul Levmore (1980), dean of the University of Chicago Law School, 2001–2009
 * Paul Mahoney (1984), dean of the University of Virginia School of Law, 2008–2016
 * Earl F. Martin (LL.M. 1996), dean of Gonzaga University School of Law, 2005–2010
 * Michael Meltsner (JD 1960), dean of Northeastern University School of Law, 1979–1984
 * Martha Minow (1979), dean of Harvard Law School, 2009–present
 * Jennifer Mnookin (1995), dean of UCLA Law School, 2015—present
 * Russell D. Niles (LL.M. 1931), dean of New York University School of Law, 1948–1963
 * Robert Post (1977), dean of Yale Law School, 2009–2017
 * Wendell Pritchett, Chancellor of Rutgers University–Camden, Interim Dean and Presidential Professor at the University of Pennsylvania Law School, and Provost of the University of Pennsylvania
 * Norman Redlich (1950), dean of New York University School of Law, 1974–1988
 * Richard Revesz (1983), dean of New York University School of Law, 2002–2013
 * Michael H. Schill (1984), dean of UCLA Law School (2004–2009) and University of Chicago Law School (2010–2015)
 * David Schizer (1993), dean of Columbia Law School, 2004–2014
 * Aviam Soifer (1972), dean of the William S. Richardson School of Law, 2003–present
 * William Treanor (1985), dean of Georgetown University Law Center, 2010–present
 * Frans Vanistendael (LL.M.), dean of Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, 1999–2005
 * Kevin K. Washburn (1993), dean of the University of New Mexico School of Law, 2009–2012
 * Joan Wexler, Dean and President of Brooklyn Law School
 * Thomas C. Athur, Dean of Emory Law School, 2002-2005

Constitutional law

 * Bruce Ackerman (1967), professor at Yale Law School and author of Social Justice in the Liberal State, 1987–present; regarded as one of the most frequently cited legal academics in the United States
 * Akhil Amar (1984), professor at Yale Law School
 * Vikram Amar (1988), professor at the University of California Davis School of Law
 * C. Edwin Baker, professor at the University of Pennsylvania Law School, 1981–present; considered one of the country's foremost authorities on the First Amendment
 * Charles Black, professor at Yale Law School, 1956–1987
 * Philip Bobbitt (1975), professor at Columbia Law School and author of The Shield of Achilles: War, Peace, and the Course of History, 2007–present
 * William Eskridge (1978), professor at Yale Law School, 1998–present
 * Noah Feldman (1997), professor at Harvard Law School, 2007–present; scholar on Islamic law and the intersection of religion and politics
 * Paul W. Kahn (1980), professor at Yale Law School
 * Kermit Roosevelt III (1997), professor at the University of Pennsylvania Law School, 2002–present
 * Reva Siegel (1986), professor at Yale Law School, 1994–present
 * Carol M. Swain (M.S.L. Law), Professor of Political Science and Law at Vanderbilt University
 * Charles Alan Wright (1949), professor at University of Texas School of Law, 1995–2000; considered to be one of the foremost authorities in the United States on constitutional law
 * Kenji Yoshino (1996), professor at New York University School of Law, 2006–present; focused on anti-discrimination law, civil and human rights law, and law and literature
 * Johannes Reich (Rechtswissenschafter) (1975), Professor at the University of Zurich, 2018-present; scholar on constitutional law, energy law and environmental law

Criminal law

 * Barbara Babcock (1963), professor at Stanford Law School, 1972–present
 * Alan Dershowitz (1962), professor at Harvard Law School, 1964–present; also a prolific attorney, jurist, and legal commentator and author of The Case for Israel
 * Don Kates, professor at Saint Louis University School of Law and author of numerous books on gun control
 * Mark Osler (1990), professor at the University of St. Thomas School of Law, clemency advocate, and critic of capital punishment

Civil and human rights law

 * David D. Cole (1984), professor at Georgetown University Law Center
 * Lani Guinier (1974), professor at Harvard Law School, 2001–present; also the first tenured female African–American professor at Harvard Law School and well-known civil rights activist
 * Christof Heyns (LL.M.), professor at the Institute for International and Comparative Law in Africa at the University of Pretoria
 * Randall Kennedy (1982), professor at Harvard Law School
 * Andrew Koppelman (1989), professor at Northwestern University, 2007–present
 * Catharine MacKinnon (1977), professor at the University of Michigan Law School, 1989–present; feminist scholar focused on sexual harassment and pornography
 * Tobias Barrington Wolff (1997), professor at the University of Pennsylvania Law School; notable for his legal advocacy on same-sex marriage and other LGBT-related issues

Intellectual property

 * Lori Andrews, professor at Chicago–Kent College of Law
 * Susan P. Crawford, professor at the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law
 * Lawrence Lessig, professor at Harvard Law School, 2008–present; professor at Stanford Law School, 2000–2008, where he founded its Center for Internet and Society, candidate for the Democratic Party's nomination for president in the 2016 U.S. presidential election
 * Eben Moglen (1985), professor at Columbia Law School and founder of the Software Freedom Law Center
 * Ryan Abbott, professor at the University of Surrey School of Law

International law

 * Harold J. Berman (1947), professor at Harvard Law School, 1948–1985; professor at Emory Law School, 1985–2007
 * George Bermann (1971), professor at Columbia Law School, 1975–present
 * Rosa Brooks (1996), professor at Georgetown University Law Center, 2011–present
 * Steve Charnovitz (1998), professor at George Washington University Law School, 2004–present
 * Jerome Cohen (1955), professor at New York University School of Law, 1990–present
 * Jack Goldsmith (1989), professor at Harvard Law School; also head of the Office of Legal Counsel 2003–2004
 * David O'Keeffe (LL.M. 1978), Professor of European Law at University of Durham, 1990–1993; professor of European Law at University College London 1993–2005;, emeritus professor of European Law at University of London 2005–present; part-time European administrative law judge
 * John Yoo (1992), professor at the University of California, Berkeley, School of Law, 1993–present; primarily known for authoring the Torture Memos

Jurisprudence

 * Peter Berkowitz, professor at George Mason University School of Law, 1999–2007; senior fellow at Stanford University's Hoover Institution, 2007–present
 * Jules Coleman (1976), professor at Yale Law School
 * Arthur Corbin (1899), professor at Yale Law School and one of the progenitors of legal realism
 * Jan Deutsch (1962), professor at Yale Law School
 * Richard Epstein (1968), professor at New York University Law School, 2010–present; considered one of the most influential legal thinkers in the United States
 * Duncan Kennedy (1970), professor at Harvard Law, 1976–present; founder of the critical legal studies movement
 * Karl Llewellyn, professor at Columbia Law School, 1925–1951; professor at the University of Chicago Law School, 1951–1962; leading proponent of legal realism

Other legal scholars

 * Matthew Adler (1991), law professor
 * Ian Ayres (1986), professor at Yale Law School and the Yale School of Management, 1994–present
 * David C. Baldus (1964, LL.M. 1969), professor at the University of Iowa College of Law
 * Boris Bittker (1941), professor at Yale Law School, 1946–2005
 * Peter A. Bradford (1964), professor at Vermont Law School and former member of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission
 * Tomiko Brown-Nagin, professor at Harvard Law School
 * Stephen Carter, professor at Yale Law School, 1982–present
 * John C. Coffee (1969), professor at Columbia Law School
 * Arthur Linton Corbin (1899), professor at Yale Law School, 1903–1943
 * Omar Dajani, professor at McGeorge School of Law at the University of the Pacific
 * Harlon L. Dalton, professor at Yale Law School
 * Stuart L. Deutsch (1969), professor at Rutgers School of Law–Newark, 1999–2009
 * Bill Dodge (1991), professor at the University of California, Hastings College of the Law
 * Elizabeth Emens (2002), professor at Columbia Law School, 2005–present
 * Cynthia Estlund (1983), professor at New York University School of Law
 * Bill Felstiner (1958), professor at Cardiff University, 1995–2005; specializes in law and sociology
 * Claire Finkelstein (1993), professor at the University of Pennsylvania Law School
 * Nicole Garnett (1995), professor at Notre Dame Law School, 1999–present
 * Richard Garnett (1995), professor at Notre Dame Law School, 1999–present
 * Michael Gottesman, professor at Georgetown University Law Center
 * Daniel Halberstam, professor at the University of Michigan Law School
 * Clarence Halbert (1897), co–founder of William Mitchell College of Law
 * Kermit L. Hall, legal historian and member of the Assassination Records Review Board
 * Philip Hamburger (1982), professor at Columbia Law School
 * Samuel Issacharoff (1983), professor at New York University School of Law
 * Brian Kalt (1997), professor at Michigan State University College of Law
 * Michael I. Krauss (LL.M. 1978), professor at George Mason University School of Law, 1987–present
 * Ethan Leib (2003), professor at Fordham Law School
 * Louis Loss (1937), professor at Harvard Law School, considered the intellectual father of modern securities law
 * Jonathan R. Macey (1982), professor at Yale Law School
 * Robert T. Miller (1997), professor at the University of Iowa College of Law
 * Eric L. Muller (1987), professor at the University of North Carolina School of Law
 * H. Jefferson Powell (1982), professor at George Washington University School of Law, 2010–present
 * Jedediah Purdy (2001), professor at Duke University Law School
 * Charles A. Reich (1952), professor at Yale Law School and author of The Greening of America
 * Glenn Reynolds, professor at the University of Tennessee College of Law
 * Deborah Rhode (1977), professor at Stanford Law School
 * Daniel Richman (1984), Paul J. Kellner Professor of Law at Columbia Law School
 * Fred Rodell, professor at Yale Law School
 * Joel Rogers, professor at the University of Wisconsin Law School
 * Chris William Sanchirico (1994), professor at the University of Pennsylvania Law School
 * Brett Scharffs (1992), professor at the J. Reuben Clark Law School of Brigham Young University, 1997–present
 * Wesley Alba Sturges (1923), professor at Yale Law School
 * Eleanor Swift, professor at the UC Berkeley School of Law
 * Donald F. Turner (1950), professor at Harvard Law School
 * Mark Tushnet, professor at Harvard Law School
 * Steven Walt (1988), professor at the University of Virginia School of Law
 * Matthew Waxman, professor at Columbia Law School
 * Rivka Weill, professor at Harry Radzyner Law School, Interdisciplinary Center
 * Mark S. Weiner, professor at Rutgers School of Law–Newark
 * Charles Whitebread, professor at the University of Southern California Law School
 * Steven Wilf, professor at the University of Connecticut School of Law
 * Michael Wishnie, professor at Yale Law School
 * Theodore Salisbury Woolsey, professor at Yale Law School
 * Katra Zajc (LL.M.), professor at the University of Ljubljana

Other scholars

 * Peter Berkowitz, professor of political science at Harvard University, 1990–1999
 * Scott Boorman (1978), professor of sociology at Yale University
 * Lawrence Douglas (1989), professor at Amherst College
 * Murray Gerstenhaber (1948), mathematician and lawyer, professor at the University of Pennsylvania
 * Austin Sarat (1988), professor of political science at Amherst College
 * Ian Shapiro (1987), professor of political science at Yale University
 * Ruth Wedgwood, professor of international relations at the School of Advanced International Studies at Johns Hopkins University
 * Michael Woodford, professor of economics at Columbia University
 * Kyu Ho Youm (M.S.L.), professor of journalism at the University of Oregon

Activism

 * Jasper Alston Atkins (1922), civil rights activist and the first black editor of the Yale Law Journal
 * D'Army Bailey (1967), civil rights activist and founder of the National Civil Rights Museum
 * Mark Barnes (1984), attorney and AIDS activist
 * Craig Becker, labor attorney and a member of the National Labor Relations Board, 2010–2011
 * Cornell William Brooks, civil rights activist, attorney, and former President & CEO, NAACP
 * Kathleen Neal Cleaver, prominent member of the Black Panther Party
 * Bill Drayton (1970), founder of Ashoka: Innovators for the Public, a global social entrepreneurship organization
 * Marian Wright Edelman (1963), president and founder of the Children's Defense Fund
 * Robert Gnaizda, co-founder of the Greenlining Institute
 * Seth Green, founder of Americans for Informed Democracy
 * Michael Harrington, chairman of Democratic Socialists of America, 1982–1989
 * Kenneth Hecht, public interest attorney and advocate for improved access to affordable, nutritious food
 * Louis Clayton Jones, civil rights activist and founder of the National Conference of Black Lawyers
 * Van Jones (1993), environmental activist, civil rights activist, and attorney; founder of Green For All
 * Henry T. King (1943), prosecutor at the Nuremberg trials, 1946–1947
 * Gay McDougall, civil rights activist and executive director of Global Rights, 1994–2006
 * Michael Meltsner, civil rights litigator First Asst.Counsel NAACP Legal Defense Fund, 1961–1970
 * Creighton Miller, founder of the National Football League Players Association labor union
 * Lisa Richette, child welfare activist
 * Catherine Roraback (1948), civil rights attorney best known for representing the plaintiffs in the landmark 1965 Supreme Court case Griswold v. Connecticut
 * Kenneth Roth (1980), executive director of Human Rights Watch, 1993–present
 * Linda Rottenberg, founder of Endeavor
 * Andrew Shapiro, founder of GreenOrder, an environmental sustainability consulting firm
 * James Speth (1969), attorney and environmental activist
 * Gregory Stanton, founder and president of Genocide Watch, 1999–present
 * R. Douglas Stuart Jr. (1946), founder of the America First Committee, the foremost non-interventionist pressure group against the American entry into World War II, while a student at Yale Law
 * Neera Tanden (1996), president of the Center for American Progress, 2011–present
 * William Taylor (1954), civil rights activist

Business

 * Lon Babby (1976), President of the Phoenix Suns
 * Jeff Ballabon, senior vice president of CBS News; also an Orthodox Jewish lobbyist and the founder of Coordinating Council on Jerusalem
 * Alfred Wellington Carter (1893), prominent landowner in Hawaii
 * Dick Cass (1971), president of the Baltimore Ravens from 2004 to 2022
 * Sam Cohn (1956), co-founder of International Creative Management and talent agent to Paul Newman, Woody Allen, and Meryl Streep, among others
 * E. Virgil Conway (1956), chairman and CEO of the New York State Metropolitan Transportation Authority
 * Michael R. Eisenson (1981), co-founder, managing director, and CEO of Charlesbank Capital Partners, a private equity investment firm based in Boston and New York City
 * Charles E. Fraser, real estate developer
 * Arthur Frommer (1953), publisher of Frommer's travel guidebook series
 * Tom Glocer, CEO of Thomson Reuters and Reuters
 * Najeeb Halaby (1940), businessman and father of Queen Noor of Jordan
 * Joel Hyatt, co-founder of Current TV with Al Gore
 * Eli Jacobs (1964), financier and owner of the Baltimore Orioles, 1989–1993
 * William M. Jennings, executive in the National Hockey League and president of the New York Rangers
 * Victor S. Johnson, Jr., president of Aladdin Industries
 * John Koskinen, non-executive chairman of Freddie Mac, 2008–2011
 * Michael E. Levine (1965), airline executive
 * Larry Lucchino (1971), president and CEO of the Boston Red Sox
 * J. Howard Marshall (1931), oil magnate, known for his marriage to Anna Nicole Smith
 * Mark McCormack, founder of IMG, an international sports and media company
 * Nicolas D. Muzin (1975), Politico and founder of Stonington Global.
 * Neal Pilson (1963), former president of CBS Sports
 * Robert Pozen (1972, J.S.D. 1973), vice chairman and president of Fidelity Investments
 * Ken Stern, CEO of National Public Radio
 * John Butler Talcott (1846), industrialist and founder of the New Britain Museum of American Art
 * Brooks Thomas, CEO of Harper & Row
 * Raymond S. Troubh, independent financial consultant who served as a general partner at Lazard, 1961–1974; interim chairman of Enron, 2002–2004
 * Hubertus van der Vaart, Dutch businessman and co-founder and chairman of SEAF
 * Fay Vincent (1963), 8th Commissioner of Major League Baseball, 1989–1992
 * John P. Wheeler III (1975), chairman of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund
 * Tim and Nina Zagat (1966), co-founders and publishers of Zagat
 * John E. Zuccotti (1963), real estate developer and namesake of Zuccotti Park
 * C. Montgomery Burns

Film, theater, and television

 * Lisa Bloom (1986), anchor of Lisa Bloom: Open Court on Court TV
 * Katy Chevigny, documentary filmmaker.
 * La Carmina, Canadian fashion blogger, author, journalist, and host on CNNGo
 * Jeff Greenfield (1967), senior political correspondent for CBS Evening News
 * Yul Kwon (2000), host of American Revealed on PBS and winner of Survivor: Cook Islands
 * D. G. Martin, host of North Carolina Bookwatch on UNC-TV
 * Gene Sperling (1985), writer on The West Wing
 * Ben Stein (1970), actor and host of Win Ben Stein's Money

Writers

 * Renata Adler (1979), novelist, staff writer for The New Yorker, and film critic for The New York Times
 * Joseph Amiel (1962), attorney and writer of popular fiction
 * Aditi Banerjee, co-author and editor of Invading the Sacred
 * Chesa Boudin (2011), progressive writer
 * Lan Cao, author of the 1997 novel Monkey Bridge and 2014 novel The Lotus and the Storm (Viking)
 * Stephen Carter (1979), novelist
 * Ken Chen, poet
 * Nelson Denis (1980), editorial director of El Diario/La Prensa, author of War Against All Puerto Ricans (Nation Books, 2015)
 * Heidi W. Durrow (1995), novelist
 * Robin Goldstein (2002), food and wine critic
 * Adam Haslett (2003), short story writer
 * Julie Hilden (1992), novelist
 * Laura Chapman Hruska, novelist and co-founder and editor-in-chief of Soho Press
 * Jamil Jivani (2013), author of Why Young Men
 * Bruce Judson (1984), author of business and public policy books
 * Edward Lazarus (1987), author of the 1998 non-fiction book Closed Chambers
 * He Li (2003), Chinese-language poet
 * Walter Lord (1948), author of the 1955 book A Night to Remember, considered a definitive account of the Titanic disaster
 * Daniyal Mueenuddin (1996), short story writer
 * David Orr (1999), poet
 * Matthew Pearl, novelist
 * Daniel Pink, author
 * Gretchen Rubin (1995), author of the 2009 book The Happiness Project
 * David Stewart (1978), non-fiction writer
 * Julius Taranto (2016), novelist
 * Alina Tugend (M.S.L.), columnist for The New York Times
 * Qian Julie Wang (2012), author of  Beautiful Country
 * Clement Wood, poet
 * Elizabeth Wurtzel (2008), author of the 1994 memoir Prozac Nation
 * Monica Youn, poet

Commentators

 * Michael Barone (1969), conservative political analyst, pundit, and journalist; principal author of The Almanac of American Politics
 * Lanny Davis (1970), political commentator and author of Scandal: How "Gotcha" Politics Is Destroying America
 * Van Jones (1993), political analyst for CNN
 * Jonathan Kay (1997), editor-in-chief of The Walrus
 * Mark Levine, progressive political pundit and radio host

Journalists

 * Emily Bazelon (2000), staff writer, The New York Times Magazine, former senior editor of Slate
 * Bob Cohn, executive editor of Wired, 2001–2008
 * Nelson Antonio Denis (1980), editorial director of El Diario/La Prensa, former member of the New York State Assembly
 * Ronan Farrow (2009), contributor to The New Yorker and Pulitzer Prize winner
 * Craig Forman, foreign correspondent and bureau chief for The Wall Street Journal
 * Jack Fuller, Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist and president of the Tribune Company
 * Linda Greenhouse (M.S.L. 1978), Supreme Court correspondent for The New York Times
 * Patrick Radden Keefe, staff writer for The New Yorker, appointed as a Guggenheim Fellow in 2006
 * David Lat (1999), founder and managing editor of Above the Law, a blog about the legal profession
 * Adam Liptak (1988), Supreme Court correspondent for The New York Times
 * Victor Navasky (1959), editor of The Nation, 1978–1995; publisher of The Nation, 1995–2005; chairman of the Columbia Journalism Review, 2005–present
 * Viveca Novak (M.S.L.), political correspondent for Time
 * Charlie Savage (2003), reporter for The New York Times
 * Luiza Savage, Washington bureau chief, Maclean's magazine

Military

 * Edward J. Stackpole (1915), newspaper publisher, author, U.S. Army major general
 * Alfred Terry, general of the Union Army during the American Civil War

Sports

 * Rodney Aller, masters skier
 * Al Hessberg (1941), college football player
 * William G. Norton, college football coach
 * Fay Moulton, Olympic sprinter and college football player
 * Jim O'Rourke (1887), Major League Baseball player and manager
 * Tom Shevlin (1906), four-year track star (broke school record in hammer throw); All-American end and captain; post-grad volunteer coach of football team
 * Ted St. Germaine (1914), professional football player in the National Football League

Other

 * T. Bill Andrews, abstract impressionist painter, author, federal ALJ
 * Dyke Brown (1941), founder of The Athenian School
 * John Anthony Flood, sociologist, legal academic, consultant, author and a researcher
 * Richard Green (1987), psychiatrist specializing in homosexuality and transsexualism
 * Stewart Rhodes (2004), founder of the Oath Keepers, convicted for seditious conspiracy in the January 6 United States Capitol attack
 * Pat Robertson (1955), televangelist and founder of Regent University
 * Vanessa Selbst (2012), professional poker player
 * Sherman Day Thacher (1886), founder of The Thacher School
 * Iwan Tirta (1964), fashion designer
 * Louis W. Tompros, academic and lawyer
 * Yona Reiss (1991), Chief Rabbinical judge of the Chicago Rabbinical Council

Non-graduates
These students attended Yale Law but, for various reasons, did not graduate.


 * Judah P. Benjamin, Secretary of State of the Confederate States; U.S. Senator from Louisiana
 * Henry Billings Brown, Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, 1890–1906
 * Henry Louis Gates, professor of history at Harvard University
 * Alexander T. Hawthorn, Confederate States Army general
 * Michael Medved, author, film critic, and radio talk show host
 * David Milch (expelled), television writer and producer
 * Robert B. Silvers, co-founder and editor of The New York Review of Books

Fictitious alumni

 * Arthur Branch, character on the TV series Law & Order
 * Alexis Davis, character on the TV series General Hospital
 * Greg Foster, character on the TV series The Young and the Restless
 * Amy Gardner, character on the TV series The West Wing
 * Judge Chamberlain Haller, character in the film My Cousin Vinny
 * Josh Lyman, character on the TV series The West Wing
 * Jordan McDeere, character on the TV series Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip
 * Selina Meyer, character on the TV series Veep
 * Wayne Palmer, character on the TV series 24
 * Bruce Wayne, alter ego of Batman, as disclosed in Detective Comics 439