John R. Kramer

Who was John R. Kramer?

John R. Kramer served as the 19th dean of the Tulane University Law School from 1986 to 1996, and previous to that was an associate dean at Georgetown University. At Tulane he started a law clinic to serve low-income people in New Orleans and made Tulane the first law school in the United States to require a specific number of community service hours for graduation. Under his leadership, African American students came to constitute a greater percentage of the law school student body than in any other non-historically black law school.

A cheerful and outspoken liberal, he relished controversy. He publicly defended the Tulane Environmental Law Clinic when it ran afoul of powerful chemical and oil companies in Louisiana. He also defended the Tulane Appellate Advocacy Program's involvement in a Supreme Court suit against a local utility. During his tenure, Tulane published the nation's first gay law journal. He was succeeded by Tulane Law School Dean Edward F. Sherman.