Harry A. Shulman (May 14, 1903 – March 20, 1955) was a professor at

Yale Law School Yale Law School (YLS) is the law school of Yale University, a Private university, private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. It was established in 1824. The 2020–21 acceptance rate was 4%, the lowest of any law school in the United ...

from 1930 to 1954, the Dean of Yale Law School from 1954–1955, and a prominent labor arbitrator.

Early life

Shulman was born in Krugloye near

Mogilev Mogilev (; , ), also transliterated as Mahilyow (, ), is a city in eastern Belarus. It is located on the Dnieper, Dnieper River, about from the Belarus–Russia border, border with Russia's Smolensk Oblast and from Bryansk Oblast. As of 2024, ...

(now in

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), in the

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in 1903. His parents were Simon Shulman and Tillie Klebanoff. He emigrated to the United States in 1912. His family moved to

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. He earned his B.A. from

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in 1923 after only three years of college. He earned an LL.B., and S.J.D. from

Harvard Law School Harvard Law School (HLS) is the law school of Harvard University, a Private university, private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1817, Harvard Law School is the oldest law school in continuous operation in the United ...

, in 1926 and 1927 respectively. He received an honorary Doctor of Laws degree from

on June 1, 1953. He practiced law for a year in New York City before clerking for Justice Louis Dembitz Brandeis from 1929 to 1930.

Yale Law School

In 1930, became an instructor at Yale Law School. In 1931, he was made an assistant professor of law. His son, Stephen N. Shulman, was born in 1933. He became an associate professor in 1933, and a professor in 1937. He became a Lines Professor in 1939, and a Sterling Professor in 1940. He was described as a superb teacher. His scholarly work concerned torts, administrative law scholarship, and labor contracts. His lecture, "Reason, Contract, and Law in Labor Relations", has been cited hundreds of times. In 1941, he completed his work on the Attorney General's Committee on Administrative Procedure, which was "among the factors guiding the modern evolution of administrative law. He was named as the next Dean of Yale Law School on January 12, 1954. On July 1, 1954, he became Dean of Yale Law School. He died in 1955 from cancer. A scholarship fund was established in his honor in 1955, a research fund in 1957, and a library fund in 1963. Conferences on labor relations were held at Yale Law School in his honor on April 6th and 7th, 1956 and January 10th and 11th, 1958

Work as arbitrator

Shulman was "one of the most influential people in the history of American Labor arbitration." His "greatest accomplishment", according to Eugene V. Rostow, was "the establishment of regular procedures for peacefully enforcing the provisions of labor contracts." He was known as an arbitrator of even temperament, common sense, good humor, and exceptional judgment. He was a temporary board member of the

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. He was an associate member of the National War Labor Board during World War II. He also served on the Connecticut Labor Relations Board and the Alien Enemy Hearing Board of Connecticut. He was a special counsel for the

Railroad Retirement Board The U.S. Railroad Retirement Board (RRB) is an Independent agencies of the United States government, independent agency in the Federal government of the United States#Executive branch, executive branch of the United States government created in 1 ...

from 1934 to 1936, and assisted in the arguing of Railroad Retirement Board v. Alton Railroad Co. before the Supreme Court. He led a panel on steel workers wages during the

1952 steel strike The 1952 steel strike was a strike by the United Steelworkers of America (USWA) against U.S. Steel (USS) and nine other steelmakers. The strike was scheduled to begin on April 9, 1952, but US President Harry Truman nationalized the America ...

. He also helped arbitrate an aircraft industry workers' collective bargaining case in 1952, which resulted in a 14 cent an hour wage increase. He was a member of the

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during the

Korean War The Korean War (25 June 1950 – 27 July 1953) was an armed conflict on the Korean Peninsula fought between North Korea (Democratic People's Republic of Korea; DPRK) and South Korea (Republic of Korea; ROK) and their allies. North Korea was s ...

. Many of the cases that Shulman handled involved violence. He was a member of the

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's committee on administrative procedure in 1940 and 1941. As a reporter for the

American Law Institute The American Law Institute (ALI) is a research and advocacy group of judges, lawyers, and legal scholars limited to 3,000 elected members and established in 1923 to promote the clarification and simplification of United States common law and i ...

on the restatement of torts, he dealt with unfair competition, trademark infringements and labor disputes. He was a member of the council of the American Law Institute from 1947 to 1952. In May 1954, he received the Americanism Award of the Connecticut Valley Council of

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Selected works

* ''Cases and materials on the law of torts'' with Fleming James Jr., 1942 * ''Cases on labor relations'' with

Neil W. Chamberlain Neil Cornelius Wolverton Chamberlain (May 18, 1915 – September 14, 2006) was an American economist who was the Armand G. Erpf Professor of Modern Corporations of the Graduate School of Business at Columbia University. Before that he was a prof ...

, 1949 * ''A study of law administration in Connecticut : a report of an investigation of the activities of certain trial courts of the state'' with

Charles Edward Clark Charles Edward Clark (December 9, 1889 – December 13, 1963) was the 5th Dean of Yale Law School and a United States circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. Education and career Born on December 9, 1889, in ...

, 1937 * ''Opinions of the Umpire'', 1945 * ''Cases on Federal Jurisdictions and Procedure'' with

Felix Frankfurter Felix Frankfurter (November 15, 1882 – February 22, 1965) was an American jurist who served as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States from 1939 until 1962, advocating judicial restraint. Born in Vienna, Frankfurter im ...

, 1937

References

External links