Pepperdine law professor Kristine S. Knaplund was nominated as one of Harvard Law School’s “Women Inspiring Change,” a joint honor by the Harvard Women’s Law Association, the Harvard Law and International Development Society and other HLS organizations in honor of International Women’s Day on March 5.
Knaplund, nominated by a former student, shares the nominee list with other influential female lawyers and policymakers such as Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D—Mass.) and Mahmoud Al-Zahran, founder of Saudi Arabia’s first all-female law firm. Her portrait will feature in a 2-week long photo exhibit dubbed “Inspiring Change, Inspiring Us” in Harvard’s Wasserstein Hall from March 6-14.
Knaplund said being one of the nominees in a list that includes other prestigious names in law is special. “Everyone knows their names,” she said. “I’m certainly not in that category, but I think my contribution to this has been in helping individual people grow and learn and feel confident in their ability to go out and make the world better.”
“We are so honored and so proud of this tribute of one of our very finest faculty members, she is such a deserving honoree,” Law School Dean Deanell Tacha said.
“She is a very challenging, engaged, thoughtful and committed teacher who works way beyond her classroom. She’s very good in the classroom but spends an enormous amount of time outside the classroom assisting current and staying in touch with former students,” she said.
Alumna Jennifer Allison (’07), who is a law librarian at the Harvard Law Library, nominated Knaplund. “Kris inspires me with her genuine warmth and tireless willingness to mentor those who follow her,” Allison said in the nomination audio clip on the Women Inspiring Change Harvard website. .
Upon receiving the email revealing the nomination Knaplund said she was “stunned and thrilled.”
“It feels wonderful. I’m grateful for the recognition and I’m also really happy that my former student has done so well and thinks so highly of me,” Knaplund said. “[I feel] incredible gratitude, partly toward the student who nominated me and partly to the Harvard Law School for accepting the nomination and recognizing that I have made an impact.”
After completing the online nomination form, Allison, who used to be Knaplund’s research assistant, reviewed her career accomplishments as a law professor. “I thought Kris was an especially deserving nominee. She has been very inspirational to me as I have developed my career in the law,” she wrote in an email.
Knaplund and Allison’s relationship spans several years. It all began when Knaplund was Allison’s Property professor as a first-year law student in 2004. During the course of her three years at Pepperdine, Allison also took Knaplund’s Wills and Trusts class. After graduating, Allison worked at the law school as a librarian for five years while also serving as Knaplund’s librarian liaison.
Allison wrote that one of the stories she remembers the most about Knaplund is when they were working on a project that involved going down to the LA County archives and looking at old wills. “What stories those documents had to tell. It was at that time that I knew I wanted to have a career in research,” she wrote.
Knaplund began teaching in 1983 at UCLA’s law school, where she was honored with several awards, including Professor of the Year. Knaplund joined the Pepperdine School of Law in 2002 and has received the Professor of the Year Award in 2006 as well as the university’s Howard White Award for Excellence in Teaching in 2008.
“I think this is the main way for all professors to recognize that their impact goes way beyond the classroom and it goes beyond graduation too,” Knaplund said. “Jenn graduated in 2007, and here we are in 2014 and she’s still grateful for a relationship that we started back in 2004 and that helped her become what she is today. That’s what teaching is all about: the long-term mentoring which eventually develops into life-long friendships.”
Allison mentioned how highly she thought of Knaplund in the nomination audio clip: “Kris is a staunch champion for other women lawyers, whether they are in academia — faculty or otherwise — or practice, especially those who are just starting their careers.”
Knaplund earned her B.A. from Oberlin College and her J.D. from the University of California Davis School of Law.
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