Alford Tribute

Benjamin L. Liebman
Robert L. Lieff Professor of Law, Columbia Law School

A Tribute to Professor William P. Alford

In the summer of 1988, travelling from Dengshikou, in the center of Beijing, to the Xiyuan Hotel, just across from the Beijing Zoo, seemed like travelling to the outer edge of Beijing. I was back in Beijing visiting my host family at the end of the summer, and they were worried about me travelling so far on my own. But I had an invitation to dinner with an American professor, and my host family reluctantly let me travel across Beijing on the electric trolley bus to attend the dinner. 

I do not remember how I managed to make arrangements to meet Professor William Alford for dinner (home telephones were still rare). But I do remember the dinner, at which we were joined by a handful of Bill’s students from UCLA. I also remember that Bill took me seriously, despite the fact I was 19, still years away from law school, and probably a bit self-focused in describing the summer I had just spent in Chengdu. The image I have of that dinner is one that has stayed with me: Bill, surrounded by students, showing deep concern for and great interest in each of his students, and for me. The scene repeated itself two years later, when I again met Bill in Beijing, and he took me along the following night to attend a Cui Jian concert in Ritan Park—in what may have been Cui’s first public appearance since Tiananmen Square the year before. This was my first inkling of how Bill always manages to stay connected to the pressing issues of the day. 

A few years later it was Bill who single-handedly convinced me to go to law school. I was considering pursuing a Ph.D. in Chinese literature. Bill made the persuasive argument that a law degree was the best way to study and be engaged with China. I am not sure if I ever really decided I wanted to go to law school, but I did decide that I wanted to be Bill’s student. It was the most important career decision I have made, and one that transformed me into Bill’s student for the decades that have followed. Bill’s argument—that a degree in law opens up an enormous range of opportunities for those with an interest in and passion for China—has been one that I have found myself repeating countless times over the years. 

Bill’s career has itself reflected this advice: he has combined scholarship with engagement throughout his career. He has written eloquently and insightfully on a stunning range of topics from Qing legal history, to trade, environmental law, the legal profession, disability law, and intellectual property law. In many of his writings he has been prescient, writing about important issues, such as Chinese environmental law, before their importance has been apparent to others. He has pursued nuanced understandings of law in China, most notably intellectual property law, even when doing so has not been fashionable. And he has sought to highlight the legal needs of those often overlooked by legal systems undergoing rapid change. At every step of his scholarly career Bill has also pursued constructive engagement with the world outside the academy, from his work with the Committee on Legal Education and Exchange with China in the 1980s and early 1990s, his efforts helping China draft environmental laws in the 1990s and 2000s, and his crucially important work on disability law and tireless efforts for the Special Olympics over the past twenty years. He has never shied away from doing what is right, be it hosting dissidents seeking refuge from oppressive regimes abroad, or fighting bias here in the United States. In much of this work he has been joined by Yuanyuan Shen, herself a distinguished scholar, and also a mentor to many of Bill’s students. 

Many can attest to Bill’s almost super-human commitment to serve others:  his devotion to his colleagues, to Harvard Law School, to scholarship that advances our understanding of China, to the Special Olympics and those with disabilities, and to his family. For me the greatest manifestation of Bill’s dedication to those around him has always been his devotion to his students. I am sure that I am not alone in recalling the long hours Bill spent with me during my 1L year as I struggled to find relevance in the first-year curriculum, given that it was my interest in China that had brought to law school. Likewise, I am sure I am not the only one who can remember Bill reading multiple drafts of everything I wrote, and at times calling me with a few last-minute suggestions before I submitted my work for publication. Bill came up with a very creative way to spend my 1L year in China (simultaneously navigating the equally challenging Harvard Law School funding bureaucracy and Chinese visa regulations). Even more importantly, he guided me throughout my law school career as I sought to balance my interest in pursuing all things related to China with the need to establish myself as a student of American law. It was Bill who first suggested that I clerk (and later spent hours on the phone with prospective judges on my behalf, convincing them to take me despite my somewhat thin background in U.S. constitutional law), and who explained to me why experience working within the U.S. court system would make me a better scholar of China. It was probably Bill who convinced me to take Federal Courts during my final semester at Harvard Law School. It was certainly Bill who, a few years later, helped me prepare for academic job interviews. 

When you become Bill’s student, you become his student for life. Bill has been a reader of my draft papers throughout my career, in particular in my pre-tenure years. His comments today are as detailed and thoughtful as they were when I was in law school. He takes obvious delight when his students thrive. And he is there for students when they run into challenges along the way.

Bill set an extraordinarily high bar for all of us who followed him and became teachers and scholars ourselves. He has worked tirelessly to make the study of Chinese law more than just a niche subject, best manifested by his large 1L class on Chinese law at Harvard. He writes more letters or recommendation than any professor I know. His work, and in particular his teaching, reflects the passionate belief that through the study of foreign legal systems we become better scholars of and practitioners in our own legal systems.

What does it mean to be a great teacher?  For me, it means trying to be like Bill Alford. It means combining principled scholarly insight with compassion and academic rigor inside and outside the classroom. It means always being there for your students, even decades after they graduate. But perhaps more than anything, it means inspiring generations of students from China, the United States, and the rest of the world to seek to deepen their understanding of a range of legal systems and of each other, and to engage in the world outside the academy to effect positive change, regardless of the geopolitical winds. 

Angela Ciccolo 
Chief Legal Officer & Secretary, Special Olympics
Tim Shriver
Chair of Board of Directors, Special Olympics

Bill Alford: A Legacy of Inclusion

Professor William Alford is a recognized expert in international legal studies. He has been awarded an honorary doctorate degree, delivered endowed lectures, held honorary professor roles in multiple countries, and received prestigious awards, accolades, and fellowships. He is a prolific author, having written dozens of books and publications. He has served as founding Chair of the Harvard Law School Project on Disability. Professor Alford is undeniably a star.

To us, and to the Special Olympics movement, he is all that and so much more. He is Bill. Bill is a considerate, calm, conscientious force for good. His dedication, inspiration, ethics, collaborative spirit and incredible intellect have helped our organization to reach people with intellectual disabilities all over the world. As Lead Director and Chair of the Executive Committee of the International Board of Directors for Special Olympics, Bill’s decades of experience transcending barriers and borders are a natural fit with how we use sports as a catalyst for social inclusion for people with intellectual disabilities. 

Bill has been involved as a volunteer for Special Olympics since the early days of the movement. He has applied the depth and breadth of his expertise to strategic plans, key milestones, and our raison d’être. Today, Special Olympics has six million athletes with intellectual disabilities and Unified partners participating in sports in over 240 local programs in over 190 countries and territories. His persistence and presence were instrumental in bringing the promise of inclusion for people with disabilities to China, and in ensuring the resounding success of the 2007 Special Olympics World Summer Games in Shanghai. Indeed, although it took decades for the seeds of hope planted during his 1979 trip to China with Sargent Shriver to germinate, the fruits of that initial visit and legacy of those World Games are present today in vibrant programming for over one million Chinese athletes and their families. Bill is to thank for this, because he tied the country’s historic roots and benevolent approach to disability with the present need to give people with intellectual disabilities opportunities to display their gifts and to be productive citizens. 

Bill understands the significance of hearing the voices of the underrepresented. When he sees a barrier, he brings everything in his arsenal to tear it down. One facet of his leadership style is to clear paths for equity. His first initiative on being named Lead Director five years ago was to start a diversity and inclusion task force, with himself and our Chief Legal Officer as co-chairs, in an effort to empower staff at all levels in the organization to create a work environment and organizational culture that understands, values, and expects diversity, equity, and inclusion. 

Bill shares his many gifts freely. He is generous to a fault with his time. Some would never imagine an esteemed Harvard Law professor sitting in a school gym on the Southside of Chicago chatting and laughing with students with intellectual disabilities like they were long lost friends. They might not be able to imagine him treating Special Olympics athletes to ice cream in Abu Dhabi just because he really wanted to hear about their lives and hopes for the future. Whether it is being a champion for inclusion, a wonderful friend, counselor, listener, hockey fan, husband and father, lawyer, student of history, volunteer and more, Bill is an extraordinary, inspiring advocate for justice. He’s often heard saying, “However much I work, I always receive more than I could possibly contribute.” You will often hear us saying, “We have received so much more from Bill than we could possibly acknowledge.” Thank you, Bill.

Jean (Jee Eun) Lee
J.D.’19, Harvard Law School

Professor Alford is a wonderful teacher and a caring, generous mentor to so many, including myself. I first met Professor Alford as an undergraduate student, when he came to speak at a policy seminar session focused on U.S.-China relations at Princeton. I still vividly remember how inspiring it was to hear about his initiatives on disability rights and insights on public interest law issues in China, and to discuss further with him after the seminar. Through short, but memorable interactions with him, I quickly learned how much impact one can make as a legal scholar. Thereafter, I participated in various events in New York and Cambridge, where Professor Alford spoke on various issues of comparative law relating to China. Professor Alford, the wonderful East Asian Legal Studies Program, and the rich international and comparative law opportunities at Harvard Law under his leadership were undoubtedly the main reasons I decided to join Harvard Law School.

While Professor Alford’s tremendous achievements in legal education and legal exchange are truly inspiring, Professor Alford’s dedication to mentoring and cultivating the next generation is just as special. As a teacher, Professor Alford provides thought-provoking comments on each student’s seminar paper, and he would be genuinely interested in discussing ideas after class and even suggestions to further improve the class. He was a caring advisor and mentor for the Harvard International Law Journal (HILJ) when I was the Lead Executive Editor. During my time as the HILJ Co-Conference Chair, Professor Alford helped us invite the keynote speaker of our choice, Song Sang Hyun, former President of the ICC, who fondly remembered Professor Alford and gladly accepted. Whenever I had to make important decisions in my career or academic life, I would reach out to Professor Alford for his advice, and he was always happy to share his thoughts. Not only did he offer me very helpful practical advice, but he also pushed me to think about my deep interests and desires in the long run. These are just a few examples of Professor Alford’s willingness to listen to students’ experiences and his dedication to enriching student academic life, as well as co-curricular activities on campus.

I am indebted to Professor Alford for his generosity, mentorship, and support in many ways, and it brings me much joy and gratitude to know that I’m only one of so many stories of Professor Alford having a wonderful impact on his students’ lives.

Ken Yang
LL.M.’18; EALS, ’18-19

I was extremely fortunate to be mentored by Professor Alford during my time at the HLS Graduate Program (Class of 2018) and at East Asian Legal Studies. I can still recall our first encounter in late summer of 2017. When I introduced myself during the LL.M. orientation, as director of the Graduate Studies, Prof. Alford immediately connected my name to my profile while addressing my alma mater with its native Chinese name ‘Beida’ instead of its official English title, a detail that I truly appreciated. My research focuses on modern Chinese history and international law, and in the winter of 2017 I had asked Professor Alford for his supervision while I was at HLS. He has since acted as an important mentor. Adjusting to the academic life at HLS was not always easy, and for a period of time I had trouble navigating through this unfamiliar landscape, and coping with its challenges. Professor Alford was there for me, and his calming and reassuring presence always carried me forward. For that I will be forever grateful. 

Many of my lengthy conversations with Professor Alford took place in the meeting room at Austin 301, a room that was filled with volumes on East Asian law and memorabilia from all over Asia. I always took that meeting room as a testament to Professor Alford’s lifelong commitment to bridging legal communities on different sides of the Pacific. Both inside and outside his classroom, Professor Alford would strive to connect students of different national backgrounds to facilitate the exchange of experiences and ideas. At this time of unprecedented rupture and turbulence, the world could certainly benefit from the kindness and openness that Professor Alford has embodied.

Valerie Sapozhnikova 
J.D. ’16, Harvard Law School

Harvard Law has many amazing professors, and Professor Alford stands out among them. I have the fondest memories of Professor Alford’s classroom — he brought so much enthusiasm and positivity to every class, there was never a boring day. His passion for the topic is contagious and you can’t help but learn so much in his class. Professor Alford genuinely cares for his students and I feel so fortunate to have been one of them. 

John Kamm
Executive Director, Dui Hua

In recent years, Professor Alford has been my host on numerous visits to Harvard. He has gone the extra mile, helping me with arrangements and opportunities to address his class of bright and engaging students, and others, as well as get-togethers with faculty members.

He has asked me to assist on sensitive cases, which I have gladly done.

My time at Harvard in recent years has been among the happiest days of my “second career” as a human rights activist, the executive director of The Dui Hua Foundation.

Through Professor Alford’s assistance, a colleague and I have accessed Harvard’s unparalleled collections to search for and find hundreds of cases of prisoners, many of whose names were, prior to our discovery, unknown to the outside world. 

Professor Alford has helped save lives, including those with disabilities in China, and has given form to the Talmud’s teaching that “He who saves a life saves the world entire.”