Nigerian Emerges First Female to Hold Same Position as Obama

Gina George/

A Nigerian law student at Harvard University, Imelme Umana, has made history as first female President of the Harvard Law Review (HLR).

Umana will serve as the 131 president of the HLR.

Past presidents of the HLR include former United States President Barack Obama.

President Obama served as the 104th president of the review in 1991.

Also, about seven US Supreme Court judges have previously held the post.

According to its website, ‘‘The Harvard Law Review is a student-run organisation, whose primary purpose is to publish a journal of legal scholarship. The Review comes out monthly from November through June and has roughly 2,500 pages per volume.

‘‘The organisation is formally independent of the Harvard Law School. Student editors make all editorial and organisational decisions and, together with a professional business staff of three, carry out day-to-day operations.’‘

Aside the HLR being an academic forum for legal scholarship, it also serves two other goals. First, to be an effective research tool for practicing lawyers and students of the law. Second, to provide opportunities for Review members to develop their own editing and writing skills.

‘‘The Review publishes articles by professors, judges, and practitioners and solicits reviews of important recent books from recognized experts. All articles — even those by the most respected authorities — are subjected to a rigorous editorial process designed to sharpen and strengthen substance and tone,’‘ the website added.

Each issue of the Review contains pieces by student editors as well as outside authors.

The latest publication by an outsider was by Barack Obama – who happens to be the first US President to have held that office. His piece is titled, The President’s Role in Advancing Criminal Justice Reform.