The Late Phillip Areeda Receives Sacks-Freund Teaching Award

The Class of 1996 has chosen the late Professor Phillip Areeda to be the recipient of the 1996 Albert M. Sacks-Paul A. Freund Award for Teaching Excellence, an honor that is given to one professor each year by vote of the graduating class.

The country's foremost expert on antitrust law, Areeda died of leukemia on Dec. 24, 1995, in Cambridge. He was 65.

The award recognizes teaching ability, attentiveness to student concerns, and general contribution to student life at Harvard Law School. Established in 1992, the award is named in honor of the late Professor Albert Sacks and the late Professor Paul Freund.

The award notes Areeda's "commitment to excellence and his demonstrated interest in the quality of the student experience."

The professor also received the award from the Class of 1994 and is the only two-time recipient.

Areeda was revered by generations of Harvard law students who knew him as a master of the Socratic method of teaching, which seeks to engage students in a critical dialogue to help them learn to formulate and analyze legal arguments.

Areeda dedicated his legal career to the field of antitrust. He devoted nearly two decades to writing his 10-volume treatise, Antitrust Law. The work, a standard in the field, is relied on extensively by lawyers and judges, so much so that U.S. Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer once remarked that most lawyers would prefer to have on their side "two paragraphs of Areeda on Antitrust than four Courts of Appeals and three Supreme Court Justices." Areeda also authored the field's leading textbook, Antitrust Analysis.

Areeda was a native of Detroit, Mich. He received his A.B. in economics from Harvard College in 1951 and his LL.B. from Harvard Law School in 1954, both degrees summa cum laude.

After serving as assistant special counsel to President Eisenhower, Areeda joined the Law School faculty, becoming assistant professor of law in 1961, professor of law in 1963, and Langdell Professor of Law in 1981. Areeda returned briefly to Washington in 1969 to serve as executive director of the President's Cabinet Task Force on Oil Import Control and again from 1974 to 1975 as counsel to President Ford.

Last year the U.S. Department of Justice gave Areeda the John Sherman Award in recognition of his contribution to the field of antitrust law. Attorney General Janet Reno, speaking at the award ceremony, called Areeda "a guiding light. . . . His writings and teachings have furthered the cause of economic freedom and opportunity as a central principle in American society."

In April 1996 the School's Langdell Hall West Wing building, housing faculty offices and library space, was renamed Areeda Hall in honor of the professor.

The renaming also recognizes Areeda's donation of over $5 million to Harvard Law School last year. His gift was the second largest to the Law School from an individual in the School's history.

Students presented the award during Class Day ceremonies yesterday on Holmes Field.