USA Scholarships
Reginald F. Lewis Fellowship 2027 - $60,000 at HLS
The Reginald F. Lewis Fellowship for Law Teaching pays a recent law graduate $60,000 for a year at Harvard Law School to do the one thing an aspiring law professor never has time for: write. The 2027 term runs from 1 July 2027 through 30 June 2028, and the application closes on Thursday 1 October 2026, with both letters of reference due by that same date rather than shortly after. Harvard asks for a JD, LLM or SJD at the time of application, a demonstrated interest in legal scholarship, and a career pointed at law teaching. The Lewis Fellow is expected to be in residence at the law school during the academic year, must prepare at least one major article for publication on a schedule agreed with the Lewis Committee, and gets to audit courses and sit in on workshops across the school while doing it. The money behind the fellowship came from Reginald F. Lewis, HLS class of 1968 and the founding CEO of TLC Beatrice International, who gave $3 million shortly before his death in 1993, the largest grant in the law school''s history at the time. The programme he and Loida Nicolas Lewis endowed is aimed squarely at enhancing diversity in the profession of legal educators, and the Reginald F. Lewis Foundation has since added $1.5 million to keep it running.
What is the Reginald F. Lewis Fellowship?
The Reginald F. Lewis Fellowship for Law Teaching is a one-year post at Harvard Law School that pays a recent law graduate $60,000 to write their way into the legal academy. Nothing about that is decorative. The US law teaching market runs on published scholarship, and the people who break into it are usually the ones who found a year of protected time somewhere between graduating and going on the market. Harvard hands one person that year, asks for at least one major article in return, and lets them audit courses and sit in on workshops across the school while they produce it.
The money traces back to one person. Reginald F. Lewis finished at Harvard Law in 1968 and went on to found TLC Beatrice International, becoming the first African American to build a billion-dollar company. Shortly before he died in 1993 he gave $3 million to the law school, the largest grant in its history at that point, and the school named its International Law Center after him the same year. He and Loida Nicolas Lewis set up this fellowship with a specific purpose attached, which Harvard still states plainly: the programme particularly supports the training of prospective law teachers who will enhance the diversity of the profession of legal educators. The Reginald F. Lewis Foundation later added $1.5 million to keep it going.
The requirements are short and unusually concrete for an academic fellowship. You need a JD, LLM or SJD at the time of application. You need a demonstrated interest in legal scholarship rather than a stated intention to develop one. You must be preparing for a career in law teaching, and you have to be in residence at Harvard Law School through the academic year, which makes Cambridge a practical condition of accepting. The application is compact: a CV, a project description of no more than four pages describing the work you would prepare for publication, a separate statement of no more than four pages on your interest in law teaching and the fields you want to work in, transcripts, and two letters of reference. Everything goes through the online portal, and [email protected] is the address for anything the page does not answer.
For the 2027 cycle the deadline is Thursday 1 October 2026 and the term runs 1 July 2027 through 30 June 2028. Read that deadline carefully, because it applies to your referees as much as to you: Harvard considers only complete applications, and both letters must be submitted by the same date. The practical advice is boring and it is the thing that decides outcomes. Ask your referees in August, hand them your project description so they can write about something specific, and file a few days early. Then spend your remaining effort on the four-page project description, which is where the decision really gets made. A committee choosing one Fellow is choosing between articles, not between people with promising backgrounds, so name the question you are answering and the argument you are picking a fight with. If you are weighing up other funded research years, the Yale Peace Fellowship guide and the AERC World Bank Visiting Scholars guide cover two more. Full details and the application link sit on the Harvard Law School fellowship page.
Eligibility
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✓A JD, LLM or SJD in handHarvard lists the basic qualification plainly: you need a J.D., LL.M. or S.J.D. degree at the time of application. A law degree in progress does not meet it, and there is no substitute qualification route.
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✓A recent law graduateThe Reginald F. Lewis Fellowship is written for recent graduates rather than for established academics or mid-career practitioners. Harvard does not publish a year cutoff, so if you finished some time ago and have been practising, write to the Lewis Committee before you invest in a full application.
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✓Demonstrated interest in legal scholarshipThe fellowship supports someone who has already shown a strong interest in scholarship, not someone who intends to develop one. Journal work, a published note, an SJD dissertation or research assistance to a faculty member are the kinds of evidence that carry weight here.
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✓Preparing for a career in law teachingThe whole point of the programme is training prospective law teachers, and it particularly supports candidates who will enhance the diversity of the profession of legal educators. Your statement has to make the teaching ambition concrete rather than aspirational.
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✓Able to be in residence at Harvard Law SchoolThe Lewis Fellow is expected to be in residence at Harvard Law School during the academic year. Cambridge, Massachusetts, is where the year happens, so treat relocation as a condition of the award rather than a detail to sort out later.
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✓Willing to commit to a major articleFellows are required to prepare at least one major article for publication and to follow a research and work schedule agreed with the Lewis Committee. The output is the deliverable, and the project description you submit is what you will be held to.
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✓A complete application by 1 October 2026Only complete applications are considered, and that includes both letters of reference. Harvard is explicit that the letters must be in by the deadline rather than trickling in afterwards, so give your referees six weeks, not six days.
Benefits
- Annual stipend $60,000
- Term length One year, 1 July 2027 to 30 June 2028
- Protected writing time The year is for producing scholarship
- Residence at Harvard Law School Expected during the academic year
- Work schedule Agreed with the Lewis Committee
- Tuition or a degree Not a degree programme, no credential awarded
- Housing, relocation or travel allowance Not stated on the official page
- Renewal for a second year Not offered, the term is one year
- Auditing courses Open to the Lewis Fellow
- Faculty workshops Fellows may attend
- A Harvard Law School affiliation Held for the fellowship year
- A track record for the teaching market One major published article is the goal
- A teaching load None, the year is for research and writing
- A faculty appointment at Harvard Not part of the fellowship
- Placement into a law teaching job Not guaranteed, the AALS market is separate
Document checklist
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✓Résumé or CVYour full academic and professional record. Put the scholarly work first, since the committee is reading for research capacity rather than for practice highlights.
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✓Project description, four pages maximumA description of the work you intend to prepare for publication during the fellowship year. Four pages is a hard ceiling, and the strongest versions name the question, the intervention and the literature it argues with rather than describing a broad area of interest.
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✓Statement on law teaching, four pages maximumA separate statement covering your interest in law teaching and the fields in which you want to write and teach. Also capped at four pages. Name specific subject areas, because a candidate who cannot say what they would teach reads as unready.
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✓TranscriptsAcademic transcripts covering your law degrees. Order them early if your institution is slow, since an incomplete file at the deadline is simply not considered.
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✓Two letters of referenceTwo referees who can speak to your scholarly promise, ideally people who have read your written work. Both letters must reach Harvard by 1 October 2026, so ask in August and follow up in mid-September.
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✓The online applicationEverything is submitted through Harvard Law School's online application portal, linked from the fellowship page. Questions go to [email protected], and it is worth using that address early rather than guessing on an eligibility question.
How to apply
Deadline and timeline
FAQ
How much is the Reginald F. Lewis Fellowship worth?
The Lewis Fellow receives an annual stipend of $60,000 for the fellowship year. That is the figure Harvard Law School publishes, and the official page does not list a separate housing, relocation or research allowance on top of it. Budget for Cambridge rents on a $60,000 stipend rather than assuming extras, and ask [email protected] directly if benefits like health coverage matter to your decision.
Who is eligible for the Reginald F. Lewis Fellowship?
A recent law graduate holding a J.D., LL.M. or S.J.D. degree at the time of application, who has demonstrated a strong interest in legal scholarship and is preparing for a career in law teaching. The programme particularly supports the training of prospective law teachers who will enhance the diversity of the profession of legal educators. There is no separate exam, GPA floor or citizenship rule published on the fellowship page.
When is the Reginald F. Lewis Fellowship 2027 deadline?
Thursday 1 October 2026. The detail that catches people out is that both letters of reference must be submitted by that same date, not shortly afterwards. Harvard states that only complete applications are considered, so an otherwise excellent file with one late letter drops out of the running. The term itself runs 1 July 2027 through 30 June 2028.
What does a Lewis Fellow actually do for the year?
Write, mostly. The Fellow is required to prepare at least one major article for publication and to work to a research and work schedule agreed with the Lewis Committee. Alongside that, the Fellow can audit courses and attend workshops at Harvard Law School, which is where a lot of the value sits: a year inside a faculty community is how you learn what the teaching market expects. There is no teaching load attached.
Who was Reginald F. Lewis?
Reginald F. Lewis graduated from Harvard Law School in 1968 and became the founding CEO of TLC Beatrice International, the first African American to build a billion-dollar company. Shortly before his death in 1993 he gave $3 million to the law school, the largest grant in its history at the time, and the HLS International Law Center was named in his honour that year. He and his wife Loida Nicolas Lewis endowed the fellowship, and the Reginald F. Lewis Foundation has since added $1.5 million to sustain it.
Do you have to live in Cambridge for the Lewis Fellowship?
Yes. Harvard states the Lewis Fellow is expected to be in residence at Harvard Law School during the academic year. Treat it as a condition of accepting rather than something negotiable, and factor a move to Cambridge, Massachusetts, into the $60,000 stipend when you work out whether the year is affordable for you.
Can international lawyers apply for the Reginald F. Lewis Fellowship?
The published qualification is a J.D., LL.M. or S.J.D. degree, and LLM and SJD holders are frequently international lawyers, so the degree requirement does not shut them out. Harvard Law School has described the programme as drawing top candidates worldwide. What the fellowship page does not address is visa sponsorship or work authorisation, which is exactly the question to put to [email protected] before you apply from outside the US.
How many Reginald F. Lewis Fellows are appointed each year?
Harvard writes about the award in the singular, referring throughout to a recent law graduate and to the Lewis Fellow, which points to one appointment per term rather than a cohort. No number of awards is published on the fellowship page. Plan on this being a single-slot fellowship and apply accordingly, with a project sharp enough to win on its own merits.
Is the Lewis Fellowship a good route into law teaching?
It is built for exactly that. The entry ticket to the US law teaching market is published scholarship, and this fellowship pays you to produce a major article while sitting inside a faculty community for a year. What it does not do is guarantee a job. The AALS recruitment process runs separately, and the fellowship carries no faculty appointment at Harvard, so the article you write is what has to carry you.
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