John Sexton

John Edward Sexton (born September 29, 1942) is an American legal scholar.

He is the Benjamin F. Butler Professor of Law at New York University where he teaches at the law school and NYU's undergraduate colleges.

Sexton graduated from Brooklyn Preparatory School, a Jesuit high school, in 1959.

He has written and spoken much about his time at Brooklyn Prep and Charlie Winans, who he has referred to as his "great teacher."

Sexton holds a BA.

From 1961 to 1975, Sexton coached the debate team at St. Brendan's High School, a Catholic girls' school in Brooklyn, New York, leading the team to five national championships and numerous invitational titles.

in history (1963), an MA in comparative religion (1965), and a PhD in history of American religion (1978) from Fordham University, as well as a JD (1979) magna cum laude from Harvard Law School, where he was Supreme Court Editor of the Harvard Law Review.

From 1966 to 1975, he taught religion at St. Francis College in Brooklyn, New York, where he was chair of the Religion Department.

In 1977, he incorporated the John Sexton Test Preparation Center in the New York City area, which offered test preparation services for exams such as the GMAT and LSAT.

According to a government report, it served 6,500 students and had revenue of over $650,000 in 1979.

After graduating from Harvard Law School, he clerked for judges Harold Leventhal and David L. Bazelon of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit in 1979-80, and he clerked for Chief Justice of the United States Warren E. Burger in 1980-81.

Sexton joined the faculty of the New York University School of Law in 1981, teaching first year law students Civil Procedure (the rules of courts); he was given tenure in 1983.

In addition to his duties as NYU President, Sexton has taught a full faculty schedule — at least four courses — every year since 1981 without sabbatical.

He teaches both law students and undergraduates across NYU's Global Network in New York and Abu Dhabi and has taught classes in Shanghai.

From 1988 to 2002, he served as dean of the NYU School of Law, during which time NYU became one of the top five law schools in the country according to U.S. News & World Report.

In 1988, Sexton was named dean of the New York University School of Law, succeeding Norman Redlich.

During his deanship, NYU's School of Law rose to number four in the U.S. News & World Report rankings of law schools; an emphasis on faculty recruitment reduced the student faculty ratio from 19:1 to 12:1; the Hauser Global Law School Program was established; the school became among the most selective in the U.S. (average LSAT scores rose from the 94th to the 97th percentile; average GPAs rose from 3.54 to 3.66); and in 1998 the school completed the then-largest fundraising campaign in the history of legal education ($185 million).

In 2000, Kent D. Syverud, then-dean of the Vanderbilt University Law School, called John Sexton the most effective dean of his generation.

Sexton has served as chair of several major higher education organizations, including the Association of American Law Schools, the American Council on Education, the Independent Colleges and Universities of New York State, the New York Academy of Sciences, and the University of the People President's Council.

He is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and has received many awards and honors for his work in education, including the American Council on Education's Theodore M. Hesburgh Award for Leadership Excellence and 24 honorary doctoral degrees.

Sexton was named the 15th president of New York University by NYU's Board of Trustees on May 8, 2001, two months after then-President L. Jay Oliva announced that he was stepping down.

"I am a very fortunate man," Sexton told the New York Daily News in an article published the next day.

Sexton served as the fifteenth president of NYU, from 2002 to 2015.

During his time as president, NYU's stature rose dramatically into the ranks of the world's top universities, and it became the world's first global network university.

Sexton has been called a "transformational" figure in higher education and was named by Time Magazine as one of the United States' 10 best college presidents.

After he stepped down as dean to become president of NYU in 2002, the law school named a professorship after him, the John E. Sexton Professor of Law, held presently by Richard B. Stewart, as well as named a lounge after him at Furman Hall, the John Sexton Student Forum.

In addition, the law school as created a set of scholarships for students named in his honor.

He assumed the post of president on May 17, 2002, one day after the 2002 All-University Commencement, and his official installation occurred on September 26, 2002.

From January 1, 2003 to January 1, 2007, Sexton was the Chairman of the Board of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York; in 2006, he served as chair of the Federal Reserve System's Council of Chairs.

Throughout his time as dean and president of NYU, Sexton continued to teach a full faculty schedule (at least four courses) and to write books and articles.

Since stepping down as NYU’s president, Sexton has continued to teach a full schedule and write both for the academic and popular press.

He also has worked to expand access to education for underrepresented groups and refugees — the most notable of these efforts is the Catalyst Foundation for Universal Education, created with former British Prime Minister Gordon Brown to advance opportunities for refugees worldwide.

He was named to the National Forensic League Hall of Fame in 2003.

In 2005, the Barkley Forum at Emory University presented him with a Golden Anniversary Coaching Award recognizing him as a top high school debate coach of the past 50 years.

Still an avid proponent of interscholastic debate, he is chairman of the board of Associated Leaders of Urban Debate (ALOUD), which seeks to bring debate activities to underserved communities in America's urban areas.

In July 2008, he was named as Chevalier de la Légion d'Honneur, the national order of the Legion of Honor of France.

In 2009, NYU's Board of Trustees asked him to stay on as president until 2016, and Sexton accepted.

A book based on one of the courses, Baseball as a Road to God, was published in 2013 He also taught a year-long course on the American Constitution, religion, and government for the Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan Scholars Program (for outstanding undergraduate students in United Arab Emirates' institutions of higher learning who are selected for special academic and leadership opportunities).

During his presidency, NYU was named the "number one dream school" four times by The Princeton Review.

In addition, NYU rose across college rankings, including in US News & World Report, the Times Higher Education, the Financial Times, and Bloomberg BusinessWeek.