David Leebron

David Leebron
Official university portrait
7th President of Rice University
In office 2004 – present
Preceded by	S. Malcolm Gillis
Personal details
Born	1955 Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the US
Spouse(s)	Y. Ping Sun
Children	2
Alma mater	Harvard University (A.B., J.D.)
Profession	Professor
Religion	Judaism
Website	Office of the President

David W. Leebron (born 1955) is the seventh president of Rice University. He has been a professor and dean of Columbia Law School, until he was named president of Rice University on July 1, 2004. Leebron is the first Jewish president of Rice University.

Born to Mr. and Mrs. Norman D. Leebron in 1955, David Leebron was reared in Philadelphia. An Eagle Scout, Leebron was influenced by a steady stream of exchange students in his house—from Europe, Japan and Mexico—to develop an interest in international affairs. He later traveled to Germany as an exchange student himself. He speaks excellent German.

Leebron earned a Bachelors, summa cum laude, in History and Science from Harvard College in 1976, and his JD, magna cum laude, from Harvard Law School in 1979, where he was president of the Harvard Law Review, notably working with the future Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts.

After graduating from Harvard Law, Leebron clerked for Judge Shirley M. Hufstedler in Los Angeles at the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. He taught as a professor at the UCLA School of Law for a semester. Leebron then entered private practice from 1981 to 1983 as an associate at the New York firm Cleary, Gottlieb, Steen & Hamilton. He then re-entered academia as a law professor at New York University and the director of NYU's International Legal Studies Program from 1983 to 1989. In 1989 he joined the faculty at Columbia Law School, where he became dean in 1996. He became President of Rice University in 2004. As a professor, he taught and published in areas of corporate finance, international economic law, human rights, privacy and torts. He was also a co-author of a textbook on human rights, though most recently has written about problems in international trade law. He is member of the New York State bar and, currently inactive, the Hawaii and Pennsylvania bars. He is on the American Law Deans Association Board of Directors. He has served on the Association of American Law Schools Committee on Nominations. He is also a member of the American Law Institute (ex officio), the Council on Foreign Relations, the American Society of International Law, the board of directors of the IMAX Corporation and the editorial board of Foundation Press.