March 26, 2021
The law review at Stanford University in Palo Alto, California, has just elected its first Muslim and first Iranian-American president, Daniel Khalessi.
Khalessi attended Stanford University as an undergraduate, receiving his B.A. in international relations with honors in 2013.
While at Stanford, he interned for Ambassador Susan Rice at the United Nations and the US Department of Treasury’s Middle East North Africa Office and studied abroad at Oxford.
The Stanford Law Review was founded in 1948. Its first president was Warren Christopher, who became Secretary of State under President Carter and negotiated the agreement with Iran freeing the 52 American hostages.
After his election, Khalessi said, “Like the founders of this law review, my presence here is unlikely. I am the son of Iranian immigrants. My father died when I was nine years old. And I had to come to terms with who I was as a kid growing up in the aftermath of the September 11th attacks and the tensions between my country and the country of my heritage.
“The notion of becoming the first Muslim and Iranian-American president in the 74-year history of the Stanford Law Review was completely foreign to me. I hope my election demonstrates some degree of progress. But I also want to make it clear that there is still so much more progress to be made as we strive to build a more tolerant and inclusive legal community and society.”