As dean of Elon University School of Law, Zak Kramer is preparing students to navigate difference with curiosity, empathy and intellectual courage.
“A law school classroom is a special place.”
When Zak Kramer walks into a classroom, he isn’t just thinking about casebooks and cold calls. He’s thinking about the students in front of him and the society they will serve. For Kramer, dean of Elon University School of Law since 2023, the law school classroom is one of the last spaces in American life where disagreement is not only allowed but encouraged.
“Disagreement is the heart of law,” Kramer says. “When we invite students to wrestle with opposing views, when we teach them to engage each other respectfully but passionately, we’re preparing them not just for the courtroom but for the world.”
Kramer grew up in Chicago, fascinated by the ways people make meaning through argument. That curiosity carried him into a career as a teacher, scholar and leader. He built his academic reputation on asking difficult questions about fairness, identity and workplace equality, always searching for how the law could make space for difference.
Now, as dean, he sees Elon Law as a laboratory for something bigger: a place where students can practice the art of civil disagreement at a time when the world desperately needs it. That approach is also in alignment with the university’s mission to encourage freedom of thought and liberty of conscience.
“Law school gives students permission to slow down and really hear someone else,” Kramer says. “That kind of listening is precious right now. It’s what allows disagreement to be productive instead of destructive.”
Kramer keeps an open door, figuratively and literally, for both students and colleagues. Leading a law school is as much about relationships as it is about policy, he says. He lights up when he talks about students who step into courtrooms for their residencies, who draft opinions for judges, who counsel clients through clinics.
For Kramer, teaching people to disagree better isn’t just about legal training. It’s about strengthening the civic fabric of the country through inclusivity of viewpoints.
“The classroom becomes a rehearsal space for democracy itself,” he says. “When students learn to see the law through another person’s eyes, they begin to understand that justice isn’t abstract — it’s human.”
Zak Kramer is part of Huemanity of People, a series by the Division of Inclusive Excellence that celebrates the diversity of Elon’s community. Learn more on the Inclusive Excellence website.