John Sexton is President Emeritus of NYU, Dean Emeritus of NYU Law School, and the
Benjamin Butler Professor of Law. He joined the Law School faculty in 1981 and was
named the Law School’s Dean in 1988; he served in this capacity for fourteen years. He
was named the University’s President in 2001, and served in that capacity until January
1, 2016.
In addition to his work as President Emeritus, Sexton is a member of the American
Academy of Arts and Sciences and the Council on Foreign Relations
He previously served as Chair of the American Council on Education, the Commission
on Independent Colleges and Universities of New York, and the New York Academy of
Sciences. While Dean of the Law School, he was President of the Association of
American Law Schools. He is a life member of the board of the Institute of International
Education.
He was the Chairman of the Board of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York
(2003-2006) and Chair of the Federal Reserve Systems Council of Chairs (2006). He
served as a board member of the National Association of Securities Dealers
(1996-1998) and was Founding Chair of the Board of NASD Dispute Resolution
(2000-2002). He served as co-chair of the UK/US Study Group, an education policy
group convened by Prime Minister Gordon Brown, and was a member of the Public
Policy Research’s Commission on the Future of Higher Education (UK), which issued its
report in June 2013. In Spring 2016 he served as the Kluge Distinguished Professor at
the Library of Congress. Sexton is a recipient of the Edward Weinfeld Award (2015), the
Law School’s highest honor and the Albert Gallatin Medal (2019), NYU’s highest honor.
In 2016, Sexton received the Eugene Keogh Award for Distinguished Public Service
from the NYU Alumni Association.
In 2012, he received the NASPA President’s Award, which is given annually to a college
or university leader who, over a sustained period of time, has advanced the quality of
student life on campus by supporting student affairs staff and programs. In 2014, the
Institute for International Education awarded him its Dugan Prize for “distinguished work
in education.” And, in March 2015 he received the TIAA-Cref Hesburgh Award for
Leadership Excellence, recognizing outstanding leadership on the part of a college or
university president or chancellor. In 2022, Sexton was the recipient of the UN Global
Coalition’s Award for Education Leadership.
In 2016, Commonweal Magazine honored Sexton as the Catholic in the Public Square.
The previous year, the Arab-American League awarded him its Khalil Gibran Spirit of
Humanity Award; and, the Open University of Israel gave him it’s Alon Prize for “inspired
leadership in the field of education.” In 2013, Citizens Union designated him as “an
outstanding leader who enhances the value of New York City.” The student editors of
NYU’s Annual Survey of American Law dedicated their Volume 60 to him. He has been
honored at the Harvard Law Review Annual Banquet, and has been named “Alumnus of
the Year” both at Fordham University and at his high school, Brooklyn Prep. In 2008 he
was named a Chevalier de la Légion d’Honneur, the national order of the Legion of
Honor of France. Emory University has named him “Outstanding High School Debate
Coach of the Last 50 Years” for work he did from 1960-1975.
In 2016, he founded and for five years served as CEO of the Catalyst Foundation for
Universal Education, providing over $25 million in grants to educate underserved
refugee and displaced children around the world.
Sexton holds honorary doctorates from 26 colleges and universities, including Saint
Francis College (1996); University of Rochester (2005); Fordham University (2005);
Katholieke Universiteit Leuven (2005); Saint John’s University (2007); Saint Joseph’s
College, New York (2010); Hamilton College (2011); Iona College, New York (2011);
University of Surrey, UK (2011); University of Warwick, UK (2011); Yeshiva University
(2011); King’s College London, UK (2013); University of Strathclyde, UK (2013); Miami
Dade College (2014); Brooklyn Law School (2016); Drexel University Kline School of
Law (2016); Felician University, New York (2016); Union College (2017), Wake Forest
University (2017); Mount Aloysius College (2018); Northeastern University (2018);
University of Haifa (2022); Asian University for Women (2023); Korea Advanced Institute
for Science and Technology (2023); Lafayette College (2024); and Jewish Theological
Seminary (2024).
John Sexton received a B.A. in History (1963) from Fordham College; an M.A. in
Comparative Religion (1965) and a Ph.D. in History of American Religion (1978)
Fordham University; and a J.D. magna cum laude (1979) from Harvard Law School.
He is an author of a leading casebook on Civil Procedure. He also is the author of
Redefining the Supreme Court’s Role: A Theory of Managing the Federal Court System
(a treatment of the Supreme Court’s case selection process) in addition to several other
books, numerous chapters, articles and Supreme Court briefs. His 2013 book, Baseball
as a Road to God: Seeing Beyond the Game, is based on an undergraduate seminar
President Sexton teaches at NYU each spring and was a New York Times bestseller;
Major League Baseball has produced a full length documentary, Baseball: Beyond the
Game, based on the book. His latest book is Standing for Reason, which addresses
broad trends in global civil society and higher education.
Before coming to NYU, Sexton served as a Law Clerk at the United States Supreme
Court to Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court Warren Burger (1980-1981),
and to Judges David Bazelon and Harold Leventhal of the United States Court of
Appeals (1979-1980). For ten years (1983-1993), he served as Special Master
Supervising Pretrial Proceedings in the Love Canal Litigation. From 1966-1975, he was
a Professor of Religion at Saint Francis College in Brooklyn, the Department Chair from
1970-1975.
He married Lisa Goldberg in 1976. Their two children are Jed and Katie Sexton, and
their grandchildren are Julia, Ava, Natalie, Ellis and Nea.
