Charles Alan Wright (September 3, 1927 – July 7, 2000) was an American constitutional lawyer widely considered to be the foremost authority in the United States on constitutional law and federal procedure, and was the coauthor of the 54-volume treatise, Federal Practice and Procedure with Arthur R. Miller and Kenneth W. Graham, Jr., among others. He also served as a special legal consultant to President Richard Nixon during the congressional investigations into the Watergate break in and coverup, and for a time was the president's lead lawyer. Early life Wright was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on September 3, 1927. After graduating from Haverford High School at age 16, he earned his undergraduate degree from Wesleyan University in 1947 and law degree from Yale in 1949. Afterward, he spent a year as law clerk for Judge Charles Edward Clark of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. Career Wright taught at the University of Minnesota Law School from 1950 to 1955 and at the University of Texas School of Law from 1955 until his death in 2000. Professor Wright was a popular, if somewhat eccentric, educator, conducting class without lecture notes or even a copy of the casebook. He had a photographic memory of the materials and would often answer student questions with a correct citation, by specific page, of a case different from the one the class was studying. He always refused to call on women students, unless they volunteered, considering the traditional Socratic approach ungentlemanly to women. In response to accusations of sexism, he simply stopped requiring any student to recite unless he or she volunteered. Professor Wright's icy reserve with students disappeared completely after they graduated and joined the Bar. Many of them were pleasantly surprised to experience his warmth, kindness, gentle humor and interest in their families. He was elected a member of the American Law Institute at the age of 30, and served as its president for the last seven years of his life, from 1993 to 2000. Professor Wright organized an effective boycott of the Faculty Club at the University of Texas at Austin when operators failed to live up to their promise that the club would not be racially segregated. Wright was a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, a Corresponding Fellow of the British Academy and an Honorary Fellow of Wolfson College, University of Cambridge. Wright represented