The son of a lawyer, Fairman was born on July 27, 1897, in
Alton, Illinois. He received his A.B. and A.M. from the
University of Illinois in 1918 and 1920, and his Ph.D. from
Harvard University in 1926. After completing further graduate studies at the
University of Paris in 1925–26, he received an LL.B. from the
University of London in 1934 and an S.J.D. from
Harvard Law School in 1938. While studying for his S.J.D. at Harvard, he took a class from then-professor
Felix Frankfurter, who went on to become his mentor. In 1926, he became assistant professor of government at
Pomona College, and in 1928, he joined the faculty of Harvard as a lecturer in government. He served as an assistant professor of
political science at
Williams College from 1930 to 1936. After graduating from Harvard in 1938, he joined the faculty of
Stanford University, initially as an associate professor of political science. In 1941, he was promoted to a full professor of political science, and in 1947, he was named a full professor at
Stanford Law School as well. He left the faculty of Stanford in 1953 to join the faculty of
Washington University School of Law, where he served as the
Charles Nagel Chair from 1953 to 1955. He served as a professor at Harvard Law School from 1955 to 1962, where he taught American legal history. Fairman died on November 25, 1988, in
La Jolla, California. ==References==