James Vorenberg; Harvard Professor Aided Watergate Prosecution

James Vorenberg, 72, former Harvard Law School dean who assisted in the Watergate prosecution. From 1973 to 1975, he served as Watergate special prosecutor Archibald Cox’s principal assistant. Vorenberg often joked that his biggest claim to fame occurred when reporters asked Cox a question the special prosecutor did not want to answer. Cox told them to “talk to my lawyer” and pointed to Vorenberg. Earlier, Vorenberg served as director of the Justice Department’s office of criminal justice under Atty. Gen. Robert F. Kennedy, charged with encouraging the FBI to improve its procedures. He earned undergraduate and graduate degrees at Harvard, and after being a clerk for U.S. Supreme Court Justice Felix Frankfurter, joined the faculty. He was law school dean from 1981 to 1989 and was still teaching criminal law and legal ethics at the time of his death. On Wednesday in Boston of a heart attack.