Wellington started teaching at Yale Law School in 1956 as an assistant professor. In his early years at Yale, he was a contracts scholar, focusing his scholarship on freedom of contract, organized labor, and collective bargaining. Wellington's best-known scholarly works are on legal process. He was made an associate professor in 1957, a full professor in 1960, and the Edward J. Phelps Professor of Law in 1967. He helped persuade John Simon to teach at Yale Law School in 1962. He became the Dean of Yale Law School in 1975. He helped rebuild the faculty during his deanship, hiring over 30 professors, including Anthony T. Kronman, Barbara Black, Drew Days, Paul Gewirtz, George Priest, Stephen L. Carter, Lucinda Finley, and Oliver Williamson. He was an excellent fundraiser. Starting with his deanship, Yale Law School became, "the most theoretical and academically oriented law school in America." He became a Sterling Professor in 1983. As Dean, he developed the Yale Law School's loan forgiveness program. In 1985, he was succeeded as Dean by Guido Calabresi. A professorial lecturership was established in his honor in 1995. He was a Sterling Professor of Law Emeritus and the Harry H. Wellington Professorial Lecturer. He was a Lifetime Honorary Member of the Yale Law School Executive Committee. In 2005, Yale Law School honored him by naming the Harry H. Wellington Dean's Discretionary Fund for Faculty Support after him.
New York Law School Dean
In 1992, he retired from the Yale Law School faculty and became the 14th Dean of New York Law School. Under his deanship, the curriculum was revised to put greater emphasis on the practical skills of a professional attorney. Also, the Ernst C. Stiefel Professorship of Comparative Law was created. He was a John Marshall Harlan Visiting Professor at New York Law School. He retired from teaching in 2007.
Selected works
Contracts and Contract Remedies with Harold Shepherd, 1957
Legislative Purpose and the Judicial Process: The Lincoln Mills Case, with Alexander Bickel, 1957
The role of law in the prevention and settlement of major labor disputes and in the terms of settlement: A preliminary report, 1965
Labour and the Legal Process, 1968
The limits of collective bargaining in public employment, 1969
The Unions and the Cities , with Ralph K. Winter, 1972
The nature of judicial review , 1981
Labor Law with Clyde W. Summers and Alan Hyde, 1983
The Least Dangerous Branch: Supreme Court at the Bar of Politics, with Alexander Bickel, 1986
Interpreting the Constitution: The Supreme Court and the Process of Adjudication, 1990
