After emerging last week as a frontrunner for the job, Harvard Law School Dean Elena Kagan has been selected by President-elect Barack Obama to be his solicitor general, according to an email Kagan sent to Harvard Law students and obtained by PolitickerMA.com.

"I am writing to all of you - the community of students, faculty, staff, and alumni of Harvard Law School - to let you know that today President-elect Barack Obama will announce his intention to nominate me to serve as solicitor general of the United States," Kagan wrote in the email.

Kagan and former Stanford Law Dean Kathleen Sullivan had emerged as the frontrunners for the post, which serves as the president's representative in front of the Supreme Court. Kagan's name has also been surfaced as a potential Supreme Court nominee under Obama and solicitor general may be a stepping stone to that nomination. In fact, Justice Thurgood Marshall, for whom Kagan clerked, served as a solicitor general before being nominated as a justice.

Kagan and Obama are both Harvard Law School graduates and taught at the same time at the University of Chicago's Law School. Kagan served as a domestic policy advisor to President Bill Clinton. She has never, however, argued in front of the Supreme Court.

If confirmed by the Senate, Kagan would be the first female solicitor general.

Kagan has a reputation for being well-liked at Harvard among both the students and the faculty, regardless of differences in political ideology.