Washington ? As dean of Harvard Law School, Elena Kagan won over conservative colleagues by supporting Jack Goldsmith, a former lawyer under President George W. Bush, for a faculty position. The hiring helped ease ideological strife on the campus.

As an aide in President Bill Clinton’s White House, she crafted an agreement with Republican Sen. John McCain on legislation to let the Food and Drug Administration regulate tobacco.

With President Barack Obama considering Kagan for a Supreme Court nomination, her reputation as a bridge builder may be a selling point. The 49-year-old solicitor general, the administration’s top Supreme Court lawyer, would succeed retiring Justice John Paul Stevens, the chief tactician of the court’s liberal wing.

“If you are able to get along with the Harvard faculty, you can probably tame a den of lions,” said Miguel Estrada, a Washington appellate lawyer and classmate of Kagan’s at Harvard Law in the 1980s.

Consensus-building skills will be a priority for Obama in selecting a Supreme Court nominee, according to an administration official who spoke on condition of anonymity. Obama is planning to meet with a bipartisan group of Senate leaders next week to discuss the vacancy. The White House declined to comment on Kagan’s prospects, and she declined to be interviewed.