Kalven is the coauthor of "The Contemporary Function of the Class Suit," one of the most heavily cited articles in the history of American law, and widely considered to be the foundation of the modern class action lawsuit.

[2] He also co-authored a pioneering empirical study of The American Jury with his Chicago colleague Hans Zeisel.

[4][5] He was chair of the committee that produced what became known as the "Kalven Report",[6] a document outlining the University of Chicago's role "in political and social action."

After his death, his son Jamie Kalven, a journalist and human rights activist, completed Kalven's unfinished manuscript which was published by Harper & Row in 1988 as A Worthy Tradition: Freedom of Speech in America.

[7][8] In recognition of his impact on interdisciplinary legal research, the Law and Society Association awards the Harry J. Kalven, Jr. Prize each year to a scholar selected for “empirical scholarship that has contributed most effectively to the advancement of research in law and society.”[9]