HLS News January 2007

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  Bebchuk's proposal forces change in Home Depot bylaws

  Home Depot, the world's largest home improvement retail chain, has agreed to amend its corporate bylaws in response to a shareholder proposal submitted by Professor Lucian Bebchuk in December of 2006.
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  Barron testifies before the Senate about congressional war powers

  Professor David Barron '94 testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee about Congress's Constitutional power to end a war. The committee hearing is expected to launch a larger debate about Congress’s power to stop the current Iraq war, which could begin as early as next month in the Senate.
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  Harvard Law School to launch Supreme Court and Appellate Litigation Clinic

  Beginning in the fall of 2007, 12 Harvard Law School students will get hands-on experience participating in each step of the appellate process with a new Supreme Court and Appellate Litigation Clinic.
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  VIDEO: Professor Warren addresses Congress in the battle over U.S. credit card regulation

  On January 25, 2007 the US Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs heard testimony on the issue of credit card company policies and their effect on the American consumer.
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  Eleven recent HLS grads score Supreme Court clerkships

  Of the 37 law school graduates who are serving as clerks to the U.S. Supreme Court justices in the 2006-07 term, 11 come from Harvard Law School -- the highest number from a single law school this year, and one of the largest contingents in HLS history, matched only by the 11 HLS graduates who held clerkships in the year 2000.
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  Dan Coquillette on history and the American legal system

  The following op-ed by Visiting Professor Dan Coquillette was published in The Boston Globe on January 18, 2007: Last week's attack by a top Defense Department official on lawyers representing Guantanamo detainees raises an issue Americans have visited many times before -- an issue that was familiar to our Founding Fathers.
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  Richard A. Musgrave, noted economist and pioneer in public finance: 1910-2007

  Professor Emeritus Richard A. Musgrave, a leading 20th century political economist who taught at Harvard University and at Harvard Law School between 1965 and 1981, died January 15 at the age of 96.
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  An op-ed by Professor Charles Fried discusses legal representation in America

  The following op-ed was published in The Wall Street Journal on January 16, 2007: Defense Department official Charles Stimson showed ignorance and malice in deploring the pro bono representation of Guantanamo detainees by lawyers in some of the nation's leading law firms, and in calling on their corporate clients to punish them for this work.
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  Recent HLS grad appointed head of Mass. homeland security department

  Earlier this week, Massachusetts governor Deval Patrick '82 announced the appointment of a fellow Harvard Law graduate, Juliette Kayyem, as the state's undersecretary of homeland defense. Kayyem is a member of the class of 1995, as well as a 1991 graduate of Harvard College.
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  Domestic violence monitoring initiative proposed by Rosenfeld is signed into law

  Domestic abusers who violate their restraining orders will be required to wear a GPS tracking device, according to a new Massachusetts state law spearheaded by HLS lecturer Diane Rosenfeld '96. Signed into law on January 4, the GPS initiative was first presented to the Governor's Commission on Sexual and Domestic Violence by Rosenfeld in early 2005.
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  Professor Lucian Bebchuk on Apple Computer and corporate governance

  The following op-ed was published in The Wall Street Journal on January 6, 2007: Apple Computer announced a week ago the conclusions of a special board committee that examined the "improper dating" of over 6,000 option grants during 1997-2002. The committee found no basis for having less than "complete confidence in CEO Steve Jobs and the senior management team," placing full responsibility for past problems on the company's former CFO and general counsel.
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  New anthology highlights 20 greatest law review articles

  What does it mean to 'think like a lawyer' - in particular, an American lawyer? After wrestling with that question for years, Harvard Law Professors David Kennedy '80 and William W. Fisher III '82 have given us an anthology of the law review articles they believe yield the answer.
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  An op-ed by Professor Charles Fried: The people, not courts, should rule on same-sex marriage

  The following op-ed was published in the Boston Globe on January 5, 2007: Deval Patrick is off to a bad start. If the amendment to prohibit gay marriage ever reaches the people, I shall vote against it. I regret that the Supreme Judicial Court, in its closely divided 2003 decision in the Goodridge case, proclaimed that the state Constitution requires same-sex marriage.
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  Mass. governor's office changes hands between HLS grads

  Yesterday Mitt Romney '75 walked out of the Massachusetts governor's office and handed the ceremonial statehouse keys to Governor-elect Deval Patrick '82. Patrick will be sworn in today as the state's 71st governor, making him the latest in a string of Harvard Law grads to occupy the state's corner office.
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  Six from HLS win Skadden public interest fellowships

  Six Harvard Law students and recent graduates have been chosen to receive 2007 Skadden Fellowships that support work in public service. For the fifth year in a row, HLS students and alumni won more Skadden fellowships than affiliates of any other law school. Each year, the program provides funding to 30 law students and new lawyers from law schools across the country.
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  Alford travels to Ireland for speeches on human rights and social policy

  Professor William Alford '77 traveled to Dublin, Ireland in December to deliver two lectures concerning China, U.S., and Europe.