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July 2010

Freeman and Smith appointed to faculty chairs

Two Harvard Law School professors have been appointed to faculty chair positions: Jody Freeman LL.M. ’91 S.J.D. ’95 is the Archibald Cox Professor of Law, and Henry Smith is the Fessenden Professor of Law. Freeman and Smith took their new chairs on July 1.
Freeman in NYT: The good driller award

"The Good Driller Award,” an op-ed by Professor Jody Freeman LL.M. ’91 S.J.D. ’95, appeared in the July 1, 2010 edition of the New York Times.
Feldman in NYT: The triumphant decline of the WASP

“The Triumphant Decline of the WASP” by HLS Professor Noah Feldman appeared in the June 28, 2010, edition of the New York Times. Feldman is the author of the forthcoming book “Scorpions: The Battles and Triumphs of F.D.R.’s Great Supreme Court Justices.”
HLS library digitizes Justice Brandeis' unpublished free speech dissent

In Ruthenberg v. Michigan, Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis LL.B. 1877 first formulated the principles surrounding the exercise of free speech that would appear in his later opinion in Whitney v. California (1927). The Louis D. Brandeis Papers held by the Harvard Law School Library include seven folders of drafts written by Brandeis for Ruthenberg, which have now been digitized and are available on the law school website.
Richard Lazarus '79 named executive director of national oil spill commission

Environmental law expert Richard Lazarus ’79 has been appointed the executive director of a new bipartisan commission created by President Barack Obama ’91 to examine the causes of the ongoing oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.
Zittrain wins broadcast debate arguing for realities of a cyber threat (audio)

In a debate broadcast from Washington, D.C., HLS Professor Jonathan Zittrain ’95 argued that the “Cyber War Threat” is a real and present danger. Zittrain was teamed with former Director of National Intelligence Mike McConnell, against Marc Rotenberg, executive director of the Electronic Privacy Information Center, and Bruce Schneier, an internationally renowned security technologist.
Harvard recognized as one of the world's top three open-access institutions

Harvard University was recognized as one of the world’s top three open-access institutions of the year by BioMed Central, an international publisher of journals in science, technology, and medicine and a pioneer in open-access publishing. Harvard Law School was given special recognition for being one of four schools at Harvard to introduce its own open-access mandates.
Faculty Scholarship: Bebchuk, Cohen and Spamman on Executive Compensation at Bear Stearns and Lehman Brothers

A recent study, “The Wages of Failure: Executive Compensation at Bear Stearns and Lehman 2000-2008,” by Professor Lucian A. Bebchuk LL.M. ’80 S.J.D. ’84, Visiting Professor Alma Cohen and Lecturer on Law Holger Spamann S.J.D. ’09 refutes the widespread assumption that the wealth of the top executives at Bear Stearns and Lehman Brothers was largely wiped out when their companies collapsed. According to the authors, many have used this account to dismiss the view that pay structures caused excessive risk-taking, but, they say, that standard narrative turns out to be incorrect.
Whiting to join International Criminal Court

Alex Whiting, an assistant clinical professor of law at Harvard Law School, will join the International Criminal Court (ICC) as the investigation coordinator this December. Serving as the deputy to the chief of investigations, he will be responsible for managing and providing legal guidance and direction to all of the ICC’s investigations in this new post.
Harvard Negotiation and Mediation Clinical Program trains students to resolve conflicts

The day after Elaine Lin ’10 finishes taking the Bar Exam in California this summer, she’ll be on a plane to Belfast. Two days later, she’ll be working with dozens of young people who have lost loved ones to terrorism—from Israel, Palestine, Ireland, Spain, India, and the U.S.—in a camp where she will teach them skills for resolving conflict.
HLS International Human Rights Clinic files complaint against Guantanamo psychologist

On behalf of four Ohio citizens, Harvard Law School’s International Human Rights Clinic filed a complaint with the Ohio Psychology Board on July 7, calling for an investigation into the conduct of Ohio-licensee Dr. Larry C. James, former chief psychologist of the intelligence command at the U.S. Naval Station in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba.
Amy Berman Jackson '79 nominated to a seat on U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia

President Barack Obama ’91 nominated Amy Berman Jackson ’79 to a seat on the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. Jackson was one of three nominations Obama announced on June 17, also including Judge James E. Boasberg and Justice Sue E. Myerscough.
Judge reduces penalties in file-sharing case defended by Nesson

A Boston University graduate student who is being represented pro bono by Harvard Law School Professor Charles R. Nesson ’63 in a much-publicized copyright dispute will face a drastically reduced penalty for his illegal file-sharing activity, a federal judge has ruled.
Benkler on NPR: Newspaper of the Future (audio)

HLS Professor and faculty co-director of the Berkman Center for Internet and Society Yochai Benkler recently appeared on NPR's On The Media to discuss the future of the production and exchange of information in our society.
Alstott in Boston Review: Don’t accept injustice

The article “Don’t accept injustice,” by Harvard Law School Professor Anne Alstott, appeared in the July/August 2010 edition of the Boston Review.
Corporate Governance Network debuts new E-Journal

The Social Science Research Network recently announced the distribution of a new e-journal on Bankruptcy, Financial Distress, & Reorganization provided by Corporate Governance Network (CGN).
Wilkins in USA Today: USDA official victim of ‘high-tech lynching’

Today’s edition of USA Today includes an op-ed by HLS Professor David B. Wilkins '80, “USDA official victim of ‘high-tech lynching,’” on the firing of U.S. Department of Agriculture official Shirley Sherrod. Wilkins is the Lester Kissel Professor of Law at Harvard and the director of the Program on the Legal Profession.
Susan L. Carney ’77 nominated to U.S. Court of Appeals

Susan Carney ’77 has been nominated by President Barack Obama ’91 to serve on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit.
David Pogue interviews John Palfrey in NYT

The following column by David Pogue, “Q & A: Rumors, Cyberbullying, and Anonymity,” appeared in the New York Times on July 22, 2010 and featured a q & a with Harvard Law School Professor John Palfrey.
Steiker in The National Law Journal: Kagan and the legacy of Marshall

HLS Professor Carol Steiker wrote an op-ed in The National Law Journal on former HLS Dean Elena Kagan and the legacy of Supreme Court Associate Justice Thurgood Marshall. Steiker, the Howard and Kathy Aibel Professor of Law at Harvard Law School, served as a co-clerk with Kagan for Justice Marshall during the 1987-1988 term of the Supreme Court. Her op-ed, "Kagan and the legacy of Marshall," appeared in the July 26, 2010, edition of the Journal.
Whiting interviewed on WBUR radio about new ICC post (audio)

Alex Whiting, an assistant clinical professor of law at Harvard Law School, will join the International Criminal Court (ICC) as the investigation coordinator this December. On Monday, July 26, he spoke with WBUR radio about his new post.
Ogletree in Washington Post: After Shirley Sherrod, we all need to slow down and listen

HLS Professor Charles J. Ogletree Jr. co-wrote an op-ed, “After Shirley Sherrod, we all need to slow down and listen,” with Johanna Wald, that appeared in the July 25, 2010, edition of the Washington Post. Ogletree is the executive director of the Charles Hamilton Houston Institute for Race and Justice and the author most recently of "The Presumptions of Guilt: The Arrest of Henry Louis Gates, Jr. and Race, Class, and Crime in America." Johanna Wald is director of strategic planning at the Charles Hamilton Houston Institute for Race and Justice.
ScotusBlog: Dean Minow on her new book “In Brown’s Wake”

Harvard Law School Dean Martha Minow’s new book, “In Brown’s Wake,” which examines the legacies of Brown v. the Board of Education, was released last week by Oxford University Press. In an interview on ScotusBlog, Minow discusses the book and the reverberations of Brown in American schools.
Fried in Boston Globe: Obama should give Warren a recess appointment

In a Boston Globe op-ed, “Obama should give Warren a recess appointment,” HLS Professor Charles Fried supports an interim appointment for Elizabeth Warren to head the new Consumer Financial Protection Agency. Warren is the Leo Gottlieb Professor of Law and chair of the Congressional Oversight Panel on the Troubled Asset Relief Program. Fried served as solicitor general in the second Reagan administration and as a justice on the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts. His op-ed appeared in the July 29, 2010, edition of the Boston Globe.
Former students endorse Elizabeth Warren

One hundred sixty-two former students of Harvard Law School Professor Elizabeth Warren sent a letter to the White House on July 28, urging President Barack Obama ’91 to appoint her as director of the newly created Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection.