February 2011

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  News Round-up: Palfrey, Zittrain and Woods on Egypt’s Internet lockdown

  This week, HLS Professors John G. Palfrey, Jonathan Zittrain, and HLS Climenko Fellow and Lecturer on Law Andrew K. Woods each weighed in on the Egyptian government's recent decision to block Internet access to prevent the use of social media outlets in light of escalating protests in the country. 

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  Fried, Dellinger testify on the constitutionality of the healthcare law (video)

  Yesterday, the Senate Judiciary Committee chaired a hearing on the constitutionality of the Affordable Care Act and the provision that requires, beginning in 2014, every American to maintain health insurance coverage. The law requires all citizens without work-based insurance to purchase plans in the private market.

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  Reich elected president of the Harvard Law Review

  The Harvard Law Review has elected Mitchell Reich ’12 as its 125th president.

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  Harvard Law School appoints Nancy Gertner and Stephen Shay as Professors of Practice

  Harvard Law School has announced the appointments of U.S. District Judge Nancy Gertner and Stephen Shay, Deputy Assistant Secretary for International Tax Affairs in the U.S. Department of the Treasury, as Professors of Practice.

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  Stephen Gates reflects on a career as general counsel for ’Fortune 10’ companies (video)

  In a Jan. 27 talk titled “Line of Fire: On Being a 'Fortune 10' General Counsel," sponsored by the HLS Program on the Legal Profession, Stephen F. Gates ’72 (M.B.A. ’72) addressed the role and responsibilities of in-house counsel in today’s changing world of legal practice, and he spoke candidly about some of the specific situations he has faced in the “line of fire.”

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  Rep. Jim Cooper: Congress is “deeply broken” (video)

  In a recent lecture given at Harvard Law School and sponsored by the Safra Center for Ethics, Jim Cooper '80, a Blue-Dog Democrat from Tennessee's 5th congressional district, said offered the assessment that Congress is "deeply broken." 

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  Tribe in NYT: On Health Care, Justice Will Prevail

  In his op-ed “On Health Care, Justice Will Prevail,” which appeared in the Feb. 8, 2011 edition of The New York Times, Harvard Law School Professor Laurence H. Tribe says that the Supreme Court will judge the constitutionality of the health care law based on precedent, not politics.

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  Harvard Law School announces new professional development program with Milbank

  Milbank and Harvard Law School are proud to announce a new multi-year training program for Milbank associates. For the first time, a law firm will collaborate with Harvard Law School to provide executive education over the course of an associate’s career, on-site at Harvard, focusing on business, finance and law, utilizing Harvard Law School and Harvard Business School faculty.

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  Wilkins to receive Outstanding Scholar Award from the Fellows of the American Bar Foundation

  Harvard Law School Professor David B. Wilkins will receive the Outstanding Scholar Award from The Fellows of the American Bar Foundation. The award is given annually to a member of the academy who has engaged in outstanding scholarship in the law or in government.

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  Feldman in NYT: Sometimes, Justice Can Play Politics

  The op-ed “Sometimes, Justice Can Play Politics,” by HLS Professor Noah Feldman, appeared in the February 12, 2011 edition of The New York Times. A constitutional law scholar, Feldman is the author of the recently published book “Scorpions: The Battles and Triumphs of F.D.R.’s Great Supreme Court Justices.”

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  HLS sweeps the Northeast BLSA trial advocacy competition

  For the third year in a row, Harvard Law School has won the Northeast Black Law Students Association’s Trial Advocacy competition. HLS sent two teams to the competition this year, and, for the second consecutive year, HLS took both first and second place.

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  National security experts discuss detention and prosecutions post 9/11 (video)

  The United States’ response to the 9/11 attacks has altered the legal landscape. That premise was outlined by William K. Lietzau, Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Detainee Policy, in his keynote address at a conference titled  “Understanding Detention and Predicting Prosecutions: Legal Challenges and Legislative Options Ten Years After 9/11.” The conference, sponsored by the National Security and Law Association, took place on February 4 at Harvard Law School and featured panel discussions focusing on prosecutions and detentions in the aftermath of 9/11.

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  Dean Martha Minow delivers Ginsburg Lecture at New York City Bar (video)

  Harvard Law School Dean and Jeremiah Smith, Jr. Professor of Law Martha L. Minow delivered the annual Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg Distinguished Lecture on Women and the Law, sponsored by the New York City Bar Association, on February 7. The title of the talk was “Gender and the Law Stories: Learning from Longstanding Debates.”

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  Putting energy into being green: energy reductions and waste audits at HLS

  Harvard Law School continues to strengthen its commitment to environmental sustainability and to make progress towards Harvard’s university-wide greenhouse gas reduction goal to reduce emissions 30% by 2016. In January, Harvard Law School recorded its 18th straight month of energy reductions.

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  President of the National Iranian American Council puts the conflict between Israel and Iran in historical perspective (video)

  War between Israel and Iran is not inevitable, argued Trita Parsi, the president of the National Iranian American Council, in an event sponsored by the Institute for Global Law and Policy at Harvard Law School last week. 

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  Greenwald receives leadership award from the National Association of People with AIDS (video)

  For the third year in a row, Robert Greenwald, director of Harvard Law School’s Health Law and Policy Clinic, was awarded a Positive Leadership Award from the National Association of People with AIDS.

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  Joseph H. Flom ’48 (1923 – 2011)

  Joseph H. Flom ’48, the last living named partner at Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom and a leader in the field of mergers and acquisitions, died February 23, 2011 in New York City. He was 87. Flom helped transform a small New York firm into one of the most powerful legal institutions in the world, and he was also a dedicated philanthropist and supporter of Harvard Law School.

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  Mallat in Harvard International Law Journal: ‘Revising Egypt’s Constitution’

  The article “Revising Egypt’s Constitution: A Contribution to the Constitutional Amendment Debate” was published by the Harvard International Law Journal on Feb. 22, written by Harvard Law School Visiting Professor Chibli Mallat with co-authors Maria van Wagenberg ’11, Mostafa Abdelkarim ’11 and Harvard Kennedy School student Julian Simcock.

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  Bebchuk in WSJ: 'An Antidote for the Corporate Poison Pill'

  Shareholders could reduce the toxicity of corporate boards’ use of a “poison pill”—a device designed to block shareholders from considering a takeover bid—if they could replace board majorities more quickly, writes Harvard Law School Professor Lucian Bebchuk LL.M. ’80 S.J.D. ’84 in an op-ed that appeared in the Feb. 24, 2011, edition of the Wall Street Journal.

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  New book by Vermeule and Posner: "The Executive Unbound: After the Madisonian Republic"

  Where should the line be drawn on executive power? Harvard Law School Professor Adrian Vermeule ’93 and University of Chicago Law Professor Eric A. Posner ’91 examine the current state and the future of the U.S. presidency and Constitution through the context of historical authorities in their new book, “The Executive Unbound: After the Madisonian Republic” (Oxford University Press, 2011).

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  Rebecca Sharpless '94 leads effort to suspend U.S. deportations to Haiti

  An emergency petition campaign spearheaded by Harvard Law School graduate Rebecca Sharpless ’94 and five human rights organizations has prompted the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights to urge the U.S. government to halt deportations to Haiti of Haitian citizens who are seriously ill or who have family ties in the U.S.

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  HLS Professor Ashish Nanda discusses Harvard Law School's Executive Education Programs