May 2011

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  Upholding ban on cluster munitions is imperative, say disarmament experts at HLS (video)

  It is imperative that governments uphold their obligation to ban cluster munitions absolutely, which is laid out in a treaty that more than 100 countries have joined, said a panel of disarmament experts in an HLS talk last week. Sponsored by the Harvard Law School Forum and the Harvard Human Rights Program, the panel described how the Convention on Cluster Munitions (CCM) was formed, and the challenges its advocates are facing despite its progress thus far.

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  Lecturer on Law and former national security adviser Juan Zarate ’97 on Osama Bin Laden's Death: Are we safe?

  HLS Lecturer on Law Juan Zarate ’97 was interviewed in the Washington Post today on national security threats after Osama bin Laden's death. From 2005 to 2009, Zarate served as the deputy assistant to the President and Deputy National Security Advisor for Combating Terrorism and was responsible for developing and implementing the U.S. Government’s counterterrorism strategy and policies related to transnational security threats.

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  Winners of the 58th Williston Competition

  The winners of Harvard Law School’s 58th annual Williston Competition, Harvard’s annual contract negotiation and drafting competition for first-year law students, were announced on April 18. 

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  Benkler named Ford Foundation 'Visionary'

  Harvard Law School Professor Yochai Benkler ‘94 has received a Ford Foundation Visionaries Award, it was announced April 29. The award was created in recognition of the 75th Anniversary of the Ford Foundation to celebrate social innovators from a variety of fields.

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  CJI Student Receives Student Ethics Award

  Last month, Andrew Childers ’11 received a 2011 Law Student Ethics Award from the Association of Corporate Counsel—Northeast Chapter. Childers and 10 other students from area law schools were lauded for upholding the highest ethical standards of the legal profession as student lawyers.

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  Fried in the Washington Post: Torture apologists stain triumph over bin Laden

  In the Washington Post ‘Opinions’ section on May 5, Harvard Law School Professor Charles Fried and his son, Suffolk University Philosophy Department Chair Gregory Fried, discussed the killing of Osama bin Laden. The authors argued that torture apologists are undermining what the pair call a “great victory” for the U.S. by calling into question the circumstances under which bin Laden was felled during the firefight in his compound in Pakistan—a “risible” notion, by the authors’ standards.

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  Robert Greenwald appointed Clinical Professor of Law at Harvard

  Robert Greenwald, director of Harvard Law School’s Health Law and Policy Clinic, has been promoted to full Clinical Professor of Law, Dean Martha Minow has announced.

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  Dershowitz: The photographs should be released (video)

  In an op-ed published in The Huffington Post on May 5, Harvard Law School professor Alan M. Dershowitz assessed the decision made by the Obama administration not to release photographs of Osama bin Laden’s dead body for public scrutiny. 

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  Two HLS students named Presidential Public Service Fellows

  Two HLS students, Alice Abrokwa ’12 and Sean Driscoll ’13, were recently selected as part of the inaugural group of ten Presidential Public Service Fellows. The awards are funded by an anonymous donor, and will go toward projects ranging from government and community service, to arts and technology- related initiatives.

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  Report documents role of state violence and corruption in organized crime in São Paulo

  In 2006, a series of coordinated uprisings in 74 detention centers and attacks on police stations and public buildings left 43 state officials and hundreds of civilians dead and brought São Paulo—South America’s largest city and financial capital—to a standstill.  Harvard Law School’s International Human Rights Clinic and the leading Brazilian human rights group Justiça Global have now released a comprehensive study of the attacks.

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  Harvard Mediation Program celebrates 30 years of students resolving conflicts

  This year, the Harvard Mediation Program (HMP) (a Student Practice Organization) celebrates its 30th anniversary of training students and community volunteers to mediate disputes in small claims court and other settings.

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  Kennedy in TNR: A right of all citizens

  In light of the recent controversy over President Barack Obama’s birth certificate, Harvard Law School Professor Randall Kennedy espouses his views on the subject in the May 12 edition of The New Republic online.

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  At HLS, attorney for the plaintiff in Dukes v. Wal-Mart Stores discusses class action suit (video)

  At an event hosted by the Harvard Women’s Law Association on April 19, 2011, Joseph M. Sellers, head of the Civil Rights and Employment practice group at Cohen Milstein, shared his experience working on Dukes v. Wal-Mart Stores, the largest civil rights class action suit in the United States.

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  HBS's Mihir A. Desai accepts joint tenured professorship with HLS

  Mihir A. Desai, who currently serves as the Mizuho Financial Group Professor of Finance, the Senior Associate Dean for Planning and University Affairs, and the Chair of Doctoral Programs at Harvard Business School, has accepted a joint appointment to the faculty of Harvard Law School as a tenured Professor of Law.

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  HLS celebrates Earth Month at Harvard (slideshow)

  In April, Harvard Law School participated in festivities commemorating Earth Month at Harvard, an inaugural initiative featuring university-wide events and activities to celebrate and raise awareness about environmental issues.  

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  Adrienne Bradley '12 named one of four Latham & Watkins 2011 Diversity Scholars

  Adrienne Bradley ’12 was named one of Latham & Watkins' 2011 Diversity Scholars in April. The Diversity Scholars initiative awards $10,000 scholarships to four second-year law students in the United States who intend to practice law in a global firm. The program is one of several firm initiatives designed to promote diversity and equal opportunity in the legal profession.

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  Feldman’s "Scorpions" Receives ABA’s Silver Gavel Award

  The American Bar Association has selected HLS Professor Noah Feldman’s “Scorpions: The Battles and Triumphs of FDR's Great Supreme Court Justices” (Twelve, 2010) to receive its 2011 Silver Gavel Award for Books. The group biography of Felix Frankfurter LL.B. 1906, Robert Jackson, Hugo Black and William O. Douglas explores the justices’ contentious relationship and their effect on 20th century constitutional law.

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  Three from HLS named to American Philosophical Society

  Harvard Law School Distinguished Senior Fellow Ben W. Heineman, Jr., Associate Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court Elena Kagan ’86 and Princeton University Professor Anne-Marie Slaughter '85 are among the new class of members elected to the American Philosophical Society this year.

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  Cohen in the New England Journal of Medicine: 'Human Embryonic Stem-Cell Research under Siege'

  The United States cannot afford to allow ongoing legal ambiguities to compromise the vast potential of stem-cell research, yet the struggle over federal funding for research involving human embryonic stem cells may well be waged for years to come, write Harvard Law School Assistant Professor I. Glenn Cohen and Dr. Eli Y. Adashi in an article published by the New England Journal of Medicine on May 18.

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  Klarman in Daedalus: Has the Court been a friend or foe to African Americans?

  Kirkland and Ellis Professor of Law Michael J. Klarman has published an essay titled “Has the Supreme Court Been More a Friend or Foe to African Americans?” in a recent volume of Daedalus, the Journal of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. 

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  Heyman Fellows profiled in Washington Post

   Irene Chan ’02 and Michael Bahar ’02 were recently profiled in The Washington Post as part of a series on federal workers who are making a difference. 

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  Hanson honored with Sacks-Freund Teaching Award

  Professor Jon Hanson, the Alfred Smart Professor of Law, is this year's winner of the prestigious Albert M. Sacks-Paul A. Freund Award for Teaching Excellence, an honor bestowed each spring by the Harvard Law School graduating class. The award recognizes teaching ability, attentiveness to student concerns and general contributions to student life at the law school.

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  William Howell wins Richardson Award

  William Howell, student programs manager in the Dean of Students Office at Harvard Law School, received the Suzanne L. Richardson Staff Appreciation Award during Class Day exercises on May 25.

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  A New Record! Class of 2011 averages 628 hours of pro bono service per student

  Elizabeth “Libby” Benton ’11 is the winner of the 2011 Andrew L. Kaufman Pro Bono Service Award, after performing over 2,300 hours of free legal services while at HLS.  The Class of 2011 surpassed the HLS record for pro bono hours, performing a total of 366,204 hours, an average of 628 hours per student.

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  Sarah Min receives inaugural William J. Stuntz Award

  During Class Day exercises on May 25, Sarah Min ’11 received the inaugural William J. Stuntz Memorial Award for Justice, Human Dignity and Compassion, which recognizes a graduating student who has demonstrated an exemplary commitment to these principles while at Harvard Law School.

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  Actor and activist Alec Baldwin delivers 2011 Class Day address at HLS (video)

  Alec Baldwin never intended to become an actor – he wanted to be a lawyer. From the age of 10, he bonded with his father by watching the evening news, absorbing great moments in American history; watching political leaders write the narrative of the 20^th century. “It was right about then that I decided I wanted to be a lawyer, at 10 years old,” he told the Harvard Law School graduating class, as the student-selected 2011 Class Day speaker.

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  Class Day 2011 (slideshow)

  On Wednesday, May 25, 2011 Harvard Law School celebrated the Class of 2011 at a ceremony on Holmes Field, in front of Langdell Library. Actor Alec Baldwin, selected by the graduating class as the 2011 Class Day speaker, delivered remarks as part of the program. Faculty, students, and staff were honored for their contributions to the HLS community. Here, we present a retrospective of the day in pictures.

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  Dean Martha Minow to the Class of 2011: ‘Cherish and cultivate your talent for asking good questions’ (video)

  In her address to the Class of 2011, Dean Martha Minow praised the students’ accomplishments at HLS and their vast array of skills and achievements. But as they prepared to receive their diplomas, she emphasized the importance of one skill in particular, urging them to “cherish your talent for asking good questions.”