HLS News 2011

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  IHRC releases paper on incendiary weapons; Docherty publishes book on cluster munitions

  A new paper released by Harvard Law School’s International Human Rights Clinic and Human Rights Watch calls for stronger controls of incendiary weapons, such as white phosphorus.

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  William Alford recognized by the University of Geneva

  Harvard Law School Professor William Alford ’77 received an honorary degree from the University of Geneva in December 2010, recognizing him as “an eminent person of contemporary international law … whose reputation extends far beyond the borders of the United States.” Other recipients in 2010 included the Nobel Laureate Elie Wiesel, José Manuel Barroso, head of the European Commission, and several distinguished European intellectuals. (See the complete list.)

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  Fried on NPR's On Point: Congress and the Constitution (audio)

  Professor Charles Fried joined NPR's On Point to discuss Congress's unprecedented decision to read aloud the full text of the U.S. Constitution as the year's first order of business.

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  Minow, alums honored for legal writing

  Harvard Law School Dean Martha Minow was named in the Green Bag’s “Exemplary Legal Writing 2010” list for her book “In Brown’s Wake: Legacies of America's Educational Landmark” (Oxford University Press 2010). The Green Bag is a quarterly journal devoted to readable, concise and entertaining legal scholarship. Along with Minow, a number of HLS alums were also recognized for their legal writing.

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  Lecturer on Law Strine appointed to second term on Delaware Chancery Court

  Leo E. Strine, Jr., the Austin Wakeman Scott Lecturer on Law at Harvard Law School, was confirmed to a second 12-year term on the Delaware Chancery Court by the Delaware Senate.

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  Behind the scenes at the World Court: Former International Court of Justice clerks share insights

  Former clerks of the International Court of Justice shared their experiences with Harvard Law School students in December at “Behind the Scenes at the World Court: International Court of Justice Clerk Panel,” a panel discussion sponsored by the Harvard International Affairs Council the Harvard International Law Journal, Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer and Debevoise & Plimpton.

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  ABA task force, co-chaired by Charles Fried, recommends changes to federal lobbying rules

  A bi-partisan ABA Administrative Law Section task force, co-chaired by HLS Professor Charles Fried, issued a report recommending significant changes to federal lobbying laws. The proposed changes would broaden disclosure required by those involved in lobbying campaigns, address fundraising participation by lobbyists and strengthen enforcement of current law. 

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  Mark Wu in The New York Times: China’s currency isn’t our problem

  In a Jan. 18 op-ed in The New York Times, “China’s Currency Isn’t Our Problem,” HLS Assistant Professor Mark Wu assesses the impact of the value of China’s currency, the renminbi, on the the American economy.

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  HLS Legal Services Center wins victory in ruling on foreclosures

  On January 7, in a ruling that will likely affect the entire banking industry, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court found that Wells Fargo and US Bancorp had wrongly foreclosed on two homes because the banks could not prove that they owned the mortgages at the time of the foreclosure sales in July 2007. Max Weinstein, a Clinical Instructor at the Wilmer Hale Legal Services Center, represented one of the mortgagers, Antonio Ibanez.

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  Harvard Law Faculty Lead SSRN Ranking

  Harvard Law School’s faculty earned the top ranking for the number of academic papers authored and downloaded on the Social Science Research Network (SSRN), according to cumulative statistics  released for 2010. HLS faculty members captured 10 of the top 100 slots–including the number one slot–among the top 100 law school professors (in all legal areas) in terms of readers’ use of their work.

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  Tim Wu looks at the rise and fall of information empires (video)

  HLS Visiting Professor Timothy Wu ’92 spoke at Harvard Law School on Jan. 11 about his new book, “The Master Switch: The Rise and Fall of Information Empires.” Wu is a professor at Columbia Law School.

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  Suk honored by Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly and the Korean Economic Institute

  Harvard Law Professor Jeanne Suk ’02 was named a “Top Woman of the Law” by Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly and honored at a reception on Dec. 3.  The award recognizes women who have made inspiring contributions and who are pioneers, educators, trailblazers and role models.

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  Harvard Negotiation and Mediation Clinical Program receives Conflict Prevention and Resolution Institute’s 2010 Award

  The Conflict Prevention and Resolution Institute (CPR) selected the Harvard Negotiation and Mediation Clinical Program (HNMCP) to be the recipient of its 2010 Problem Solving in the Law School Curriculum Award at its annual awards banquet on January 11, 2011.

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  Scott testifies before House Committee on Financial Services

  On Wednesday, Jan. 26, 2011, HLS Professor Hal Scott testified before the US House of Representatives Committee on Financial Services in a hearing entitled “Promoting Economic Recovery and Job Creation: The Road Forward.”

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  Dershowitz in WSJ: The U.N. gangs up on Israel – again

  An op-ed by HLS Professor Alan Dershowitz “The U.N. gangs up on Israel – again,” appeared in the January 26, 2011 edition of the Wall Street Journal. He is the author of numerous books, including “The Trials of Zion,” “The Case for Moral Clarity: Israel, Hamas and Gaza,” and “Finding, Framing, and Hanging Jefferson: A Lost Letter, a Remarkable Discovery, and Freedom of Speech in an Age of Terrorism.”

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  Alston receives honorary doctorate, lectures on global justice at Maastricht University

  Philip Alston, Harvard Law School’s Sidley Austin Visiting Professor of Law, received an honorary doctorate from Maastricht University in the Netherlands on Jan. 20 as part of the university’s 35th anniversary celebration.

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  Vermeule in The New Republic: The New Fable of the Bees

  In a Jan. 26 review in The New Republic, HLS Professor Adrian Vermeule ’93 examines the book “Honeybee Democracy” by Thomas D. Seeley, which explores group decision-making behavior in apian colonies, and he presents his assessment of its relationship to collective wisdom and decision-making in human societies.

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  Palfrey in NY Daily News: Twitter and Facebook, step up – Egypt protests raise bar on corporate responsibility

  In a Jan. 31 article in the Opinion section of the New York Daily News online, HLS Professor John G. Palfrey addresses the issue of corporate responsibility in the wake of the Egyptian government’s recent Internet access lockdown to prevent protesters from organizing against President Hosni Mubarak’s regime.

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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

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  Fried joins amicus brief in Supreme Court public finance case

  On February 22, HLS Beneficial Professor of Law Charles Fried joined more than 10 former elected officials in an amici curiae brief filed in support of the respondents in McComish v. Bennett, now pending before the U.S. Supreme Court.

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  Gordon-Reed appointed to AAAS Commission on the Humanities and Social Sciences

  Harvard Law School Professor Annette Gordon-Reed ’84 was recently appointed to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences’ newly-established Commission on the Humanities and Social Sciences, a national commission charged with bolstering teaching and research in the humanities and social sciences. Harvard University President Drew Gilpin Faust will also take part in the initiative.

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  J-term class in Costa Rica immerses students in doctrine and practice of the Inter-American human rights system

  When HLS Professor Clinical Professor Jim Cavallaro decided there should be "a structured means of studying the broad jurisprudence and practice of the Inter-American system,” he and Stephanie Brewer ’07 created an on-site course in San José, Costa Rica where students can learn the law on the ground from judges, practitioners and stakeholders in the system. This January, the 20 students enrolled in “Doctrine and Practice of the Inter-American Human Rights System” came away with a deeper understanding of that system—plus an immersion in the world of human rights adjudication.

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  McConnell at HLS: What would Hamilton do? (video)

  Giving the biennial Vaughan Lecture at Harvard Law School, former federal appeals court judge Michael McConnell contemplated the question "What would Hamilton do?"

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  Lazard executive discusses his journey from law school to investment banking

  In a lunch with Harvard Law School students, Jeffrey Cohen ’88, Managing Director and Global Head of Retail at Lazard, discussed his journey from a law school and legal training to investment banking.

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  Harvard Law School ranked first by U.S. News & World Report survey of law firm recruiters

  Harvard Law School has been rated number one in the first-ever ranking of best law schools based on a survey of hiring partners and recruiters at the country's top law firms, U.S. News and World Report announced March 7.

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  Asian Pacific American Law Students Association hosts Pathways to Progress conference

  The Harvard Law School Asian Pacific American Law Students Association hosted the 17th Annual National Asian Pacific American Conference on Law and Public Policy on February 25-26, 2011 with the assistance of the Harvard Kennedy School Asian American Policy Review.

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  Zittrain on American Public Media’s Marketplace Tech Report: Does the Internet have an off switch? (audio)

  Harvard Law School Professor Jonathan Zittrain appeared on the Mar. 9 edition of American Public Media’s Marketplace Tech Report to discuss the Cybersecurity and Internet Freedom Act of 2011, introduced last year by Senators Joe Lieberman, Susan Collins, and Thomas Carper.

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  The Economist: Palfrey wins debate on the internet and democracy

  Professor John G. Palfrey ’01 was declared the winner of an interactive online debate on Internet democracy, hosted by The Economist from Feb. 23 to March 4.

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  The future of Alien Tort Statute litigation: a talk by Paul Hoffman

  In a Mar. 8 talk sponsored by the Human Rights Program at Harvard Law School, Paul Hoffman, a leading litigator of claims brought under the Alien Tort Statute, offered a look at the history of lawsuits against corporations for their complicity in human rights violations—and a glimpse of some possible future developments.

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  Benkler argues against prosecution of WikiLeaks, detailing government and news media "overreaction"

  Harvard Law Professor Yochai Benkler ’94 has released an article detailing U.S. government and news media censorship of WikiLeaks after the organization released the Afghan War Diary, the Iraq War Logs, and U.S. State department diplomatic cables in 2010.  Among his key conclusions: The government overstated and overreacted to the WikiLeaks documents, and the mainstream news media followed suit by engaging in self-censorship. Benkler argues further that there is no sound Constitutional basis for a criminal prosecution of WikiLeaks or its leader, Julian Assange.

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  Sitkoff named to drafting committee for Uniform Act on Powers of Appointment

  The Uniform Law Commission has formed a new drafting committee to prepare a Uniform Act on Powers of Appointment. Robert H. Sitkoff, the John L. Gray Professor of Law at Harvard Law School, has been named as a member of the drafting committee. An expert in trusts and estates, Sitkoff serves under gubernatorial appointment as a Uniform Law Commissioner from Massachusetts.

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  Bar-Gill, Fromer honored with American Law Institute award

  In February, the American Law Institute conferred its new award, the Young Scholars Medal, on Oren Bar-Gill LL.M. ’01 S.J.D. ’05 and Jeanne C. Fromer ’02. The award was created to “call attention to academic work that is practical, focused on the real-world and can influence law for the better.”

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  William Stuntz [1958-2011]: An examined life of thoughtfulness and grace

  William Stuntz, a renowned scholar of criminal justice at Harvard Law School,  an evangelical Christian and a teacher much beloved by students and colleagues, died March 15 after a long battle with cancer.

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  Jacob Gersen will join the Harvard Law School faculty

  Jacob E. Gersen, a leading expert in administrative law, legislation and constitutional theory, will join the Harvard Law School faculty as a tenured Professor of Law this summer. He is currently on the faculty of the University of Chicago Law School, where he teaches environmental law, administrative law, legislation, executive branch design and torts.

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  HLS hosts "Local 1330 v. U.S. Steel" (video)

  On February 25, Unbound: Harvard Journal of the Legal Left presented “Local 1330 v. U.S. Steel: 30 Years Later.” Conference organizers chose to focus on Local 1330 because the case demonstrates that workers can be treated as collateral damage in the corporate quest for greater profits. Co-moderator Harris Freeman, Western New England College of Law professor, said that its lessons are particularly relevant today as labor unions and fundamental workers’ rights are being challenged in Wisconsin and face similar risks in other states. The conference was also moderated by Temple University Beasley School of Law professor Brishen Rogers and SEIU Law Fellow Lela Klein.

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  Tribe receives doctorate from Mexico’s National Institute of Criminal Science

  Harvard Law School Professor Laurence H. Tribe ’66 will receive an honorary doctorate on March 29 from Mexico’s Instituto Nacional de Ciencias Penales (INACIPE), or National Institute of Criminal Science. He will be the first American to receive the annual “honoris causa” doctorate since its inception in 1998.

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  Palfrey named one of Library Journal’s 2011 Movers and Shakers

  On March 14, the Library Journal announced 50 new inductees to their Movers & Shakers list, including John Palfrey ’01. Movers & Shakers is a distinguished annual award given to those who are shaping the future of libraries and communities across the United States.

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  Freeman urges coordination of agencies in shared regulatory spaces (video)

  “In his State of the Union speech last month, President Obama got one of his biggest laughs when he said that there are twelve different agencies that deal with exports, and at least five that deal with housing policy. Then there is my favorite example: the interior department is in charge of salmon while they’re in fresh water, but the commerce department handles them in saltwater. ‘I hear it gets even more complicated,’ and here he smirked, ‘once they’re smoked.’ All I could think was, this guy is stealing my chair talk!”  With these words, Archibald Cox Professor of Law Jody Freeman L.L.M. ’91 introduced her lecture “Coordinating Agencies in Shared Regulatory Space,” in which she spoke about the problem of wasteful duplication in government agencies.

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  PIFS hosts symposium on building 21st century financial system

  Harvard Law School Professor Hal Scott’s Program on International Financial Systems is hosting the 9th annual “Symposium on Building the Financial System of the Twenty-first Century: An Agenda for Europe and the United States” this weekend in Hampshire, England.  Co-hosted by the Centre for European Policy Studies, the event will gather more than 100 senior executives and government officials from the financial industry, policymaking arenas, law, and academia.  

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  Goldsmith in Slate: The president's campaign against Libya is constitutional

  In a recent op-ed in Slate, Professor Jack Goldsmith makes the case for why President Obama's campaign of air and sea strikes against Libya is constitutional.  Goldsmith says that while he agrees with "many of the arguments from critics of the intervention that  President Obama acted imprudently in committing American forces to a conflict with an ill-defined national security justification,"  he does not believe that the military action is unconstitutional. Goldsmith's op-ed, "War Power," appeared in the March 21, 2011 edition of Slate. A former assistant attorney general in the Bush Administration, Goldsmith is the author of "The Terror Presidency: Law and Judgement Inside the Bush Administration" (New York : W.W. Norton & Company 2007).

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  Blum gains tenure as professor of law at Harvard

  Following a vote of the Harvard Law School faculty, Gabriella Blum LL.M. '01 S.J.D. '03, a specialist in the laws of war and conflict resolution, has been promoted from assistant professor to professor of law—a tenured faculty position.

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  NYT: An editorial appreciation of William Stuntz, 1958-2011

  The New York Times published an editorial appreciation of the late William J. Stuntz of the Harvard Law School faculty, on March 23.

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  Fried in NYT: Free Speech Worth Paying For

  In a New York Times op-ed about the challenge to Arizona’s public financing scheme currently pending in the Supreme Court, Harvard Law School Professor Charles Fried and co-author Cliff Sloan '84 write: “The [Arizona] law simply ensures that, when a candidate relying on private money speaks, the publicly financed candidate has the money to answer.” The op-ed—“Free Speech Worth Paying For”—appeared in the March 26, 2011 edition of The New York Times.

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  Feldman on CNN: Sharia and Islam explained (Video)

  Harvard Law School Professor Noah Feldman explained aspects of Sharia and Islam Law on a television program -- "Unwelcome: The Muslims Next Door" -- for CNN's In America series.The segment, which examines a Tennessee city torn apart as residents fight to block the construction of a large Islamic center, is part of a broadcast that will air on Saturday, April 2 at 8:00 p.m.

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  At Harvard Law School, Ellsberg draws parallels between Pentagon Papers and WikiLeaks (Video)

  Daniel Ellsberg, the former military analyst responsible for leaking the Pentagon Papers in 1971, addressed a Harvard Law School audience last week in a discussion of WikiLeaks, the organization that publishes classified documents submitted by whistleblowers worldwide. Once called “the most dangerous man in America,” Ellsberg, who will turn 80 on April 7, engaged in a dialog with Scott Horton, a lecturer at Columbia Law School, about why states keep secrets and the consequences of this secrecy.

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  Dershowitz in WSJ: Norway to Jews: You’re Not Welcome Here

  The following op-ed by HLS Professor Alan Dershowitz “Norway to Jews: You’re Not Welcome Here,” appeared in the March 29, 2011 edition of the Wall Street Journal. He is the author of numerous books, including “The Trials of Zion,” “The Case for Moral Clarity: Israel, Hamas and Gaza,” and “Finding, Framing, and Hanging Jefferson: A Lost Letter, a Remarkable Discovery, and Freedom of Speech in an Age of Terrorism.”

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  Coakley and Jepsen discuss hot button issues facing attorneys general (video)

  In a Mar. 28 panel discussion moderated by Harvard Law School lecturer and former Maine Attorney General Jim Tierney, Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley and Connecticut Attorney General George Jepsen ’80 sat down with HLS students to discuss challenges they face in office.

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  At HLS, Gene Sharp offers insights on nonviolent struggles

  Speaking to students at a lecture sponsored by the Harvard Law School Advocates for Human Rights on March 9, Nobel Peace Prize nominee Dr. Gene Sharp discussed various elements of an effective nonviolent struggle and addressed the recent demonstrations in the Middle East in light of his research.

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  Fighting words: Palfrey assesses recent legal efforts to stop cyber-bullying

  At a recent lecture hosted by HLS Lambda and the Journal of Law & Technology, Harvard Law School’s Henry N. Ess Professor of Law John Palfrey discussed the latest legal and legislative attempts to address cyber-bullying—or, as Palfrey prefers to describe it, bullying in the digital era.

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  Tribe in The Boston Globe: Congress can compel action due to public necessity

  In an Apr. 3 op-ed in The Boston Globe, Harvard Law School Professor Laurence Tribe ’66 discusses the debate on the constitutionality of the Affordable Care Act—specifically the individual mandate, which requires those otherwise uninsured (by an employer or by a federal program such as Medicaid) to purchase health insurance.

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  Harvard Law student argues appeal of music-sharing fine

  A Harvard Law School student appeared before the First Circuit Court of Appeals yesterday as the lead lawyer in an illegal downloading and sharing lawsuit brought against a Boston University student by the music recording industry. This is the first case of its kind to reach the federal appellate level.

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  Minow in The Boston Globe: Budget cuts threaten justice

  In an Apr. 4 op-ed published in The Boston Globe’s Opinion Blog “The Angle,” Harvard Law School Dean Martha Minow and co-author John Broderick (dean and president of the University of New Hampshire School of Law) address impending Congressional budget cuts that would force programs that provide pro bono legal aid to close their doors.

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  Fernande Duffly ’78 and Asian Pacific American judges honored at HLS

  Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court appointee Fernande R.V. Duffly ’78 became the first Asian Pacific American to serve on the Supreme Judicial Court when she was appointed by Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick ’82 in December, 2010.

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  Four Alumni Named to National Law Journal’s “Most Influential Lawyers” List

  Four Harvard Law School alumni are among the National Law Journal’s list of the “Most Influential Lawyers.” Thirty-four attorneys were recognized in 10 specific practice areas.

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  Benkler in The New York Review of Books: Private Manning’s Humiliation

  In an open letter published recently in The New York Review of Books, Harvard Law School Professor Yochai Benkler ’94 and co-author Bruce Ackerman, professor at Yale Law School, detail the detention of Bradley Manning, a US soldier charged with providing government documents to Wikileaks, and call on President Obama and the Pentagon to document grounds for what the authors describe as “illegal and immoral” confinement.

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  In chair lecture, Henry Smith explores relationship between law and equity (video)

  On March 31, Professor Henry Smith delivered his Chair Lecture in honor of his appointment as Fessenden Professor of Law. His lecture, entitled Equity Revisited, explored the relationship between law and equity. He examined, through the lens of economic analysis, equity as a solution to opportunism on the part of those who exploit bright-line law, with a focus on equitable maxims, defenses, and remedies.

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  ‘American ideals must be extended to Muslim-Americans,’ says Congressman Ellison, at HLS

  “Liberty and justice for all” and other quintessentially American ideals must be extended to Muslim-Americans in the face of anti-Islamic rhetoric in the nation, said Democratic Congressman Keith Ellison of Minnesota, the first Muslim to be elected to the United States Congress, during an event at the Harvard Law School on March 28.

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  Harvard Latino Law, Policy and Business Conference assesses leadership, with a view from the White House

  In her remarks at the 14th annual Harvard Latino Law, Policy and Business Conference, to Cecilia Muñoz, Director of Intergovernmental Affairs at the White House, discussed the implications for both the Latino community and the country of the 2010 census results, which found that Latinos are now the nation's largest minority group.

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  Martha Minow named co-chair of LSC Pro Bono Task Force

  Harvard Law School Dean Martha Minow, who serves on the board of directors for the Legal Services Corporation (LSC), was selected as co-chair of an LSC task force to develop additional resources to help low-income Americans facing serious civil legal problems.

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  Scott testifies on urgently-needed fixes in the Dodd-Frank rulemaking process

  Harvard Law School Professor Hal S. Scott, Director of the Committee on Capital Markets Regulation, testified before the House Agriculture Committee's Subcommittee on General Farm Commodities and Risk Management on Wednesday, April 13, 2011 at 10am. Scott warned that the Commodity Futures Trading Commission and the Securities and Exchange Commission need to make major changes in coordinating the development of new rules required under the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act. The rules will be aimed at better regulating the derivatives market.

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  At Harvard Law School, Larry Summers defends the stimulus response to the financial crisis of 2008 (video)

  Former Harvard President and recent director of the White House National Economic Council Lawrence H. Summers stressed the importance of reducing the nation’s unemployment rate and bringing government spending and revenue into greater alignment, at a talk hosted by the Harvard Law School Forum on April 12, 2011.

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  Professor Jed Shugerman receives the Charles Fried Federalist Society Award

  The Federalist Society and the Journal of Law & Public Policy will present the Charles Fried Intellectual Diversity Award to Professor Jed Shugerman at the Federalist Society’s annual banquet on April 14th.  

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  Two receive the Gary Bellow Public Service Award

  Harvard Law School student Emily Inouye ’11 and alumna Cynthia Chandler ’95 have each received the Gary Bellow Public Service Award for their commitment to public interest and social justice work.

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  Tribe in the Boston Globe: Take it to climate court?

  In an op-ed in the Apr. 16 edition of The Boston Globe, Harvard Law School Professor Laurence Tribe ’66 assesses the attempted use of the judiciary branch to establish global warming policy in light of a lawsuit that has recently come before the Supreme Court. The suit seeks a judicially imposed cap on power companies’ emissions, and the Court will hear oral arguments on Tuesday.

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  Alford in The Atlanta Journal-Constitution: Special Olympics still conveys the right kind of U.S. diplomacy

  In an April 18 op-ed published in The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Harvard Law School Professor William Alford ’77 addresses how budget cutting in Congress threatens to undermine the Special Olympics—an organization whose history, according to Alford, “is one of how civil society and government working together can create results that neither could wholly attain on its own.”

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  Richard J. Lazarus appointed Professor of Law at Harvard

  Richard J. Lazarus ’79, one of the nation’s foremost experts on environmental law and also a leading practitioner in the U.S. Supreme Court, will join the Harvard Law School faculty this summer as a tenured Professor of Law.

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  Annette Gordon-Reed elected member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences

  Harvard Law School Professor Annette Gordon-Reed ’84 has been elected to membership in the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. One of 212 new members, Gordon-Reed joins leaders from academia, business, public affairs, the humanities and the arts among the ranks of the Academy.

• 

  Scott in WSJ: Capital Market Regulation Needs an Overhaul

  In an article published in the April 20 Opinion section of The Wall Street Journal, Harvard Law School Professor Hal S. Scott takes a look at the overregulation of private offerings by the Securities and Exchange Commission, following a recent statement by SEC Chair Mary Schapiro that the agency is investigating ways to reduce regulatory burdens on small-business capital formation. According to Scott, this should prompt a review of the regulation of offerings in both private and public markets.

• 

  Holger Spamann appointed as Assistant Professor of Law at Harvard

  Holger Spamann L.L.M. ’01 S.J.D. ’09, an expert in corporate governance and finance, will join the Harvard Law School faculty in July as an Assistant Professor of Law.

• 

  Green is the new Crimson at the second annual Green Carpet Awards

  The Harvard Office of Sustainability hosted their second annual Green Carpet Award Ceremony in Sanders Theater on Monday, April 11. Complete with an actual green carpet, community members from across the University gathered to celebrate the achievements of individuals and teams contributing to campus sustainability.

• 

  Why We Get Fat – a Harvard Law School event on law and obesity (video)

  New York Times bestselling author and acclaimed science writer Gary Taubes delivered a lecture on March 30, “Why We Get Fat: Adiposity 101 and the Alternative Hypothesis of Obesity,” as part of a series of events sponsored by Harvard Law School’s Food Law Society.

• 

  Ferrell study inspires FINRA rule changes: ‘The Law and Finance of Broker-Dealer Mark-Ups’

  The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) has proposed changes to its rules governing markups, commissions and fees, partly in response to a study by Harvard Law School Professor Allen Ferrell. The study, published April 7, is titled “The Law and Finance of Broker-Dealer Mark-Ups.”

• 

  At Public Interest Auction, HLS raises money for Summer Public Interest Funding (video)

  Lunch with the NHL commissioner and general counsel. Dining in the U.N. delegates’ dining room. An Apple TV.  New Bergdorf socks. These were just a few of the items auctioned during “Step Right Up! Bids Under the Big Top,” the 18th annual Public Interest Auction on April 7.

• 

  Former Swedish Justice Minister offers a view of the Assange case and the relevant laws

  Thomas Bodström, former Swedish Minister for Justice, discussed several key pieces of legislation implicated in the legal actions taken against Wikileaks founder Julian Assange, at an event hosted by the Harvard European Law Association and the Center for European Studies on Friday, April 8, 2011.

• 

  Lobsang Sangay LL.M. '96 S.J.D. '04 named prime minister of the Tibetan government in exile

  Lobsang Sangay LL.M. '96 S.J.D. '04, the first Tibetan to attend Harvard Law School, has been certified as the new Kalon Tripa—a position often referred to as "prime minister" of a "Tibetan government-in-exile" headed by the Dalai Lama—following elections in March.

• 

  Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court appoints Steiker to the Committee for Public Counsel Services

  Harvard Law School Professor Carol Steiker ’86 has been appointed by the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court to a three-year term on the Committee for Public Counsel Services (CPCS). The 15-member committee oversees the statewide provision of public defense services and other legal representation for indigent persons in criminal and civil court cases and proceedings in Massachusetts.

• 

  Head of the International Commission against Organized Crime assesses the failures of the Guatemalan justice system (video)

  In a talk at Harvard Law School on April 13, Carlos Castresana Fernandez, renowned Spanish prosecutor and head of the International Commission against Organized Crime in Guatemala (CICIG), offered an assessment of challenges facing the international body charged with investigating and prosecuting serious crime.

• 

  Ogletree in Politico: Washington walks Ugandan tightrope

  "Washington walks Ugandan tightrope," an op-ed co-authored by Harvard Law School Professor Charles Ogletree and University of Richmond School of Law Professor Jonathan Stubbs LL.M. ’79, was featured in the Opinion section of the April 27 edition of Politico.

• 

  Kennedy in The New Republic: The case for early retirement

  In an opinion piece published in The New Republic on April 28, Harvard Law School Professor Randall Kennedy takes the stance that Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg ’56-’58 and Stephen Breyer ’64 should retire soon, suggesting that a calculated and timely exit would ensure the Democratic selection of justices who share their judicial philosophies.

• 

  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.

• 

  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.

• 

  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. 

• 

  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.

• 

  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.

• 

  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.

• 

  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.

• 

  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. 

• 

  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.

• 

  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.

• 

  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.

• 

  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.

• 

  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.

• 

  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.

• 

  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.  

• 

  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.

• 

  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.

• 

  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.

• 

  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.

• 

  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. 

• 

  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. 

• 

  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.

• 

  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.

• 

  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.

• 

  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.

• 

  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.

• 

  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.

• 

  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.”

• 

  Feldman named columnist for Bloomberg View

  It was officially announced on April 29 that HLS Professor Noah Feldman will become a regular contributor to Bloomberg View, the new opinion section of Bloomberg News, which debuted in late May on Bloomberg.com. Feldman, who is a regular contributor to The New York Times, has been named as part of an expanded, 14-person roster of columnists that also includes Harvard University Professor of Economics Edward L. Glaeser and Meghan O’Sullivan, professor of international affairs at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government.

• 

  Commencement 2011 (slideshow)

  On Thursday, May 26, 2011, Harvard Law School celebrated the class of 2011, conferring a total of 790 degrees—585 J.D.s, 195 LL.M.s, and 10 S.J.D.s during an afternoon ceremony in front of Langdell Library. HLS takes a look back at the day in pictures.

• 

  Harvard Law School and Sciences Po Launch Student/Faculty Exchange Program

  Harvard Law School and Sciences Po Law School (SPLS) have launched a wide-ranging program that includes exchanges of faculty and students, both pre-doctoral and post-doctoral, and co-sponsorship of joint conferences on U.S. and European legal issues.

• 

  Harvard faculty and fellows contribute most of the ‘Top Ten Corporate and Securities Law Articles’ of 2010

  This year’s list of “Top Ten Corporate and Securities Articles” based on an annual poll of corporate and securities law academics includes six articles authored or co-authored by Harvard Law faculty and fellows. The top ten articles, selected from a field of more than 440 pieces, will be reprinted in an upcoming issue of the Corporate Practice Commentator.

• 

  Feldman, Landau and Sheppard recommend constitutional reforms for Honduras

  HLS Professor Noah Feldman and a team of HLS affiliates have authored a report at the request of the Commission on Truth and Reconciliation of Honduras (TRC), examining the constitutionality of the actions in Honduras that resulted in the 2009 military coup that removed President Manuel Zelaya from office. In the report, the authors offer recommendations for constitutional reform for the Central American country.

• 

  Two HLS Students Receive Rappaport Fellowships

  Two Harvard Law School students have been selected as Rappaport Fellows in Law and Public Policy and will spend the summer working with top local policymakers on issues that affect residents of Greater Boston and the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.

• 

  Zittrain announced as FCC Distinguished Scholar

  Jonathan Zittrain, HLS professor of law and co-director of the Berkman Center for Internet & Society, has been appointed as the Federal Communications Commission’s Distinguished Scholar, FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski announced May 31.

• HLS professors receive honorary degrees, deliver commencement addresses

  Harvard Law School Dean Martha Minow and Professors Elizabeth Warren, Laurence Tribe ’66, Nancy Gertner, and Noah Feldman all received honorary degrees at college and law school commencement ceremonies this spring.

• 

  Vicki C. Jackson appointed Professor of Law at Harvard

  Vicki C. Jackson, a leading expert on U.S. constitutional law, comparative constitutional law and federal courts, will join the Harvard Law School faculty this summer as a tenured professor. She will be Harvard Law School’s first Thurgood Marshall Professor of Constitutional Law.

• 

  A celebration of Class Day 2011 (video)

  On May 25, the Class of 2011 gathered to celebrate their accomplishments and share reflections of their Harvard Law School experience. As part of Class Day festivities, the graduating class  hailed their Class Day speaker, actor Alec Baldwin, and honored Professor Jon Hanson as the recipient of this year's Albert M. Sacks-Paul A. Freund Award for Teaching Excellence.

• 

  Vermeule on 'Constitutional Redemption' in TNR

  In a Jun. 8 review in The New Republic, Harvard Law School Professor Adrian Vermeule ’93 discusses a new book by Jack M. Balkin, titled “Constitutional Redemption: Political Faith in an Unjust World” (Harvard University Press, 2011).

• 

  Minow on the convergence between law and education (podcast)

  Harvard Law School Dean Martha Minow was recently interviewed on the Harvard EdCast, a weekly podcast presented by the Harvard Graduate School of Education. Host Matt Weber described her as the "quintessential spokesperson” for law and education due to her scholarship in both fields; in addition to her role in legal education, she is also a graduate of and lecturer at Harvard Graduate School of Education.

• 

  Suk honored by the Korean American Lawyers Association of Greater New York

  The Korean American Lawyers Association of Greater New York recently honored Harvard Law Professor Jeannie Suk ‘02 with its annual Trailblazers award. In 2010, Suk became the first Asian-American woman to receive tenure at Harvard Law School.

• 

  Lessig Gives Keynote Speech at ABA Techshow (video)

  Harvard Law School Professor Lawrence Lessig, director of the Edmond J. Safra Center for Ethics at Harvard, gave the keynote speech at the American Bar Association Techshow on Monday, April 11th. The speech, titled “Code is Law: Does Anyone Get This Yet?” focused on regulatory change concerning Internet copyright issues.

• 

  Tribe in The Wall Street Journal: Why Wounded Warriors Sleep in Dumpsters

  The following op-ed, Why Wounded Warriors Sleep in Dumpsters, written by Harvard Law School Professor Laurence Tribe ’66 and Bobby Shriver, appeared in the June 9 edition of The Wall Street Journal. An expert on Constitutional Law, Tribe was appointed Carl M. Loeb University Professor in 2004. His most recent book is The Invisible Constitution (Oxford University Press 2008). He recently served as senior counselor for access to justice in the U.S. Justice Department.

• 

  Lawyering, parenting and writing about it — a ‘motherlode’ of perspectives [video]

  While she recently received an onslaught of attention for the strict parenting techniques depicted in her book “Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother,” during a recent panel discussion, Amy Chua ’87, promoted the idea that “there are so many ways of producing happy, healthy, strong children.”

• 

  Scott testifies before House Committee on Financial Services

  On Thursday June 16, HLS Professor Hal Scott is testified before the US House of Representatives Committee on Financial Services in a hearing entitled “Financial Regulatory Reform: The International Context."

• 

  HLS’s Charles Hamilton Houston Institute releases new report on METCO’s positive track record

  Harvard Law School’s Charles Hamilton Houston Institute for Race and Justice (CHHIRJ) and the Pioneer Institute have jointly published the first comprehensive review in nearly a decade of the Metropolitan Council for Educational Opportunity (METCO), the nation’s second-longest running voluntary school desegregation program.

• 

  Zittrain in NYT: Encourage more hackathons

  In a June 15 article in the Opinion section of The New York Times, Harvard Law School Professor Jonathan Zittrain ’95 discusses the current state of computer science education, and suggests an alternative approach to teaching that focuses more on the “bigger picture” than “rote work without much prospect for intellectual growth.”

• 

  Reginald F. Lewis Foundation Gifts $1.5 Million to Harvard Law School

  The Reginald F. Lewis Foundation has made a gift of $1.5 million to Harvard Law School to continue the Reginald F. Lewis Fellowships, an 18-year-old program that has offered fellowships annually to law graduates who have demonstrated a strong interest in law scholarship and teaching.

• 

  Educational equality for foster care children: HLS hosts a town hall (video)

  Children in foster care experience daunting challenges of stability and security in the school system, according to participants in the program “On the Road to Educational Equality,” held at Harvard Law School on May 24.

• 

  At Berkman Center symposium, experts explore the line between public and private in today’s interconnected world

  On June 9 and 10, Harvard Law School’s Berkman Center for Internet & Society hosted “Hyper-Public: A Symposium on Designing Privacy and Public Space in the Connected World.” The event united computer scientists with ethnographers, architects, historians, artists, and legal scholars in discussions about the line between public and private spaces in the digital world.

• 

  LL.M.s give back through music

  The two were an unlikely duo: Stanislas Adam was a concert violinist from Belgium, and Caetano Altafin Cunha was the founder of a nonprofit for underprivileged children with special needs in Brazil. But after one conversation during Harvard Law School’s LL.M. orientation week in August, the two decided to combine their diverse interests and organize a charity concert to raise funds for Cunha’s initiative, the Library Tree Project.

• 

  Symposium explores legacy of the 19th century social reformer Wendell Phillips (video)

  Abolitionist Wendell Phillips, who graduated from Harvard Law School in 1833, was a nationally know celebrity during his lifetime. On the bicentennial of his birth, a symposium held at HLS June 2-4, cosponsored by the Charles Hamilton Houston Institute for Race and Justice, focused on the life and legacy of the social reformer, and the questions they raise for those working for social justice today.

• 

  IHRC files amicus curiae brief with U.S. Supreme Court

  On June 17, Harvard Law School’s International Human Rights Clinic submitted an amicus curiae brief to the U.S. Supreme Court in support of a petition for certiorari in a major corporate Alien Tort Statute (“ATS”) case, Kiobel v. Royal Dutch Petroleum Co.

• 

  Roe in Project Syndicate: How capitalist is America?

  In his June 20 opinion piece in Project Syndicate, “How capitalist is America?,” Harvard Law School Professor Mark Roe '75 looks into the question of ‘how capitalist’ the United States is, and explores the idea of U.S. capitalism not only within a global context, but within a corporate one, as well. The article is the latest in a monthly series for the publication, titled The Rules of the Game.

• 

  From medical tourism to medical migration: HLS conference looks at the globalization of health care (video)

  On May 20 through 21, the Petrie-Flom Center for Health Law Policy, Biotechnology and Bioethics at Harvard Law School convened an international, multidisciplinary conference providing legal and ethical analysis of one of the broadest reaching developments in health care of the last 20 years: its globalization.

• 

  Vermeule on Slate.com: Libyan Legal Limbo

  “Libyan Legal Limbo,” an op-ed by Harvard Law Professor Adrian Vermeule ’93 and University of Chicago Law Professor Eric Posner ’91, appeared June 27 on Slate.com.

• 

  Goldsmith on "On Point:" Libya and the power of the president (audio)

  Harvard Law School Professor Jack Goldsmith was a guest on National Public Radio’s On Point on June 28, discussing presidential war powers and Congressional authority in relation to the United States’ current military action in Libya.

• 

  Winners of the 2011 Dean’s Award for Excellence honored in ceremony at HLS

  On June 28, HLS Dean Martha Minow presented the 2011 Dean’s Award for Excellence to seven individuals and one team of staff members at an awards ceremony in Ames Courtroom.

• 

  Feldman's "Scorpions" wins 2011 Scribes Award

  HLS Professor Noah Feldman’s “Scorpions: The Battles and Triumphs of FDR’s Great Supreme Court Justices” (Twelve, 2010) was selected as the best legal book of the year by Scribes, the American Society of Legal Writers, winning its 2011 Book Award.

• 

  HLS report informs U.N. review of Panama juvenile detention system

  The United Nation’s Committee on the Rights of the Child is currently examining Panama’s record on children’s rights with the help of a report coauthored by Harvard Law School’s International Human Rights Clinic.

• 

  HLS Commencement 2011: a video retrospective

  This May, Harvard Law School celebrated the class of 2011, conferring a total of 790 degrees—585 J.D.s, 195 LL.M.s, and 10 S.J.D.s during an afternoon ceremony in front of Langdell Library. Here, we present a video retrospective of the day's events, which included an impromptu appearance by Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg ’56-'58.

• 

  New library exhibit encourages patrons to judge books by their covers

  Originally bound for Russian Emperor Nicholas II, a book covered in blue velvet with its title stamped in gold is now on public display as part of the HLS exhibit “Law Books in Fancy Dress: Beautiful Bindings from the Harvard Law School Library’s Historical & Special Collections.”

• 

  Wadhwa in The Washington Post: Immigration and the death of the recovery

  The op-ed, “Immigration and the death of the recovery,” by Vivek Wadhwa, a senior research associate for the Labor and Worklife Program at Harvard Law School, appeared June 29 in the Washington Post. According to Wadhwa, the United States economy will suffer unless we make it easier for foreign nationals who have studied in the U.S. to stay in the country to start their careers.  

• 

  Wilkins and Heineman in the American Lawyer: On representing controversial clients

  In an op-ed titled “Too Hot to Handle ,” which appeared in the July 1 American Lawyer, Harvard Law School Professor David B. Wilkins ’80 and Ben W. Heineman, Jr. explore how law firms should evaluate a partner’s wish to represent a controversial client.

• 

  Lessig and Zittrain share big ideas at Aspen festival (video)

  Harvard Law Professors Jonathan Zittrain ‘95 and Lawrence Lessig explored the role of journalists and information in the age of blogs, Twitter and Julian Assange, as part of a recent panel at the Aspen Ideas Festival.

• 

  Dershowitz pens op-eds on the Casey Anthony Trial and the Bulger Brothers

  The Wall Street Journal and Boston Magazine recently featured op-eds by HLS Professor of Law Alan Dershowitz: “Casey Anthony: The System Worked,” (July 7 in the Wall Street Journal) and “With the Bulger Brothers, the Cover-up Continues" (published July 8 on boston.com).

• 

  Bebchuk named president-elect of the Western Economic Association International

  In its recent annual meeting held in San Diego, the Western Economic Association International elected Harvard Law School Professor Lucian Bebchuk to be its president-elect during 2011-2012.

• 

  Mack on the History News Network: Progressives are disenchanted with Obama—Abolitionists were disenchanted with Lincoln

  In his July 10 op-ed for George Mason University’s History News Network, Harvard Law School Professor Kenneth W. Mack ’91 assesses the presidency of Barack Obama ’91, comparing it to that of Abraham Lincoln in terms of each president’s respective policy decisions.

• 

  Harvard Law School library announces expansion of Nuremberg Trials Project

  The Harvard Law School Library has announced the expansion of the Nuremberg Trials Project, a digital collection of documents relating to the trials of military and political leaders of Nazi Germany by the International Military Tribunal and also the trials of other accused war criminals by the United States Nuremberg Military Tribunals.

• 

  Law School rolls out a mobile app

  Important HLS information is now at your fingertips, thanks to the recent launch of the new Harvard Law School Mobile App.

• 

  White House veterans headed to Harvard Law School

  This fall, Susan Davies, currently serving as Deputy Counsel to President Barack Obama ’91, will join the HLS faculty as a Lecturer on Law. Vivek Kundra, the U.S. Chief Information Officer at the White House for the past two-and-a-half years, will hold a joint fellowship this fall, splitting his time between the Berkman Center for Internet & Society and the Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics and Public Policy at Harvard Kennedy School.

• 

  Green Cup challenge emphasizes importance of reducing carbon footprint

  After a yearlong competition involving sustainability pledges, bottled water and green apparel, Section 6 emerged victorious in the first-annual Harvard Law School 1L Green Cup.

• 

  Professor Suk testifies on copyright law in the fashion industry

  On Friday June 15th, HLS Professor Jeannie Suk ’02 testified before the U.S. House of Representatives Subcommittee on Intellectual Property, Competition and the Internet regarding the Innovative Design Protection and Piracy Prevention Act (IDPPPA).

• 

  Professor Tribe on the Charlie Rose Show: Fighting for wounded veterans’ rights (video)

  Harvard Law School Professor Laurence H. Tribe ’66 appeared on PBS’s Charlie Rose show July 11 to discuss his participation in Valentini v. Shinseki, a lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court by Tribe, Santa Monica City Councilman Bobby Shriver, the ACLU and numerous veteran representatives and advocates against Veterans Administration Secretary Eric K. Shinseki. The lawsuit alleges that the Department of Veterans Affairs is misusing its West Los Angeles VA Campus.

• 

  Cohen wins 2011 Robert C. Witt Award

  Alma Cohen, William K. Jacobs Visiting Professor of Law and Economics at Harvard Law School, has won the 2011 Robert C. Witt Award from the American Risk and Insurance Association.  

• 

  Child Advocacy Program releases groundbreaking papers on race and child welfare

  Harvard Law School Professor Elizabeth Bartholet, faculty director of HLS’s Child Advocacy Program, has released two new reports challenging the long-held assumption that racial bias is responsible for the disproportionately high numbers of black children in foster care. 

• 

  Fried awarded the 2011 Bruce K. Gould Book Award

  Harvard Law School Professor Charles Fried and his son, Suffolk University Professor Gregory Fried, have been awarded the 2011 Bruce K. Gould Book Award for “Because it is Wrong: Torture, Privacy, and Presidential Power in the age of Terror” (W.W. Norton &Company 2010).

• 

  Scott in Financial Times: Little to celebrate on Dodd-Frank’s birthday

  In a July 19 op-ed published in the Opinion section of the Financial Times, Harvard Law School Professor Hal Scott reflects on the past, present, and future of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act on the anniversary of its passage into law.

• 

  Dershowitz in Boston Magazine: Is the government trying hard enough to get Whitey Bulger’s facilitators?

  In an opinion piece posted on July 22 in the 'Boston Daily' section of Boston Magazine online, HLS Professor Alan M. Dershowitz looks at the Whitey Bulger case, voicing his opinion that the government needs to focus its attention on Bulger’s relatives and closest acquaintances in trying to determine who may have facilitated his fugitive status.

• 

  Vermeule in New York Times: Obama should raise the debt ceiling on his own

  In a July 22 op-ed published in The New York Times ‘Opinion Pages’, HLS Professor Adrian Vermeule ’93 and his co-author, University of Chicago Law Professor Eric A. Posner ’91, address the current deadlock between President Barack Obama ’91 and Congress on raising the country’s legal borrowing limit by the August 2 deadline to avoid default.

• 

  On Radio Boston, Bordone addresses the debt negotiations

  Clinical Professor Robert Bordone ’97, a specialist in negotiation and dispute resolution and director of the Harvard Negotiation and Mediation Clinical Program, was interviewed on public radio regarding the ongoing debt negotiations in Washington, D.C.

• 

  Feldman in Bloomberg View: Limit Egyptian military power

  In a July 24 op-ed for Bloomberg View titled “Don’t Let the Egyptian Army Follow Caesar’s Script,” HLS Professor Noah Feldman argues that extending the power of the Egyptian military would be a great danger to the country’s burgeoning democracy.

• 

  Fried in Scotus Blog: ‘The constitutional arguments against the healthcare mandate are utterly without merit’

  On August 1st, Scotus Blog published an op-ed by Beneficial Professor of Law Charles Fried on the constitutionality of the healthcare mandate. In the piece, Fried argues that the attack against President Obama’s Affordable Care Act is pure politics and ignores established legal principles.

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  Matan Koch ’05 nominated to National Council on Disability

  Matan Koch ’05, an associate at Kramer, Levin, Naftalis & Frankel, was nominated by President Barack Obama ’91 to serve as a member of the National Council on Disability.

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  Harvard celebrates a new record: 50 LEED-certified projects, including HLS’s Griswold Hall

  The U.S. Green Building Council (UGBC) and Harvard University announced Aug. 1 that Harvard has become the first higher education institution to complete 50 Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certifications for construction projects around campus. One of those certifications was earned by renovations at Harvard Law School’s Griswold Hall, which in 2009 was awarded the highest rating of LEED-CI Platinum.

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  Eleven from HLS named to inaugural Fastcase 50 list

  In July, Fastcase, a legal research service that provides a comprehensive online national law library, honored 50 leaders in the world of law, scholarship, and legal technology. From lawyers and judges to librarians and government servants, the inaugural list recognized the law’s “smartest, most courageous innovators, techies, visionaries, and leaders.”

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  Glendon to advise Romney in his bid for the White House

  Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney ’75 recently announced that his Justice Advisory Committee will be co-chaired by HLS Professor Mary Ann Glendon along with Robert Bork and Richard Wiley. Leading a committee of 63 other lawyers, including HLS Professor Allen Ferrell ’95, they will advise Romney’s campaign on constitutional and judicial matters, homeland security, law enforcement, and regulatory issues.

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  Roe in Project Syndicate: America’s first debt crisis

  In an August 8 op-ed written for Project Syndicate, HLS Professor Mark Roe looks at the current U.S. debt crisis through the lens of what he calls ‘America’s first debt crisis:’ the one following the Revolutionary War.

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  Committee co-chaired by Bebchuk submits SEC rulemaking petition on political spending

  The Committee on Disclosure of Corporate Political Spending, co-chaired by Harvard Law School Professor Lucian A. Bebchuk LL.M. ’80 S.J.D. ’84 and Robert J. Jackson, Jr. ’05, associate professor at Columbia Law School, submitted a rulemaking petition to the Securities and Exchange Commission. The petition urges the commission to develop rules to require public companies to disclose to shareholders the use of corporate resources for political activities.

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  Feldman in Bloomberg View: Debt-deal disaster shows genius of U.S. democracy

  In his August 7 op-ed, the latest in a series for Bloomberg View, HLS Professor Noah Feldman discusses the perception of U.S. democracy in light of the government’s recent debt crisis.

• 

  HLAB Wins Major Victory for Homeowners in Massachusetts High Court

  In the latest victory for the HLS Clinical Programs’ anti-foreclosure work, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court ruled on Aug. 4 against lenders in a case argued by Harvard Legal Aid Bureau student Jennifer Tarr ’11.

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  In the New Republic: Vermeule reviews "Machiavellian Democracy"

  In a recent review in the New Republic, HLS Professor Adrian Vermeule ’93 examines the book “Machiavellian Democracy” (Cambridge University Press, 2011) by John P. McCormick.

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  ABA passes resolution urging tougher lobbying rules based on recommendations from Professor Fried and co-chairs

  The American Bar Association’s House of Delegates passed a resolution on Tuesday, Aug. 9,urging Congress to amend and strengthen federal lobbying rules. HLS Professor Charles Fried co-chaired the bi-partisan ABA Administrative Law Section task force, which proposed the recommendations in its January 2011 report.

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  Randall Kennedy on The Takeaway: on ‘The Persistence of the Color Line’ (Audio)

  Harvard Law School Professor Randall Kennedy recently appeared on the radio program “The Takeaway” to discuss his new book “The Persistence of the Color Line: Racial Politics and the Obama Presidency” (Pantheon Books).

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  Lazarus honored with ABA Award for Distinguished Achievement in Environmental Law and Policy

  In August, Professor Richard Lazarus ’79 was honored at the ABA annual meeting in Toronto with the association’s Award for Distinguished Achievement in Environmental Law and Policy. The award was given to Lazarus for his significant leadership in improving environmental protection and sustainable development.

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  In interview, Minow discusses legal education and Legal Services Corporation

  In a recent interview for the Spindle Law Blog, Harvard Law School Dean Martha Minow discussed her experience teaching, her work with the Legal Services Corporation, and the future of legal education.

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  Docherty in Australia's National Times: Cluster bombs bill is a law of loopholes

  In an Aug. 17 opinion piece in Australia’s National Times, Senior Clinical Instructor Bonnie Docherty '01 urged the Australian Senate to push back against proposed implementation legislation that would blunt the impact of the international ban on cluster munitions. 

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  Bernard Wolfman, 1924 – 2011: Magnificent teacher, beloved mentor and renowned scholar

  Bernard Wolfman, a renowned scholar of tax law and the Fessenden Professor of Law Emeritus at Harvard Law School, died on August 20, 2011. One of the preeminent tax professors in the United States, Wolfman clarified the world of tax law for generations of lawyers through his teaching and scholarship. He was also a leading expert in the ethics and rules of professional responsibility for lawyers.

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  Fried seeks answers from Republican leaders

  In a recent op-ed for the Boston Globe, Professor Charles Fried, a life-long Republican, writes that before he can give Senator Scott Brown his support in the next election, Fried needs to know what kind of Republican Brown is. 

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  Conversation with Associate Justice Elena Kagan (video)

  In an Aug. 2 interview at the Aspen Institute, Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan ‘86 spoke about life as a Supreme Court justice, cameras in the courtroom, and interpreting the law. She was interviewed by Elliot Gerson, a former law clerk to former Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart.

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  Lawyers Weekly to honor Harvard alumnae

  Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly has chosen six Harvard Law School alumnae to be honored as “Top Women of Law” this September in Boston.  The award seeks to highlight the work of women who are trailblazers, educators and role models in their fields and who have demonstrated outstanding accomplishments in social justice, advocacy and business.

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  HLS Clinic Files UN Complaint on Behalf of Filipina-American Tortured in the Philippines

  With the help of Harvard Law School's International Human Rights Clinic, Filipina-American Melissa Roxas has filed a submission with the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture seeking justice for the abduction and torture she suffered in the Philippines in 2009.   

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  In Ahram Online: Mallat addresses violence in Libyan uprising

  HLS Visiting Professor Chibli Mallat recently published an op-ed in the Egyptian newspaper Ahram Online entitled “Libya’s Revolution: a troubling legacy of violence.”

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  Harvard Gazette: How they spent summer

  When an opportunity arose this summer to work in Afghanistan on issues of human rights, Nicolette Boehland jumped at the chance. Little did the second-year Harvard Law School student know that she would soon be crisscrossing the country in Black Hawk helicopters interviewing victims of torture.

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  Steiker in New Republic: Don’t Blame Perry for Texas’s Execution Addiction

  An essay,  "Don't Blame Perry for Texas's Execution Addiction. He Doesn't Have Much To Do With It," by HLS Professor Carol Steiker ’86 and her brother, Professor Jordan Steiker '88 of the University of Texas School of Law appeared in the Sept. 2 edition of The New Republic. The essay focuses on the relationship between Republican presidential candidate and Texas Governor Rick Perry and Texas's standing as the execution capital of the United States.

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  Kennedy on PBS and BookTV: Obama and Racial Politics

  Harvard Law School Professor Randall Kennedy recently appeared on PBS’s Tavis Smiley show and CSPAN’s BookTV to discuss his latest book, “The Persistence of the Color Line: Racial Politics and the Obama Presidency” (Pantheon Books).

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  Coates: Fulfilling the promise of Citizens United

  In a recently released report, HLS Professor John C Coates and Taylor Lincoln, research director of Public Citizen’s Congress Watch division, provide evidence that publicly held companies that disclose their electoral spending are more valuable than the politically active companies that fail to disclose their donors.

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  Vivek Wadhwa: On jobs, Obama needs to be a radical

  The only way we can keep Americans fully employed and maintain our global lead is by constantly improving their productivity and skills, writes Vivek Wadhwa, a senior research associate for the Labor and Worklife Program at Harvard Law School, in an op-ed in today's Washington Post. In his op-ed,  "On jobs, Obama needs to be a radical," published on the eve on the president's address to the nation, Wadhwa writes that American companies must be provided with the incentives to invest in their workers as they used to.

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  Hanson’s Situationist blog wins 2011 Media Prize

  The Situationist blog, established by Professor Jon Hanson and run by the Project on Law and Mind Science at Harvard Law School, recently received the 2011 Media Prize awarded by the Society for Personality and Social Psychology.

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  Vermeule on Lawfare from the New Republic

  In a recent review in the New Republic, HLS Professor Adrian Vermeule ’93 examines the book "The Body of John Merryman: Abraham Lincoln and the Suspension of Habeas Corpus" (Harvard University Press, 2011) by Brian McGinty.

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  A Vast Wasteland Revisited (video)

  In 1961, Newton Minow – then Chairman of the Federal Communications Commission – delivered a landmark speech to the National Association of Broadcasters on “Television and the Public Interest,” in which he described television programming as a "vast wasteland" and advocated for public interest programming. He challenged his audience “to sit down in front of your own television set when your station goes on the air and stay there, for a day, without a book, without a magazine, without a newspaper…to distract you. Keep your eyes glued to that set until the station signs off. I can assure you that what you will observe is a vast wasteland.” Fifty years– and innumerable advances in media communications – later, Minow visited Harvard Law School for a forum exploring the future of journalism and the role of the state in the construction of the public sphere.

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  Former head of Homeland Security discusses the law before and after 9/11 (video)

  Michael Chertoff had a common reaction to the news of a plane hitting one of the World Trade Center towers in New York City on Sept. 11, 2001. “Like many people at the time, I thought it was a pilot error,” the former U.S. secretary of Homeland Security told a lunchtime crowd at Harvard Law School on Tuesday.
  

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  Anker elected to the Fellows of the American Bar Foundation

  For upholding the highest principles of the legal profession and for outstanding dedication to the welfare of others, HLS Clinical Professor Deborah Anker LL.M. ’84 was recently elected to the Fellows of the American Bar Foundation. Anker, one of the nation’s top scholars in immigration law, is director of the Harvard Immigration and Refugee Clinic and has taught immigration law and supervised clinical students for over 20 years.

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  At HLS, White House Adviser John Brennan details administration’s policy on combatting terrorism (video)

  President Obama’s top counterterrorism adviser, John O. Brennan, told conferees in a keynote address at HLS on Sept. 16 that the U.S. must not let down its guard in fighting terrorist organizations on a broad front. Brennan’s remarks, “Strengthening our Security by Adhering to our Values and Laws,” were delivered as part of a two-day conference on terrorism and national security, "Law, Security, and Liberty after 9/11: Looking to the Future," hosted by the newly-inaugurated Harvard Law School-Brookings Project on Law and Security.

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  Harvard’s Labor and Worklife Program looks at challenges facing workers in communications and media

  Will knowledge, information, and communication workers of the world unite? This question was explored by Vincent Mosco, professor emeritus of communications at Queen's University, Canada, at a presentation sponsored by the Labor and Worklife Program at Harvard Law School on September 19.

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  Bebchuk recognized for excellence in corporate governance

  At the 2011 annual meeting of the International Corporate Governance Network held in Paris, Professor Lucian Bebchuk was awarded an ICGN award for excellence in corporate governance. ICGN awards are given annually in recognition of “exceptional achievements in the corporate governance field.”

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  Constitution Day 2011: Feldman, Palfrey offer some reflections

  In celebration of Constitution Day—the annual celebration of the signing of the U.S. Constitution on Sept. 17, 1787—HLS professors Noah Feldman and John Palfrey delivered talks to university audiences about the document upon which the American legal and political systems have been built.

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  Steiker in The New Republic: Death Penalty Opponents Are Closer to Goal Than They Realize

  An essay, Why Death Penalty Opponents Are Closer to Their Goal Than They Realize, by HLS Professor Carol Steiker ’86, appeared in the Sept. 27 edition of The New Republic. The essay focuses on the decline of the death penalty in practice, politics and law, and how the present moment brings the genuine possibility of permanent abolition via judicial decision.

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  Leadership in the 21st Century is the focus of the 3rd Black Alumni reunion (video)

  Seven hundred alumni and guests gathered in Cambridge on September 16-18 to commemorate the 3rd Celebration of Black Alumni at Harvard Law School. With more black lawyers entering the profession than ever before—and more achieving positions of prominence and power, the event, “Struggle and Progress: Leadership in the 21st Century,” focused on the progress that has been made and the barriers that remain.

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  Eugene Volokh, of The Volokh Conspiracy, discusses slippery slope arguments (video)

  Eugene Volokh, professor at UCLA School of Law, well known to some law students for his blog, The Volokh Conspiracy, gave a lecture on slippery slope arguments at an event sponsored by the Harvard Law School Federalist Society on September 20th.  He was joined by Noah Feldman, Bemis Professor of International Law at Harvard Law School, who provided a response.

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  Environmental Law experts review cases before the Court (video)

  On September 28, the Harvard Law School Environmental Law Program and Environmental Law Institute hosted a Supreme Court Review and Preview to discuss the implications of recent Supreme Court decisions on the field of environmental law. Harvard Law School Dean Martha Minow introduced the event, and emphasized the Supreme Court’s role in the formation of environmental policy in the United States.

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  At HLS, former investigator questions the relationship between physicians and pharmaceutical industry

  In the first lecture of the Edmond J. Safra Center for Ethics series, Paul Thacker, an investigative journalist and former U.S. Senate Finance Committee staffer, said that big pharmaceutical dollars not only own physicians but also many prominent medical school faculty who are paid to lobby for drugs.
  

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  Derrick Bell (1930-2011)

  Derrick Bell, a distinguished legal scholar, prolific writer and tireless champion for equality, died Wednesday, Oct. 5. Over the course of his five-decade career, he worked to expose the persistence of racism and challenged his students, readers and critics with his uncompromising candor and progressive views.

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  Constitution Day: At Howard, Minow reflects on diversity in education, constitutional law

  On Sept. 19, Harvard Law School Dean Martha Minow gave a lecture at Howard Law School in Washington, D.C., in commemoration of Constitution Day – an annual, national celebration of the signing of the U.S. Constitution on Sept. 17, 1787.

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  Thirteen Harvard Law grads are U.S. Supreme Court clerks for 2011-2012

  Of the 39 law school graduates serving as clerks to the U.S. Supreme Court justices and retired justices in the 2011-2012 term, 13 hail from Harvard Law School—the highest number from a single law school this year.

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  A partner offers some advice to new lawyers

  According to attorney and author Grover E. Cleveland, young lawyers should be reassured by assignments that require all-nighters. “If a senior lawyer left work on your desk and went to sleep, that means that you’ve successfully earned her trust,” he said. Cleveland offered this and other nuggets of wisdom at “Swimming Lessons for Baby Sharks: Thriving in the First Two Years of Law Practice,” an event jointly sponsored by the Harvard Law School Program on the Legal Profession and Office of Career Services on October 4.

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  GLAD's Bonauto assesses litigation of the Defense of Marriage Act

  At “Challenging and Litigating DOMA's Constitutionality”— an event that was co-sponsored by the Harvard Law School American Constitution Society, Lambda, and the Civil Rights-Civil Liberties Law Journal—Mary Bonauto, the Civil Rights Project Director at Gay & Lesbian Advocates & Defenders (GLAD), spoke about litigating the Defense of Marriage Act in federal courts in the wake of the Department of Justice's recent decision to stop defending the law.

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  Palfrey discusses Network Neutrality at the Open World Forum (video)

  Professor John Palfrey ’01 was a keynote speaker at the Open World Forum, held September 22-24, in Paris, France. The Open World Forum brings together 160 experts from around the world to discuss technological, economic and social initiatives.

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  Social Media can thwart repressive regimes’ dynamics, says Berkman fellow

  Zeynep Tufekci, an assistant professor at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, argued that social media have the power to "upset the erstwhile stable dynamics of repression under durable authoritarian regimes" at a luncheon talk sponsored by the Berkman Center for Internet & Society. Tufekci, who is also a fellow at the Berkman Center, studies the interaction between technology and social, cultural and political dynamics.

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  Youth Empowerment and Leadership: An Evening with former president of India, A.P.J Abdul Kalam (video)

  It was hard to see him though the cheering crowd when he first walked in, a small, amiable-looking man. By the end of the session, he had gotten his message across about the importance of global leadership and youth empowerment. He was even able to get a room full of people to recite poetry with him. He is Dr. A. P. J. Abdul Kalam, the 11th president of India.

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  HLS students advocate before Mass. high court in closely watched foreclosure case

  Just two months after landing a major victory in the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court on behalf of homeowners fighting eviction, the Harvard Legal Aid Bureau (HLAB) was back before the high court last week seeking more protections for people with homes in foreclosure. The court’s decision, expected to come down in several months, could lead to greater accountability for lenders trying to foreclose.

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  At HLS, Kathleen Morris makes the case for local constitutional law (video)

  In a lecture co-sponsored by the Harvard Civil Rights-Civil Liberties Law Review and the Federalist Society, San Francisco City Attorney Kathleen Morris made the case for local constitutional law, which would overturn a century of Supreme Court precedent. She was joined by HLS Professors David Barron and Gerald Frug, and Stanford Law Professor Richard Ford.

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  Hausers donate $40 million to Harvard University

  Harvard University has announced that Harvard Law School alums Rita E. and Gustave M. Hauser have given the University $40 million to support excellence and innovation in learning and teaching at Harvard.

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  Current marijuana policy encourages discrimination, says Congressman Barney Frank at HLS (video)

  At an event sponsored by the Harvard Law School American Constitution Society on October 18, Representative Barney Frank (D-MA) ’77 spoke about proposed legislation that would end the federal ban on marijuana, as well as the need for drug policy reform at the federal level and why marijuana policy is an issue better handled by the states.

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  Digital Public Library of America announces $5 million in funding, new collaboration at conference

  The Digital Public Library of America (DPLA) – a national project coordinated by Harvard Law School’s Berkman Center for Internet & Society to provide access to digital collections from libraries, museums, and archives in the United States – announced $5 million in new funding and a new collaboration at its first conference on Oct. 21. The conference was webcast live from the National Archives in Washington, D.C.

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  Heron ’12 presents oral argument in environmental law case

  Environmental Law & Policy Clinic student Rachel Heron ’12 presented a 3-hour oral argument on a motion for summary judgment in an important, precedent-setting administrative proceeding concerning the right of renewable energy companies to conduct business and install solar energy systems in Massachusetts. 

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  Food Law Society co-sponsors TEDx conference on food policy (video)

  The Harvard Food Law Society recently co-sponsored “TEDxHarvardLaw,” a full-day conference held on Oct. 21, focused on food policy and public health, and the legal and policy approaches to increasing the supply and demand of healthy foods. The campus-wide event was independently organized and co-sponsored by 18 different HLS organizations under the auspices of TEDx, a program of local, self-organized events that bring people together to share a TED-like experience.

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  Representing the NFL Players Association: a Harvard Law School panel discussion

  In a panel discussion sponsored by HLS Lecturer on Law Peter Carfagna ’79 and Harvard Law School's Committee on Sports and Entertainment Law, “Negotiating with The League: Representing the NFLPA,” Peter Kendall, a retired NFL player who was involved in the league’s summer contract renegotiations offered an insider’s account of the collective bargaining victory that preserved this fall's season.

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  Annette Gordon-Reed joins, speaks at American Academy of Arts and Sciences (video)

  Harvard Law School Professor Annette Gordon-Reed ’84 was inducted as a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and served as the academy’s Class IV speaker at the 2011 induction ceremony, held Oct. 1.

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  Cohen argues against the Mississippi Personhood Ballot Initiative

  Harvard Law School Assistant Professor of Law I. Glenn Cohen joined medical and legal experts live via Skype on Oct. 25 at Mississippi College School of Law to debate the implications of Mississippi’s Personhood initiative, which will appear on the state’s ballot Nov. 8. The initiative asks: “Should the term 'person' be defined to include every human being from the moment of fertilization, cloning, or the equivalent thereof?”

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  "From Dictatorship to Democracy:" Gene Sharp on the possibility of transition

  Gene Sharp, an emeritus professor of political science at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth and founder of the Albert Einstein Institution, is widely credited as one of the principal initiators of the Arab Spring. His 1993 book, “From Dictatorship to Democracy,” which promotes the principle of nonviolent struggle, is created with inspiring the revolution in Egypt, as well as in other countries all over the world.  

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  Garzon on universal jurisdiction in the international criminal arena (video)

  Universal Jurisdiction, the universal right to prosecute a perpetrator of heinous crimes anywhere in the world despite local amnesty laws, was the topic of discussion at Harvard Law School on September 26. In a talk hosted by the Human Rights Program, Spanish Judge Baltasar Garzon spoke about universal jurisdiction in today’s international criminal arena.

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  At HLS, editor of Above the Law weighs blog impact (audio)

  In a talk sponsored by the Harvard Federalist Society and moderated by HLS Professor Jeannie Suk, David Lat discussed the impact of blogging on the judiciary.

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  Tribe Named 2012 Boston Appellate Practice Lawyer of the Year

  "Best Lawyers," a peer review legal publication, has named HLS Professor Laurence H. Tribe ’66 “Lawyer of the Year” in the category of Boston Appellate Practitioners. Only one lawyer in each specialty in each community is honored as the “Lawyer of the Year.”

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  Berkman Center for Internet & Society partners with Lady Gaga to launch the Born This Way Foundation

  The Berkman Center for Internet & Society has partnered with Grammy awarding-winning artist Lady Gaga, the John D. & Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation and the California Endowment to launch the Born This Way Foundation (BTWF), a non-profit charitable organization that will support programs and initiatives aimed at empowering youth.

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  Addressing communications issues in legal cases

  What must lawyers know about litigation and public affairs communications in the global marketplace? Richard S. Levick, lawyer, president and CEO of Levick Strategic Communications, addressed this question in an event organized by the Institute for Global Law and Policy at Harvard Law School on Oct. 13.

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  Program on International Financial Systems hosts 2011 Japan Symposium

  On Nov. 4-6, Harvard Law School’s Program on International Financial Systems (PIFS) co-hosted the 14th annual “Symposium on Building the Financial System of the 21st Century: An Agenda for Japan and the United States,” with the International House of Japan. The event, held this year in Cambridge, Mass., brought together more than 100 hundred senior executives and government officials from the financial industry, policymaking, law and academic arenas.

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  Cayley discusses prosecutions of mass atrocities (video)

  In a lecture sponsored by the Human Rights Program and International Legal Studies at Harvard Law School, Andrew Cayley, co-prosecutor of Cambodia's Khmer Rouge Tribunal, discussed his role as counsel on both sides of the aisle in international law.

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  Lessig and Gergen on 'Republic, Lost' (video)

  At a recent event at Harvard Law School, HLS Professor Lawrence Lessig and Harvard Kennedy School Professor David Gergen discussed Lessig’s new book, “Republic, Lost: How Money Corrupts Congress—and a Plan to Stop It.” The event was co-hosted by the Harvard Law School Library, Edmond J. Safra Center for Ethics, the Harvard Kennedy School Center for Public Leadership, and the Berkman Center for Internet & Society.

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  OPIA sponsors “Careers in the Military” panel with HLS alums (video)

  Law students interested in a law firm career can attend firm-sponsored meet-and-greets to speak with associates. Students interested in public interest careers can meet one-on-one with visiting alumni advisors. But HLS students interested in military careers have fewer chances to mingle with those who have pursued that path. To provide that opportunity, OPIA welcomed to HLS five alumni who have served in the armed forces, to provide guidance and answer student questions.

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  Post Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell: Next steps?

  Harvard Law School Lambda, a student organization dedicated to serving the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender community, hosted a panel at the law school on Nov. 9 to discuss challenges posed to effectively ending discrimination against LGBT service-members in light of the repeal of Don’t Ask Don’t Tell. 

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  Palfrey appointed as the Head of School at Phillips Academy Andover

  John G. Palfrey ’01, Harvard Law School’s Henry N. Ess III Professor of Law and vice-dean of Library and Information Resources, has been appointed the 15^th Head of School at the Phillips Academy Andover, the academy announced Nov. 14. He will leave HLS and officially begin at Phillips Academy in July 2012.

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  National implications of state-led immigration reform

  At an event about the national implications of state-led immigration reform, sponsored by Harvard Immigration Project, Advocates for Human Rights, and ACLU-HLS, Lucas Guttentag, senior counsel and former founding national director of the ACLU's Immigrants’ Rights Project, discussed Alabama's new immigration law, its significance for state efforts to regulate immigration, and where immigration advocates go from here.

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  Students testify before education committee to garner support for safe schools

  Eight Harvard Law School students in the HLS Education Law Clinic of the Trauma and Learning Policy Initiative (TLPI) recently spent a full day at the Massachusetts State House, testifying before the Joint Committee on Education and lobbying legislators to garner support for legislation proposed by the Clinic to create safe and supportive school environments.

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  Health care reform: HLS faculty and alumni weigh in (video)

  On Monday, the Supreme Court agreed to hear challenges to the constitutionality of the Health Care Law. In an op-ed and a debate this past week, two HLS faculty members (Professors Einer Elhauge '86 and Laurence Tribe '66) and a prominent alumnus (former Solicitor General Paul Clement '92) shared their opinions on the mandate's constitutionality.

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  In Dubois Institute lecture series, Ogletree reflects on Obama's narrative

  Harvard Law School Professor Charles Ogletree delivered the Nathan I. Huggins Lecture on November 15th, 16th, and 17th at the W.E.B. Du Bois Institute for African and African American Research at Harvard University. The lecture series, “Understanding Obama,” is divided into three parts: “From Barry to Barack,” “The Emergence of Race” and “The Conundrum of Race.” 

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  The Ames Moot Court Competition: A look back

  Associate Justice Sonia Sotomayor of the U.S. Supreme Court presided over the oral argument in the final round of the 2011 Ames Moot Court Competition on Thursday, November 17th, 2011.The competition was held in the historic Ames Courtroom of Harvard Law School.

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  Yog gift to Harvard includes financial aid and fellowship fund at HLS

  Siddhartha Yog, M.B.A. ’04, founder and managing partner of The Xander Group Inc., an India-focused, emerging-markets investment firm, has given the University $11,000,001 to establish two new professorships, fellowships and financial aid, and an intellectual entrepreneurship fund.

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  Student testifies on health care reform provisions before the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services

  On November 8, Emily Savner ‘13 of the Harvard Law School Center for Health Law and Policy Innovation testified at a regional listening session convened by the United States Department of Health and Human Services. The session was convened to elicit comments from individuals and groups about the health services that should be included in the soon-to-be created Essential Health Benefits package mandated through health care reform. Once finalized and implemented by HHS, the Essential Health Benefits package will provide a federally mandated set of health services to millions of currently uninsured Americans through both Medicaid and newly-created subsidized private health insurance plans. 

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  Former White House Counsel Bauer Speaks to HLS Students (Video)

  Former White House Counsel Robert Bauer addressed students at Harvard Law School in October, sharing his insights on the lawyer’s role in law and politics. Bauer, who served as counsel to President Obama from November 2009 to June 2011, is currently a partner at Perkins Coie and is now representing the president’s re-election team and the Democratic National Committee.

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  At Center for Ethics event, cell phone radiation and institutional corruption addressed (video)

  On Nov. 3, Dr. Franz Adlkofer, former executive director of the VERUM Foundation for Behavior and Environment, spoke to a Harvard Law School audience as part of the lectures and events series hosted by the Edmond J. Safra Center for Ethics. 

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  In Ahram Online, Mallat argues that SCAF must fold in Egypt

  HLS Visiting Professor Chibli Mallat recently published an op-ed in the Egyptian newspaper Ahram Online entitled “Why and How SCAF must fold in Egypt.”

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  Eugene N. Hamilton (1933-2011)

  Eugene N. Hamilton, a Harvard Law School Lecturer on Law and former chief judge of the D.C. Superior Court, who was revered as a great trial advocacy teacher, mentor and advocate for children, died Saturday, Nov. 19. Hamilton lectured at Harvard Law School for nearly 30 years, most recently teaching in HLS’s Trial Advocacy Workshop.

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  Food is the great connector

  On Nov. 14, the Harvard Food Law Society, Environmental Law Society, and the Environmental Law Review hosted the Boston premiere of the PBS special “Heirloom Meals’ Thanksgiving.” The documentary, which aired on PBS stations around the country this week, celebrates how different cultures in America give the holidays their own special flavor.

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  Palfrey on intellectual property strategy (video)

  According to John Palfrey, businesspeople are often insufficiently attentive to the ways that intellectual property rights can be acquired and exercised. His new book, “Intellectual Property Strategy” (MIT Press), is thus written with businesspeople in mind. Palfrey, Vice Dean for Library and Information Resources and Faculty Co-Director of the Berkman Center for Internet and Society, argues for leaders of businesses and non-profit organizations to adopt IP policies that go beyond the traditional, highly restrictive “sword and shield” approach, and that instead focus on flexibility and creativity.

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  Hubschman Fellowship established for HLS/HKS students

  Friends of Henry Hubschman HLS ’72, M.P.P. ’73 have set up a fellowship in his memory at Harvard Kennedy School and Harvard Law School. Established shortly after Hubschman’s death in February 2011, the fellowship has received more than $550,000 in contributions and is now permanently endowed. It will provide financial assistance to students pursuing dual HLS/HKS degrees beginning in academic year 2012–13.

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  Zittrain in Technology Review: The personal computer is dead

  In a Nov. 30 op-ed in Technology Review, Harvard Law School Professor Jonathan Zittrain discusses the consequences of the rise of mobile devices and the shift in power from the end user and software developers to operating system vendors.

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  Fighting for human rights and press freedom in Bahrain: Possibilities and Limitations

  The recent recipient of the Committee to Protect Journalists 2011 International Press Freedom Award, Dr. Mansoor al-Jamri  visited Harvard Law School on Nov. 28 to discuss the fight for human rights and press freedom in Bahrain in light of the Arab Spring uprisings.

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  Minow’s Book “In Brown’s Wake” receives Education Law Association Award

  Dean Martha Minow’s most recent book, “In Brown’s Wake: Legacies of America’s Educational Landmark,” recently received The Steven S. Goldberg Award for Distinguished Scholarship in Education Law. The award is given annually by the Education Law Association “in recognition of an outstanding article, book, book chapter, or other form of scholarly legal writing in the field of education law.”

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  Law School appoints John Williams as its first Innovation Lab Expert in Residence

  Harvard Law School Dean Martha Minow has appointed Boston entrepreneur John Williams ’79 as the Law School’s inaugural Expert in Residence (EIR).

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  Tomiko Brown-Nagin appointed Professor of Law

  Tomiko Brown-Nagin, a leading expert on legal history, education law, and civil rights, will join the Harvard Law School faculty as a tenured Professor of Law this summer. She will also serve as an affiliate of the History Department in Harvard University’s Faculty of Arts and Sciences.

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  Daniel Nagin appointed Clinical Professor of Law

  Daniel Nagin, a tireless advocate for low-income communities, will join the Harvard Law School faculty as a Clinical Professor of Law this summer. He will direct community-based lawyering at HLS’s WilmerHale Legal Services Center.

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  At HLS, Jack Abramoff talks about corruption in Washington (video)

  Appearing at Harvard Law School a year and a half after being released from federal prison, a contrite Jack Abramoff expressed a desire to thwart the political corruption he once infamously practiced. The event on Dec. 6 was sponsored by the Edmond J. Safra Center for Ethics, whose director, HLS Professor Lawrence Lessig, interviewed Abramoff, a former lobbyist who pleaded guilty in 2006 to charges of fraud, tax evasion, and conspiracy to bribe public officials. “His experience,” said Lessig, “has an enormous amount to teach us.”

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  Students address critical access to care issues at conference on AIDS

  Students working in the Harvard Law School Center for Health Law and Policy Innovation launched a new training series at the United States Conference on AIDS in Chicago last month.

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  Six from Harvard Law School win Skadden Fellowships

  Six Harvard Law School students and recent graduates have been chosen to receive Skadden Fellowships to support their work in public service.

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  Immigration and Refugee Clinical Program sponsors talk on EU migration controls

  Bill Frelick, director of the refugee program at Human Rights Watch, spoke at Harvard Law School at the end of October on European Union migration controls and access to asylum, at an event sponsored by the Harvard Immigration and Refugee Clinical Program.

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  Metropolitan Area Planning Council's 'State of Equity' report to be released at HLS

  The Metropolitan Area Planning Council (MAPC) has released a summary of “The State of Equity in Metro Boston,” a report studying the ways that inequity affects the residents of greater Boston. The full report was released on Tuesday, Dec. 13 at an event co-hosted by Harvard Law School’s Charles Hamilton Houston Institute for Race and Justice.

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  Coates testifies on investor risks in capital raising (video)

  On Wednesday, Dec. 14, Harvard Law School Professor John Coates testified before the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Subcommittee on Securities, Insurance and Investment at an open-session hearing titled “Examining Investor Risks in Capital Raising.” 

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  Zittrain and Palfrey in Science Magazine: Better data for a better Internet

  In a recent paper published in the December issue of Science magazine, Harvard Law School Professors Jonathan Zittrain ‘95 and John Palfrey ’01 examine how better forms of measurement of the Internet and the Web can inform Internet policy and regulations.

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  Chief Justice Margaret H. Marshall will join HLS faculty

  Margaret H. Marshall, who served over a decade as Chief Justice of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, will join the faculty at Harvard Law School this spring as a senior research fellow and lecturer.

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  Lessig on ‘The Daily Show’ (video)

  HLS Professor Lawrence Lessig was a guest on “The Daily Show with Jon Stewart” on Dec. 13.

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  Wilkins in NYTimes’ ‘Room for Debate:’ Keep the method, not the focus

  In today’s NY Times ‘Room for Debate’ online forum, Harvard Law School Professor David Wilkins ’80 writes on the topic of whether or not the Socratic method should still have a role in American legal education today.

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  Sullivan appointed to Massachusetts Committee for Public Counsel Services

  HLS Clinical Professor Ron Sullivan ’94, who serves as director of the Harvard Criminal Justice Institute, was recently appointed to the Massachusetts Committee for Public Counsel Services. Sullivan joins Professor Carol Steiker ’86, who is also a member of the committee.

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  HLS clinic assists in effort to prevent the weakening of cluster munitions ban

  On Nov. 25, the Fourth Review Conference of the Convention on Conventional Weapons concluded that it could find no consensus on proposed treaty language that would allow for some use of cluster munitions. The announcement was a major milestone for Harvard Law School’s International Human Rights Clinic, a supporter of the 2008 Convention on Cluster Munitions.

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  Voice of America: Feldman speaks on Sharia Law (audio)

  Harvard Law School Professor Noah Feldman was recently a guest on Voice of America’s “Press Conference” radio program, speaking with host Carol Casteil about the meaning of Sharia Law and the role that it could play in the burgeoning democracies of Middle Eastern countries such as Egypt and Libya.

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  Hat Trick: Cohen on Flynn v. Holder, Guatemalan reparations, and the ACA

  Harvard Law School Assistant Professor of Law I. Glenn Cohen, co-director of HLS’s Petrie-Flom Center for Health Law Policy, Biotechnology and Bioethics, is the author of three recently published articles on health law topics.

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  HLS faculty and alumni selected "exemplars of good legal writing" by The Green Bag

  The Green Bag, a quarterly journal devoted to readable, concise, and entertaining legal scholarship, has named a number of current and former Harvard Law School faculty members and alumni to its “Exemplary Legal Writing 2011” list. They will appear in the 2012 Almanac & Reader.

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  Elhauge in NEJM: 'Broccoli Argument' is irrelevant against insurance mandate

  HLS Professor Einer Elhauge ’86, the founding director of the Petrie-Flom Center for Health Law Policy, Biotechnology, and Bioethics, wrote “The Irrelevance of the Broccoli Argument against the Insurance Mandate,” which was published online Dec. 21 by the New England Journal of Medicine.

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  Alford meets with U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon

  HLS Professor William Alford ’77, a member of the executive committee of the board of directors of Special Olympics International and chair of its research and policy committee, met with U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon in November to discuss disability issues. Alford was a participant in the meeting at the invitation of Timothy Shriver, chairman of Special Olympics, and Na Kyung-won, a member of the South Korean Congress who has been at the forefront of disability rights legislation.