April 2013

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  The Harvard Immigration Project: Fighting for the rights of immigrant detainees

  Following its second victory, the Harvard Immigration Project’s (HIP) Bond Hearing Project continues its new campaign to provide free legal representation to detained immigrants seeking release from immigration custody.

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  HLS establishes new Veterans Legal Clinic

  The Board of Veterans’ Appeals denies a soldier’s claim for disability benefits for an injury to his lower extremities. But the decision is handed down while the soldier is serving in Afghanistan, and he doesn’t realize he has the right to appeal until after he returns from his deployment—after the appeal deadline has passed.  For students in Harvard Law School’s new Veterans Legal Clinic, the chance to argue that the appeal deadline should have been tolled and the case allowed to proceed on the merits is proving invaluable educationally and personally.

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  PIFS symposium gathers senior executives, government officials

  Harvard Law School's Program on International Financial Systems (PIFS) hosted its eleventh annual Symposium on Building the Financial System of the Twenty-first Century: An Agenda for Europe and the United States on March 21-23 at the SwissRe Centre for Global Dialogue in Rüschlikon Switzerland. Co-hosted by the Centre for European Policy Studies (CEPS), the event gathered over a hundred senior executives and government officials from the financial industry, policymaking arenas, law, and academia.

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  From 2013 World Winter Games to Global Development Summit, Alford plays major role in Special Olympics International

  As an enthusiastic supporter of the Special Olympics who has worked for more than two decades with Special Olympics International, Harvard Law School Professor William P. Alford welcomed the opportunity to help bring about the 2013 Special Olympics World Winter Games, held in PyeongChang, Korea earlier this year. “One of the major messages of the Special Olympics is that having a disability need not be seen as being as limiting or disqualifying as some people might assume,” says Alford, director of East Asian Legal Studies and chair of the Harvard Law School Project on Disability (HPOD).

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  Gertner, Kaufman appointed to Advisory panel on Mass. federal court nominations

  U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren has announced the appointment of an Advisory Committee on Massachusetts judicial nominations to solicit, interview, and comment on applications for federal District Court vacancies in Springfield and Boston. The Committee is comprised of distinguished members of the Massachusetts legal community, including Harvard Law School Professor Andrew Kaufman, and will be chaired by former District Court Judge Nancy Gertner, who is now a Professor of Practice at HLS.

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  Harvard Law faculty and alumni among 100 Most Influential Lawyers in America

  Several members of the Harvard Law School faculty and over a dozen alumni were named to The National Law Journal’s list of 100 Most Influential Lawyers in America.

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  Tribe to receive honorary degree from Columbia

  Professor Laurence Tribe ‘66, the Carl M. Loeb University Professor, will be recognized by Columbia University with an honorary Doctor of Letters at the school’s commencement exercises on May 22, 2013.

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  The role of media in the U.S. political system: A Panel at Harvard Law School

  On April 3, a group of journalists gathered to discuss the changing relationship between political actors and journalists in a changing technological landscape at an event entitled “The Role of Media in the U.S. Political System.” The event was sponsored by the HLS American Constitution Society, and featured CNN’s John King, Melinda Henneberger, political reporter for the Washington Post, and Peter Hamby, national political reporter for CNN.

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  Blum, Feldman weigh in on aftermath of Boston Marathon bombings

  In the wake of Monday’s Boston Marathon bombings, experts across Harvard University analyzed the puzzle and potential of the attack’s aftermath.

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  Ken Burns offers preview of 'Central Park Five' at HLS (video)

  On March 12 at Harvard Law School, award-winning filmmaker Ken Burns joined Harvard Law School Professor Charles Ogletree and two Central Park Five members for a film screening and panel discussion of his new documentary “The Central Park Five,” which tells the story of five Black and Latino teenagers who were wrongly convicted of raping and beating a white woman in New York City’s Central Park in 1989. The event was co-sponsored by Harvard Law School’s Charles Hamilton Houston Institute for Race & Justice and the Prison Studies Project and the W.E.B. Du Bois Institute for African and African American Research.

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  Advanced Negotiation students advise Major League Baseball executives

  This year, Clinical Professor Robert Bordone ‘97, director of the Harvard Negotiation and Mediation Clinical Program (HNMCP), developed a capstone consulting project with Major League Baseball (MLB) for his course “Advanced Negotiation: Multiparty Negotiation, Group Decision Making, and Teams,” co-taught with Lecturer on Law Rory Van Loo ’07. MLB tasked the class with providing strategic advice for an upcoming negotiation aimed at the implementation of an international amateur draft. Six teams of Harvard Law School students participated in the semester-long project, competing for the opportunity to present their findings to the MLB. In his essay, “Note from the Big Leagues”, Chris Davis '14, a member of the wining team, reflects on his experience.

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  Associate White House Counsel Kathleen Hartnett '00 reflects on Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell

  As the gay rights movement continues to gain momentum, it's easy to forget just how recently the tides of change were moving in the opposite direction, Associate White House Counsel Kathleen Hartnett '00 said at an April 11 talk at Harvard Law School, hosted by the Harvard chapter of the American Constitution Society.

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  Confronting evil, embracing life

  The manhunt for a bombing suspect shut down the Boston area on Friday. With Harvard temporarily closed, a pair of two-day scholarly conferences had to be compressed into Saturday alone. But by chance, both provided perspective on the area’s brush with terror.

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  For second year in a row, Harvard Law School wins regional WTO moot court

  For the second year in a row, a team of Harvard Law School students won the North American regional moot court competition on WTO law at the ELSA Moot Court Competition (EMC²). The second annual competition was held in San Jose, Costa Rica and was organized in cooperation with the Costa Rican Society of International Law.

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  Manning elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences

  John F. Manning ’85, the Bruce Bromley Professor of Law at Harvard, and an expert in administrative law, statutory interpretation, separation of powers law and the federal courts, has been elected a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.