Closing
A conversation with Michael R. Klein LL.M. '67
All this, and Kathmandu
David Deal
Michael R. Klein attended Harvard Law School on a Brandeis Fellowship and received his LL.M. degree in 1967. Last year, after more than 35 years as a corporate lawyer, he cut back on his practice at WilmerHale in Washington, D.C., to concentrate on his own business and nonprofit ventures. He is president of the PEN/Faulkner Foundation (which makes annual awards for fiction writing) and has founded a new organization, the Sunlight Project, to fight corruption in Congress. In 2004 he made a gift to Harvard Law School establishing the Michael R. Klein Professorship of Law.
What's the Sunlight Project?
Louis Brandeis wrote, "Sunlight is the best of disinfectants." I founded a
business, CoStar Group Inc., that assembles and disseminates online data about
billions of square feet of commercial real estate throughout the U.S. and Great
Britain. The Sunlight Project combines these two ideas. It will try to provide
transparency through online access for reporters, bloggers and citizens to all
the information required to be disclosed about lobbyists, political
contributions, personal financial interests of senators and congressmen, travel
and entertainment of politicians, government contracts, the revolving door and
the like. We will also push for legislation to increase the availability of
other information about the corrupting effect of money in government.
What prompted you to start the project?
A growing revulsion at what's happened to the Congress. If they were to pass
legislation tomorrow confirming the day of the week, it would likely have a half
dozen special interest riders. My two sons led me to realize that a significant
part of their generation thinks democracy isn't worth engagement or even
respect. For an old 1960s activist like myself, that was the tipping point.
Why did you become involved with the PEN/Faulkner
Foundation?
Contemporary American fiction is perhaps the glory of our national culture.
Meeting great writers and bringing their work not only to adult readers but into
urban public schools through PEN/Faulkner's Writers in Schools program are
exciting activities that drew me into it. A recent Harvard study of the gaps in
aptitude test scores between high school students of various races and economic
segments found that leisure reading is a key indicator of successful
performance. So the program is making an important contribution.
You're a trustee of the American Himalayan Foundation.
How did that happen?
My wife and I trekked in Nepal about 30 years ago. It's beautiful and the people
outside the government are lovely. One of my best friends started the American
Himalayan Foundation and invited me to join its board. The AHF now serves about
75,000 people through an array of indigenously managed health, education and
cultural programs. My favorite is the Hospital for the Rehabilitation of
Disabled Children outside Kathmandu, where a saintly man, Dr. Banskota, repairs
the broken and distorted limbs of thousands of impoverished children and trains
orthopedic surgeons.
You've been one of Harvard Law School's strongest
supporters. Why?
I believe that those who are fortunate have an obligation to repay moral
obligations and contribute to the public good. It was a generous fellowship that
enabled me to attend Harvard, which proved invaluable. Performing well
academically was important for my self-confidence. The credential of an HLS
degree opened up career opportunities. Relationships with HLS classmates became
important in my business activities. The culmination of all those factors has
enabled me to pay Harvard back, in annual giving and reunion campaigns, in the
form of the chair and in supporting the work of the Charles Hamilton Houston
Institute, which seeks to continue the important civil rights efforts that
captured the hearts of my generation. It's a continuing pleasure that I hope to
extend.
