Wilkins receives J. Clay Smith Award
Professor David Wilkins ’80, faculty director of the Program on the Legal Profession, received the first-ever J. Clay Smith Award from Howard University School of Law for his work on the status and development of African-Americans in the legal profession. He received the award on Oct. 23 at the Wiley A. Branton Symposium at Howard, where he was also the keynote speaker.
Most powerful in D.C.
Elizabeth Warren, HLS professor and chair of the Congressional Oversight Panel on TARP, was recently named one of the 50 Most Powerful People in D.C. by GQ magazine. This biennial list, as determined by a poll of journalists, members of Congress, lobbyists and other politicians, ranks political figures in Washington, D.C., based upon their influence and clout. Additionally, on Oct. 14, Warren received the 2009 Lelia J. Robinson Award from the Women’s Bar Association for her groundbreaking work in the legal profession and for being a role model for women in the legal profession.
Donahue receives honorary degree
Charles Donahue, HLS’s Paul A. Freund Professor of Law, was selected to receive an honorary doctorate from the Université de Paris II: Panthéon-Assas for his contributions to the field of legal history. Donahue was recognized for his seminal 696-page investigation of medieval marriage practices and laws titled “Law, Marriage, and Society in the Later Middle Ages: Arguments about Marriage in Five Courts.”
Ramanathan named executive director
Erik D. Ramanathan ’96 was named executive director of the HLS Program on the Legal Profession and its Center on Lawyers and the Professional Services Industry. His research focuses on the role, structure and practice dynamics of in-house legal departments; the relationship between in-house attorneys and law firm counsel; and the evolution of private sector pro bono commitments and diversity initiatives. He is investigating the globalization of public- and private-sector law practice as well as the economic factors that drive the evolution of the legal profession. He is particularly focused on involving current and future legal practitioners in proactively shaping and reinventing their profession. Before joining HLS, he was senior vice president, general counsel, secretary and chief compliance officer of ImClone Systems.
Fried co-chairs lobbying task force
Professor Charles Fried will serve as one of two Republican co-chairs of a new bipartisan ABA administrative law section task force examining possible improvements to lobbying regulation. The task force will look at deficiencies in current rules governing lobbying and suggest improvements. Also serving on the four-person task force are two Democratic members, including Joseph Sandler ’78.
Patients with passports
A paper written by Assistant Professor I. Glenn Cohen ’03, “Protecting Patients with Passports: Medical Tourism and the Patient-Protective Argument,” was selected for presentation at the 2009 Health Law Scholars Workshop, co-sponsored by the American Society of Law, Medicine & Ethics and the Saint Louis University School of Law Center for Health Law Studies. Cohen was named co-director of HLS’s Petrie-Flom Center for Health Law Policy, Biotechnology, and Bioethics this year.
A woman of justice
Clinical Professor Deborah Anker LL.M. ’84, director of the Harvard Immigration and Refugee Clinical Program, was named a 2009 Woman of Justice. The award, co-sponsored by Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly, the Women’s Bar Association and the Massachusetts Association of Women Lawyers, recognizes women who have made meaningful and inspirational contributions to justice and social advocacy. Last year, Anker received the Elmer Fried Excellence in Teaching Award from the American Immigration Lawyers Association.
‘Show me the money’
Tom Cruise, who played a Harvard Law-educated sports agent in the 1996 film “Jerry Maguire,” was a special guest in Professor Bruce Hay’s Entertainment Law class on Oct. 5. Appearing in class with Hollywood attorney Bertram Fields ’52, who presented firsthand knowledge of Hollywood practices and highlighted several of the foremost legal processes concerning the entertainment industry, Cruise lingered for an hour after class to talk with students.
Top of page