Briefs

Scott and Coates testify before Senate

In July, following the Treasury Department’s unveiling of the administration’s regulatory overhaul plan, Professor Hal Scott testified before the Senate Banking Committee on the improvement of regulation in the insurance sector. Scott called for reforming regulation of the insurance industry through optional federal charters, as opposed to the current system of state charters. On July 29, Professor John C. Coates testified before the Senate Banking Committee’s Subcommittee on Securities, Insurance and Investment at a hearing titled “Protecting Shareholders and Enhancing Public Confidence by Improving Corporate Governance,” offering recommendations for corporate governance reform.

The low-down on downloading

Academic work by HLS faculty is downloaded more frequently from the Social Science Research Network’s online database than the work of any other law faculty, according to the law blog “Brian Leiter’s Law School Reports.” Scholarship by Lucian Bebchuk LL.M. ’80 S.J.D. ’84 was downloaded more (23,416 times) than the work of any other law author. Cass Sunstein ’78 and Vivek Wadhwa, a senior research associate at the HLS Labor and Worklife Program, were ranked fourth and seventh, respectively, with 12,413 and 9,050 downloads. Allen Ferrell ’95 came in 14th with 6,572 downloads.

Professors submit open letter to SEC

In August, a group of Harvard Law School and Harvard Business School professors submitted a letter to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission arguing for changes in an SEC policy proposal. HLS Professors Robert Clark ’72, John C. Coates, Reinier Kraakman, Mark Roe ’75 and Guhan Subramanian ’98, along with five Harvard Business School professors, signed the letter, which recommended an increase in the percentage of shareholders required to nominate a corporate director, from 1 percent to 5-10 percent. The group also suggested an “opt-out” clause, allowing companies to bypass the threshold rule if a majority of shareholders agree.

Minow named to Legal Services Board

President Barack Obama ’91 nominated HLS Dean Martha Minow to the board of the Legal Services Corp., a bipartisan, government-sponsored organization that is the single largest provider of civil legal aid for low-income Americans. John Levi ’72 LL.M. ’73, a partner in the Chicago office of Sidley Austin, and Gloria Valencia-Weber ’86, a professor at the University of New Mexico School of Law, were also nominated. David Hall LL.M. ’85 S.J.D. ’88 and Thomas Meites ’69 currently serve on the board.

HLS financial columnists

Professor Lucian Bebchuk LL.M. ’80 S.J.D. ’84, director of the Program on Corporate Governance, and Professor Hal Scott, director of the Program on International Financial Systems, have begun writing monthly financial commentaries for online publications. Bebchuk is a columnist for Project Syndicate, an international association of 425 newspapers in 150 countries. His commentaries, titled “The Rules of the Game,” focus on finance and corporate governance. Scott is a columnist for Financial News online, a source of news, analysis and commentary for the investment banking, asset management and securities industry.

Million-dollar miss

Self-described as “the guy who lost $475,000 in three minutes,” Ken Basin ’08 was a contestant on the ABC network program “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?” in August. Basin lost almost a half million dollars in prize winnings when he incorrectly answered the million-dollar question: “LBJ installed four buttons for drinks in the Oval Office, labeled ‘coffee,’ ‘tea,’ ‘Coke,’ and what?” (Basin chose “Yoo-hoo”; the correct answer was “Fresca.”) On his blog, Basin, an associate at Greenberg Glusker in Los Angeles, took the long view: “In real life, most people have to risk bankruptcy to take their shot at a million dollars, and all I had to do was make a calculated wager with found money.”

Supreme clerks

Of the 38 clerks to U.S. Supreme Court justices for the 2009-2010 term, nine are Harvard Law School graduates: