Steiker appointed to public counsel services committee
The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court appointed Professor Carol Steiker ’86 to a three-year term on the Committee for Public Counsel Services. The 15-member committee oversees the statewide provision of public defense services and other legal representation for indigent people in criminal and civil court cases and proceedings in Massachusetts. Steiker, who was named the Howard J. and Katherine W. Aibel Professor of Law at HLS in 2007, is well known for her criminal law scholarship, particularly for her research and writing on the death penalty.
The law and finance of mark-ups
On behalf of the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, Allen Ferrell ’95, the Harvey Greenfield Professor of Securities Law, recently conducted an analysis of more than 161,000 equity transactions in order to assess the mark-ups and mark-downs that broker-dealers charge when customers buy and sell securities. The results of this study, titled “The Law and Finance of Broker-Dealer Mark-Ups,” have subsequently inspired changes to the FINRA’s rules governing mark-ups, commissions and fees.
A ‘Public‘ circus at HLS
The 18th annual Public Interest Auction took place on April 7. Emceed this year by Professors Randall Kennedy (photo left) and Jonathan Zittrain ’95, the event—billed as “Step Right Up! Bids Under the Big Top”—raised $98,683 to support the Summer Public Interest Funding program, which provides opportunities for students to begin their careers working in public interest. More than 150 items, including a solo string concert by Professor Joseph Singer ’81 and a day of indentured servitude from the president of the Harvard Law Review, were auctioned off.
Benkler, Stevenson named Ford Foundation visionaries
Harvard Law School Professor Yochai Benkler ’94 and Bryan Stevenson ’85, founder and executive director of the Equal Justice Initiative, were two of 12 recipients of the Ford Foundation Visionaries Award. The award was created in recognition of the 75th anniversary of the Ford Foundation to celebrate social innovators from a variety of fields. Benkler was honored for his work harnessing technology for social good. Stevenson was recognized for his work challenging bias against the poor and people of color in the criminal justice system.
Zittrain joins FCC as Distinguished Scholar
Professor Jonathan Zittrain ’95, co-director of the Berkman Center for Internet & Society, was appointed as the Federal Communications Commission’s Distinguished Scholar. FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski ’91 announced the appointment in May. Zittrain, who will continue his teaching and scholarship at Harvard during the appointment, will be based in the Office of Strategic Planning & Policy Analysis and will work on a range of issues related to 21st-century communications networks.
Top Ten corporate and securities law articles in 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 written or co-written by the following HLS faculty and fellows: Professors Lucian Bebchuk LL.M. ’80 S.J.D. ’84, Mark Roe ’75, Holger Spamann LL.M. ’01 S.J.D. ’09, Guhan Subramanian ’98 J.D./M.B.A. and George Triantis and HLS Corporate Governance Senior Fellow Leo Strine, vice chancellor of Delaware’s Court of Chancery. The top 10 articles, selected from more than 440 pieces, will be reprinted in an upcoming issue of the Corporate Practice Commentator.
Collaborating with Sciences Po
Harvard Law School and Sciences Po Law School 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. Sciences Po, France’s leading university for social sciences, created a law school in 2009 in order to train lawyers with an emphasis on critical thinking and creativity. Under the new partnership, faculty from each school may participate in short-term exchanges for up to two weeks. This June, HLS hosted the program’s first conference, “Franco-American Legal Influences, Then & Now.”