Recent Highlights

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  Electing to serve - Most likely to succeed?

  This November, for the first time in the history of U.S. presidential elections, both candidates of the major parties are graduates of Harvard Law School. Despite sharp differences in their politics, President Barack Obama ’91 and his Republican opponent, Mitt Romney J.D./M.B.A. ’75, share the HLS experience, though their times at Harvard were separated by nearly 20 years. Many of the words used by their Harvard classmates to describe Obama and Romney are the same. But in other ways, the two are strikingly different, according to friends who knew them when they were students. How did Harvard influence these two extremely driven and successful politicians? Who were they in school, and how does that compare with the candidates on the world stage today?

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  HLS launches Public Service Venture Fund; grants will be awarded in May ’13

  Officially launched on Sept. 25, the Harvard Law School Public Service Venture Fund will award $1 million in grants each year to Harvard Law graduates pursuing careers in public service. The Fund supports two kinds of post-graduate fellowships: “seed grants” for startup public interest ventures, and, through “existing organization-based fellowships,” salary support to graduating HLS students to work at nonprofits or government agencies in the U.S. and abroad.

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  Leading My Hometown

  Other than their Harvard Law degrees, Naomi Koshi LL.M. ’09 and Karen Freeman-Wilson ’85 don’t appear to have much in common. They live in opposite parts of the world and are different in professional background, ethnicity and age. And yet they share a certain connection. Both were recently elected the first female mayors of cities that are in the middle of their countries and are sometimes overshadowed by their neighbors. The cities are first in their hearts, however—the places where they grew up and which they want to help grow.

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  Crystal Redd '13 and Angela Chuang '13 named 2012 Presidential Fellows

  On April 27, Harvard University honored a group of 10 students chosen as 2012 Presidential Fellows for their commitment to public service initiatives, only the second group to be awarded grants from the Presidential Public Service Fellowship Program at Harvard. Current Harvard Law School students Crystal Redd '13 and Angela Chuang '13 were among those selected as fellows.

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  Two receive the Gary Bellow Public Service Award

  At an April 9 ceremony at Harvard Law School, HLS student Sam Levine ‘12 and alumnus Bill Beardall ’78 received the Gary Bellow Public Service Award, given annually by the HLS student body, for their commitment to public interest and social justice work.

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  Cass Sunstein on new directions in regulatory policy

  Here’s the scorecard: Bush: $3.4 billion. Clinton: $14 billion. Obama: $91.3 billion. These numbers represent the net monetary benefits of final, federal agency regulations issued through the third fiscal year of each of these administrations. They were presented to HLS students and faculty on March 26 by Cass R. Sunstein, former Felix Frankfurter Professor of Law and current administrator of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, a department within the White House’s Office of Management and Budget. As administrator, Sunstein oversees the federal government’s entire regulatory process. He was on campus to discuss “New Directions in Regulatory Policy.”

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  Work-life balance: a conversation with Former Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine, First Lady Anne Holton (video)

  On March 6, the husband and wife team of former Virginia Governor Tim Kaine ’83 and First Lady Anne Holton ‘83 gave a talk at Harvard Law School on how to construct a long-term public service career that is able to change and evolve and is meaningful, fun and that allows room for family, friendship, and community involvement.

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  Barron appointed by Gov. Patrick to Mass. Board of Higher Education

  David J. Barron ’94, Harvard Law School’s Hon. S. William Green Professor of Public Law, has been appointed by Governor Deval Patrick ’82 to the Massachusetts Board of Higher Education, the governor’s office announced Monday.

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  Lady Gaga, Winfrey target bullying (video)

  Pop sensation Lady Gaga launched her anti-bullying, youth-empowering Born This Way Foundation (BTWF) at Sanders Theatre on Wednesday during an Askwith Forum sponsored by the Harvard Graduate School of Education (HGSE). The foundation was established in partnership with HGSE, Harvard’s Berkman Center for Internet & Society, the John D. & Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation and the California Endowment. Special guests included Oprah Winfrey, author and speaker Deepak Chopra, U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen G. Sebelius, and Harvard Law School professor Charles J. Ogletree.

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  Sullivan appointed to Massachusetts Committee for Public Counsel Services

  HLS Clinical Professor Ron Sullivan ’94, who serves as director of the Harvard Criminal Justice Institute, was recently appointed to the Massachusetts Committee for Public Counsel Services. Sullivan joins Professor Carol Steiker ’86, who is also a member of the committee.

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  Six from Harvard Law School win Skadden Fellowships

  Six Harvard Law School students and recent graduates have been chosen to receive Skadden Fellowships to support their work in public service.

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  Former White House Counsel Bauer Speaks to HLS Students (Video)

  Former White House Counsel Robert Bauer addressed students at Harvard Law School in October, sharing his insights on the lawyer’s role in law and politics. Bauer, who served as counsel to President Obama from November 2009 to June 2011, is currently a partner at Perkins Coie and is now representing the president’s re-election team and the Democratic National Committee.

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  Students testify before education committee to garner support for safe schools

  Eight Harvard Law School students in the HLS Education Law Clinic of the Trauma and Learning Policy Initiative (TLPI) recently spent a full day at the Massachusetts State House, testifying before the Joint Committee on Education and lobbying legislators to garner support for legislation proposed by the Clinic to create safe and supportive school environments.

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  OPIA sponsors “Careers in the Military” panel with HLS alums (video)

  Law students interested in a law firm career can attend firm-sponsored meet-and-greets to speak with associates. Students interested in public interest careers can meet one-on-one with visiting alumni advisors. But HLS students interested in military careers have fewer chances to mingle with those who have pursued that path. To provide that opportunity, OPIA welcomed to HLS five alumni who have served in the armed forces, to provide guidance and answer student questions.