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James Cole, Jr.
Partner, Wachtell Lipton Rosen & Katz
Monday, January 11, 2009
12:00 p.m. - 1:00 p.m.
Pound 200
James Cole, Jr. joined Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz in 1996 and was elected a partner in the Corporate Department in 2003. His practice focuses primarily on domestic and cross-border mergers and acquisitions and corporate and securities law matters. His practice has included initial public offerings, corporate governance and legal compliance. He has advised a broad range of public and private companies in a variety of industries involving transactions in the United States, Japan, the United Kingdom, France and Argentina.
Forrest Briscoe
Assistant Professor of Management, Smeal College of Business, The Pennsylvania State University
Monday,
November 23, 3:30pm-5:00 pm
Pound 108
Forrest Briscoe
Assistant Professor of Management, Smeal College of Business, The Pennsylvania State University
Tuesday, November 24, 12-1 pm
Lewis 202
Stine Grodal
Assistant Professor of Strategy and Policy, Boston University School of Management
Wednesday, November 18, 12-1 pm
Pound 202
Erik Ramanathan
Executive Director, PLP
Friday, November 13, 2009, 12:00-1:00 pm
Hauser 102
Silvia Hodges
Founder of Legal Marketing Italia
Faculty at Emerson College
Wednesday, October 14 12-1pm
Pound 202
View the slides from this presentation.
Dr. Silvia Hodges specializes in international legal marketing. She founded Legal Marketing Italia and she is currently teaching graduate and undergraduate students in the department of marketing communications at Emerson College in Boston. For more information about her bio and research, please visit www.silviahodges.com.
May 1-2, 2009
Harvard Law School
Scholars and practitioners agree that legal careers have changed dramatically over the last few decades. What is much less known is how careers have changed and to what extent traditional issues such as gender, race, law school status, and employment sector continue to structure the opportunities and experiences of young lawyers. The Harvard Law School Program on the Legal Profession organized an invited symposium to facilitate a dialogue on these important topics by bringing together scholars, educators, practitioners, and students from the US and around the world to discuss the latest empirical research on legal careers.
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A law professor and a sociologist, Michele Landis Dauber has written highly original historical and sociological studies about the relationship between welfare programs and disaster relief programs in the formation of the modern American welfare state. She has focused her scholarship on aspects of the history of the New Deal and the fate of the legal doctrines and policies it created. She has also written about such varied topics as abortion clinic conflict, social security privatization, affirmative action, and the early history of administrative law during the War of 1812. In addition to her scholarly work, Professor Dauber is an officer and director of Building a Better Legal Profession, which was founded by Stanford Law students in 2007. The organization uses innovative data advocacy and Web-based social entrepreneurship strategies to mobilize market pressure for workplace reforms in large law firms, including better working conditions, work-life policies, and increased racial and gender diversity. Currently Professor Dauber teaches Law and Wikinomics, which studies this issue.
Building a Better Legal Profession is a national grassroots movement that seeks market-based workplace reforms in large private law firms. By publicizing firms' self-reported data on billable hours, pro bono participation, and demographic diversity, the organization draws attention to the differences between these employers. Building a Better Legal Profession encourages those choosing between firms — students deciding who to work for after graduation, corporate clients deciding who to hire, and universities deciding who to allow on campus for interviews — to exercise their market power and engage only with the firms that demonstrate a genuine commitment to these issues. More Information
by Jim Hassett
Founder and Principal
LegalBizDev
Mary Ellen DeWinter
Director of Practice Development
K&L Gates LLP
April 14, 2009
Harvard Law School
The panelists discussed:
- How the economy is affecting business development in the legal profession
- Tips and techniques for gaining long-term benefits for your legal career by building your personal network now
- The most important business development skills you will need as a first year associate
Jim Hassett founded LegalBizDev (www.legalbizdev.com) to help lawyers develop new business more quickly by applying best practices from other law firms and from other professions. Before he started working with lawyers, Jim had 20 years of experience as a sales trainer and consultant to companies from American Express to Zurich Financial Services. Jim has published seven books (including Legal Business Development: A Step by Step Guide and The LegalBizDev Desk Reference) and more than seventy articles in publications ranging from the New York Times Magazine to Law Firm Inc. and Strategies: The Journal of Legal Marketing. He has a Ph.D. from Harvard University, and is an Adjunct Associate Professor of Psychology at Boston University. His blog (www.jimhassett.com) was selected by TechnoLawyer as one of “the most influential legal blogs.” Jim’s most recent publication is The LegalBizDev Success Kit a multimedia reference tool that helps lawyers develop new business more efficiently.
Mary Ellen DeWinter is the Director of Practice Development at K&L Gates LLP (www.klgates.com), a firm with 1900 attorneys in 32 offices located on three continents. As the liaison between the firm's Practice Area Leaders and the Marketing Department, she is responsible for the coordination and execution of strategic firmwide practice development initiatives. Mary Ellen also leads a team of 14 Business Development Managers who support practice groups with specific plans to strengthen relationships with target clients, organize client teams and conduct competitive research. Mary Ellen has over twenty years of experience in business development, marketing, sales coaching and training, and client relationship management. In addition to her experience at law firms, she has held a variety of strategic planning and business development roles within the financial services, technology and non-profit industries. She is a member of the Legal Marketing Association’s New England Chapter and is active in a number of other industry marketing organizations.
Interning in India: A Seminar on the McDermott Will & Emery Internship in India
Sponsored by Professor Ashish Nanda
Tuesday, April 7, 2009, 12 pm
Pound Hall Ropes Gray Room, Pound 212
Students from the Winter Term 2009 internship will discuss their experiences and opinions on interning at prominent Indian Firms: Amarchand Mangaldas, ARA Law, Majmudar & Co, and Nishith Desai Associates. Special thanks will be given to McDermott Will & Emery for its support of this program. A question and answer session will follow. This seminar is open to all, particularly to students with an interest in learning about future private sector opportunities in India. Lunch will be provided.
by Michael Stein, Harvard Project on Disability
March 31, 2009
Harvard Law School
by Michele Beardslee
March 10, 2009
Harvard Law School
Read the Paper (forthcoming, The Georgetown Journal of Legal Ethics, Fall 2009)
Read a Related Article quoting Michele Beardslee (Partner: Committee Now Vets Memos Knowing They Could Be Blogged, by Terry Carter, ABA Journal Online, March 4, 2009)
by Christine Elizabeth Parker, University of Melbourne Law School
February 3, 2009
Harvard Law School
Read the related paper
by Swethaa Ballakrishnen
December 4, 2008
University of Wisconsin Madison
by Swethaa Ballakrishnen
December 5-6, 2008
Global Legal Studies Center
University of Wisconsin Madison
, PLP Research Fellow December 2, 2008
Harvard Law School
November 21, 2008
Harvard Law School
A joint regional event between the Harvard Law School Program on the Legal Profession and the American Society of International Law
This one-day conference examined the globalization of the legal profession from multiple perspectives. Does international commerce or finance provide common ground for practitioners, for example, or is there broader commonality among counsel in other fields, such as human rights lawyers? Are common legal practices developing through efforts by certain states to develop the “rule of law” in other countries? What are the proper contours of a genuine debate over matters such as ensuring minimum standards of qualification, guarding domestic province from outside intervention, protecting clients and the public, the role of lawyers as aspect of national identity, and the like? What can we do – as international scholars, educators, and practitioners – to adapt to the rapidly-changing economic, social and political environment and prepare the next generation of lawyers – domestic and international –to meet the challenges that globalization will continue to present? Learn More.
, Haskayne School of Business, University of CalgaryNovember 12, 2008
Harvard Law School
Professor Richard Abel, UCLA School of Law
November 5, 2008
Harvard Law School
Dr. Spela Trefalt, Simmons School of Management
October 29, 2008
Harvard Law School
Professor David Wilkins, Faculty Director
Dr. David Nersessian, Executive Director
September 17, 2008 Harvard Law School
Professor Philippe Sands, QC
University College London
September 16, 2008Harvard Law School
Watch Video
Download Real 11 Player
The inaugural PLP Speaker Series event will featured Philippe Sands, Professor of Law and Director of the Centre on International Courts and Tribunals at University College London. Professor Sands will discussed his recent book Torture Team: Rumsfeld’s Memo and the Betrayal of American Values (Penguin, May 2008), with commentary by Professor Alan Dershowitz.
Philippe Sands joined the law faculty at University College London in January 2002. His teaching areas include public international law, the settlement of international disputes (including arbitration), and environmental and natural resources law.
Professor Sands is a regular commentator on the BBC and CNN and writes frequently for leading newspapers. He is frequently invited to lecture around the world, and in recent years has been a Visiting Professor at the University of Toronto (2005), the University of Melbourne (2005) and the Universite de Paris I (Sorbonne) (2006, 2007). He has previously held academic positions at the University of London's School of Oriental and African Studies, Kings College London, and University of Cambridge and was a Global Professor of Law at New York University from 1995-2003. He was co-founder of FIELD (Foundation for International Environmental Law and Development), and established the programs on Climate Change and Sustainable Development. He is a member of the Advisory Boards of the European Journal of International Law and Review of European Community and International Environmental Law (Blackwell Press).
As a practicing barrister he has extensive experience litigating cases before the International Court of Justice, the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea, the International Center for the Settlement of Investment Disputes, and the European Court of Justice. He frequently advises governments, international organizations, NGOs and the private sector on aspects of international law. In 2003 he was appointed as a Queen's Counsel.
website:
On December 2, 2002 the U.S. Secretary of Defense, Donald Rumsfeld, signed his name at the bottom of a document that listed eighteen techniques of interrogation - techniques that defied international definitions of torture. The Rumsfeld Memo authorized the controversial interrogation practices that later migrated to Guantanamo, Afghanistan, Abu Ghraib and elsewhere, as part of the policy of extraordinary rendition.
From a behind-the-scenes vantage point, leading international lawyer Philippe Sands investigates how the Rumsfeld Memo set the stage for a divergence from the Geneva Convention and the Torture Convention and holds the individual gatekeepers in the Bush administration accountable for their failure to safeguard international law. The Torture Team delves deep into the Bush administration to reveal:
- How the policy of abuse originated with Donald Rumsfeld, Dick Cheney and George W. Bush, and was promoted by their most senior lawyers
- Personal accounts, through interview, of those most closely involved in the decisions
- How the Joint Chiefs and normal military decision-making processes were circumvented
- How Fox TV's 24 contributed to torture planning
- How interrogation techniques were approved for use
- How the new techniques were used on Mohammed Al Qahtani, alleged to be "the 20th hijacker"
- How the senior lawyers who crafted the policy of abuse exposed themselves to the risk of war crimes charge
by David Nersessian
Federal Judicial Center 2008 National Workshop for District Judges
San Antonio, Texas
September, 2008
by Galit Sarfaty
Conference on Empirical Legal Studies
Cornell Law School
September 12-13, 2008
Learn More
by David Nersessian
Keynote Speech – Closing Ceremonies
Lead America Trial Advocacy Program
Bentley College, Waltham, MA
July 11-20, 2008
by David Nersessian
Federal Judicial Center 2008 National Workshop for District Judges
Boston, Massachusetts
July, 2008
withFordham Law School, New York
June 1-3, 2008
a talk by Michele Beardslee, PLP Fellow
Friday, May 30, 2008
ABA National Conference on Professional Responsibility
Boston
by Michele Beardslee
Thursday, May 29, 2008
Law and Society Annual Conference
Montreal, Quebec
and
by Galit Sarfaty
Law and Society Association Annual Meeting
Montreal
May 29-June 1, 2008
learn more
by David Nersessian
Armenian Bar Association Annual Meeting
New York City
May 2-4, 2008
learn more
by David Wilkins
Yale Law School, New Haven
May 1, 2008
learn more
by David Wilkins
Houston Forum Lecture
Amherst College, Massachusetts
April 30, 2008
Monday, April 21, 2008
Harvard Law School
The program will feature a presentation by Dr. Christopher McKenna, Reader in Business History and Strategy at the Clifford Chance Centre for the Management of Professional Service Firms at Oxford University's Saïd Business School. Dr. McKenna will discuss his award winning book on the growth of the elite management consulting firms, The World's Newest Profession, which received the 2004-06 Newcomen-Harvard Book Award by the Business History Review, was awarded the 2007 Hagley Prize by the Business History Conference, and was named one of the best books of the year by the Financial Times.
About the Clifford Chance Centre:
Based at Oxford University's Saïd Business School, the Clifford Chance Centre is a hub for academic research into the management of professional service firms. Its members work closely with top practitioners to explore the key challenges confronting the professional services sector, conduct research into the internal and external dynamics of professional service firms, and provide a program of innovative teaching, based on research and with the collaboration of practitioners. The Centre brings together theory and practice in order to:
- Shape the field of professional service firms research and build a network for academic activity in this field.
- Provide managers of top professional service firms with intellectually rigorous and empirically-based insights into the challenges they face.
- Provide policy makers with cross-disciplinary perspectives on regulation of the professions, free from professional bias
by Michele Beardslee
Wednesday, April 15, 2008
Harvard Law School
by Galit Sarfaty
chosen in competition for presentation in a New Voices in International Law panel
American Society of International Law Annual Meeting
Washington, DC
April 9-12, 2008
learn more
byinvited speaker at conference on “The Individual and Customary International Law Formation,”
Indiana University School of Law, Bloomington
April 3-5, 2008
by David Nersessian
Denver, Colorado
April 2008
by David Wilkins
March 18, 2008
University College London
a talk by Galit Sarfaty, PLP Fellow
March 17, 2008
Harvard Law School
read bio
guest speaker, Legal Profession
March 13, 2008
by David Wilkins
March 12, 2008
Nichols Lecture
Stetson University
a panel discussion
March 5, 2008
Harvard Law School
Gregory M. Lipper, Associate, Covington & Burling LLP read bio
Suma Nair, Associate, Goulston & Storrs read bio
Steven Schulman, Partner, Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Field LLP read bio
read bio
guest speaker, Future(s) of the Large Law Firm
February 28, 2008
by David Wilkins
Yale Law School
February 11, 2008
watch video
a talk by John Coates
Monday, February 4, 2008
Harvard Law School
PLP faculty memeber John Coates delivered a lecture on the occasion
of his appointment as the John F. Cogan Jr. Professor of Law and Economics at Harvard Law School.
Read more about this event.
View a webcast of this event.
September 5, 2007
Harvard Law School, Hark 205
This event included presentations by Professors Wilkins and Nanda about the Program’s research initiatives and new course offerings. Dr. Nersessian, the Program’s Executive Director, also briefed attendees on a new pilot program aimed at funding empirical student research on the legal profession, as well as the other ways in which HLS students could become involved with the Program and its work.
May 20-25, 2007
Harvard Law School
Today’s large law firms face the challenge of being both high-quality professional service providers and large, complex businesses. Yet those who are asked to lead these institutions often have had little training in managing these complex tensions. Leadership in Law Firms is an intensive five-day course designed to sharpen the leadership skills of managing partners, office heads and law firm practice leaders.
Participants in the 2007 offering included high-level managing partners and practice group leaders from law firms worldwide. More than a third of the participants came from outside the United States, including lawyers currently practicing in England, Ireland, Spain, Germany, China, Colombia, and Australia
The program included a comprehensive series of lectures, case studies, and small group discussions across 12-hour days. In an ongoing dialogue with the faculty, the 43 participants discussed the role of strategy in law firms, organizational culture, the changing needs of the marketplace, and recruitment and staff development. The course provided a unique opportunity for managing lawyers to engage with each other and discuss cutting-edge best practices and to learn new and better strategies for promoting, building, and leading their law firms into the rapidly-changing legal services environment.
The core program faculty included Professors Wilkins, Nanda, and Coates. Additional faculty perspectives were provided by Benjamin Heineman, the Program’s Senior Distinguished Fellow and former chief legal officer at General Electric, and Daniel DiPietro, a visiting faculty member who is the client head of the Law Firm Group at the Citigroup Private Bank.
Sloan Industry Studies Program Annual Meeting
April 25-27, 2007
Cambridge, MA
Program description and materials
2006
Jews and the Legal Profession
October 22-24, 2006
Cardozo Law School
The Program also co-sponsored this conference with the American Association of Jewish Lawyers and Jurists, Fordham Law School’s Institute on Religion, Law and Lawyer’s Work, and New York Law School’s Center for Professional Values and Practice. The program included scholars from a wide variety of disciplines, as well as practitioners and advocates from around the world, reflecting upon and discussing the history and current standing of Jewish lawyers and the lessons the issues facing this community hold for the profession generally.
Program Description and Materials
Sloan Industry Studies Program Annual Meeting
December 14-16, 2005
Cambridge, MA
Program description and materials
PLP Conference on the Center on Lawyers and the Professional Services Industry
September 23, 2004
On September 23, 2004 the Program on the Legal Profession held its kickoff conference on the Center on Lawyers and the Professional Services Industry. A number of leading general counsels, law firm partners, and academics were at hand for the conference. The first steps were laid down for the Program's first project to examine how corporations purchase legal services. Among the questions investigated were the following:
- How do companies determine which matters are sent to outside counsel, and at what level in the organization is this decision made (i.e. subordinate lawyers within the general counsels office, the general counsel, the CEO or others with line authority, the board)?
- What leads firms to choose one firm over another for any given type of matter? Specifically, how important are factors such as firm reputation, lawyer reputation, pre-existing relationships, cost, experience, demographics, marketing, advertising, size, disciplinary scope, and geographic breadth?
- How do companies go about gathering information on the factors they deem most important (i.e. market research, word of mouth, published sources, evaluating proposals, auditing)?
- How often is the decision to retain a particular firm reviewed?
- Is external regulation, either of the company or of law firms, a significant factor in purchasing decisions?
The conference closed with the presentation of three academic papers, which was followed by a dialogue in which expert lawyers practicing in the field provided commentary and additional perspectives on the matters raised in the academic papers:
Post-Siliconix Freeze-Outs: Theory & Evidence
Guhan Subramanian, Harvard Law School
Commentary by Robert Kindler, Managing Director, J.P. Morgan Securities, Inc.
Legal Advisors: Popularity Versus Economic Performance in Acquisitions
C.N.V. Krishnan, Case Western Reserve University
Paul Laux, University of Delaware
Commentary by Stephen Fraidin, Partner, Kirkland & Ellis
Innovation in Boilerplate Contracts: An Empirical Examination of Sovereign Bonds
Mitu Gulati, Georgetown University Law Center
Stephen Choi, University of California, Berkeley, Law School
Commentary by Lee Buchheit, Partner, Cleary, Gottlieb, Steen & Hamilton
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