Latest from Emily Dupraz

Professor Emeritus Robert E. Keeton S.J.D. ’56, a pre-eminent scholar of insurance law, torts and trial tactics who served as a U.S. District Court judge for 27 years, died July 2 at the age of 87.

Two years ago, HLS Professor Roberto Unger LL.M. ’70 S.J.D. ’76 publicly denounced the government of his native Brazil, calling it “the most corrupt in history.” He also called for the impeachment of its president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, known throughout Brazil as “Lula.”

Individual free choice, an idea that permeates common sense and legal theory, assumes that actions reflect the stable preferences of individual actors. Individuals are responsible for their actions (that is, their preference-driven choices), and laws can therefore be designed on that assumption.

Not enough progress has been made toward racial equality in education, said former Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor at Harvard Law School last week. She called for the continuation of race-based affirmative action, in her keynote address at the Charles Hamilton Houston Institute’s conference, “Charting New Pathways to Participation & Membership.”

Although she is now a partner at Ropes & Gray in Boston, Jane Willis ’94 credits much of her success as a litigator to a simple strategy she learned outside the law firm and the courtroom—at the blackjack table.

When Tony Rossmann ’71 started his own law practice in Sacramento, Calif., in 1976, he never expected he would help bring about one of the largest river restoration projects in the West.

Last summer, in South Dakota, when Steve Emery ’89 was made chief of the Prairie Dwelling Lakota, he was given the name Naca Wamni Omni (Chief Whirlwind). The name was meant to reflect his power with words, and the honor was the culmination of a career spent advocating for the sovereignty of his people—a mission he has shared with his brother, Mark Van Norman ’86.

Professor Emeritus Harold J. Berman, an expert on comparative, international, and Soviet law as well as legal history and philosophy and the intersection of law and religion, died November 13. He was 89. Known for his energetic and outgoing personality, Berman recently celebrated his 60th anniversary as a law professor.

Professor Emeritus Clark Byse, celebrated as much for his toughness in teaching as for his warmth and kindness to students and colleagues, died Oct. 9. He was 95.