Latest from HLS News Staff

In an Aug. 2 interview at the Aspen Institute, Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan ‘86 spoke about life as a Supreme Court justice, cameras in the courtroom, and interpreting the law. She was interviewed by Elliot Gerson, a former law clerk to former Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart.

In a recent op-ed for the Boston Globe, Professor Charles Fried, a life-long Republican, writes that before he can give Senator Scott Brown his support in the next election, Fried needs to know what kind of Republican Brown is. 

Bernard Wolfman, a renowned scholar of tax law and the Fessenden Professor of Law Emeritus at Harvard Law School, died on August 20, 2011. One of the preeminent tax professors in the United States, Wolfman clarified the world of tax law for generations of lawyers through his teaching and scholarship. He was also a leading expert in the ethics and rules of professional responsibility for lawyers.

In August, Professor Richard Lazarus ’79 was honored at the ABA annual meeting in Toronto with the association’s Award for Distinguished Achievement in Environmental Law and Policy. The award was given to Lazarus for his significant leadership in improving environmental protection and sustainable development.

In a recent interview for the Spindle Law Blog, Harvard Law School Dean Martha Minow discussed her experience teaching, her work with the Legal Services Corporation, and the future of legal education.

In an Aug. 17 opinion piece in Australia’s National Times, Senior Clinical Instructor Bonnie Docherty '01 urged the Australian Senate to push back against proposed implementation legislation that would blunt the impact of the international ban on cluster munitions. 

Harvard Law School Professor Randall Kennedy recently appeared on the radio program “The Takeaway” to discuss his new book “The Persistence of the Color Line: Racial Politics and the Obama Presidency” (Pantheon Books).

In a recent review in the New Republic, HLS Professor Adrian Vermeule ’93 examines the book “Machiavellian Democracy” (Cambridge University Press, 2011) by John P. McCormick.

In the latest victory for the HLS Clinical Programs’ anti-foreclosure work, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court ruled on Aug. 4 against lenders in a case argued by Harvard Legal Aid Bureau student Jennifer Tarr ’11.

The Committee on Disclosure of Corporate Political Spending, co-chaired by Harvard Law School Professor Lucian A. Bebchuk LL.M. ’80 S.J.D. ’84 and Robert J. Jackson, Jr. ’05, associate professor at Columbia Law School, submitted a rulemaking petition to the Securities and Exchange Commission. The petition urges the commission to develop rules to require public companies to disclose to shareholders the use of corporate resources for political activities.

In his August 7 op-ed, the latest in a series for Bloomberg View, HLS Professor Noah Feldman discusses the perception of U.S. democracy in light of the government’s recent debt crisis.

In an August 8 op-ed written for Project Syndicate, HLS Professor Mark Roe looks at the current U.S. debt crisis through the lens of what he calls ‘America’s first debt crisis:’ the one following the Revolutionary War.

Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney ’75 recently announced that his Justice Advisory Committee will be co-chaired by HLS Professor Mary Ann Glendon along with Robert Bork and Richard Wiley. Leading a committee of 63 other lawyers, including HLS Professor Allen Ferrell ’95, they will advise Romney’s campaign on constitutional and judicial matters, homeland security, law enforcement, and regulatory issues.

On August 1st, Scotus Blog published an op-ed by Beneficial Professor of Law Charles Fried on the constitutionality of the healthcare mandate. In the piece, Fried argues that the attack against President Obama’s Affordable Care Act is pure politics and ignores established legal principles.

U.S. Supreme Court Associate Justice Stephen G. Breyer ’64 discussed the foundations of American democracy with Tunisian scholars at a conference hosted by NGO Almadanya on July 22 in the Amphitéâtre César in Yasmine-Hammamet, Tunisia.

Matan Koch ’05, an associate at Kramer, Levin, Naftalis & Frankel, was nominated by President Barack Obama ’91 to serve as a member of the National Council on Disability.

The U.S. Green Building Council (UGBC) and Harvard University announced Aug. 1 that Harvard has become the first higher education institution to complete 50 Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certifications for construction projects around campus. One of those certifications was earned by renovations at Harvard Law School’s Griswold Hall, which in 2009 was awarded the highest rating of LEED-CI Platinum.

Clinical Professor Robert Bordone ’97, a specialist in negotiation and dispute resolution and director of the Harvard Negotiation and Mediation Clinical Program, was interviewed on public radio regarding the ongoing debt negotiations in Washington, D.C.

In a July 24 op-ed for Bloomberg View titled “Don’t Let the Egyptian Army Follow Caesar’s Script,” HLS Professor Noah Feldman argues that extending the power of the Egyptian military would be a great danger to the country’s burgeoning democracy.

In a July 22 op-ed published in The New York Times ‘Opinion Pages’, HLS Professor Adrian Vermeule ’93 and his co-author, University of Chicago Law Professor Eric A. Posner ’91, address the current deadlock between President Barack Obama ’91 and Congress on raising the country’s legal borrowing limit by the August 2 deadline to avoid default.