Latest from Lewis Rice

HLS Professor Cass Sunstein ’78 argues that for all their differences, every president since Ronald Reagan has agreed on one fundamental principle of government. That is, “No action may be taken unless the benefits justify the costs.” Sunstein identifies President Reagan as the main architect of this concept, and he credits the president he served under, Barack Obama ’91, with cementing what he calls “the cost-benefit revolution,” which is also the title of Sunstein’s new book.

During the introduction to the book launch event for “Big Data, Health Law, and Bioethics,” one of the editors, Harvard Law School Professor I. Glenn Cohen ’03, faculty director of the Petrie-Flom Center for Health Law Policy, Biotechnology, and Bioethics, told a story about how powerful – and perhaps foreboding – big data can be.

"It Can't Happen Here," the novel by Sinclair Lewis written in the 1930s as fascism was rising in Europe, imagines an America overtaken by an authoritarian regime. The new book edited by Harvard Law Professor Cass Sunstein ’78, "Can It Happen Here?: Authoritarianism in America" (Dey Street Books), does not predict the same fate. Yet the contributors—several also affiliated with Harvard Law—take seriously the possibility that it could happen here, despite the safeguards built into the American system of government.

When Heather Artinian walks on stage to receive her Harvard Law degree later this month, it will be the culmination of 18 years working toward the goal of becoming a lawyer—a goal she has had since the age of 7.

With jokes, songs and, yes, real talent, the annual Parody show has brought the HLS community together in laughter for more than 50 years.

Executives representing the three most popular major sports leagues in the U.S. offered insights into the business and legal maneuvering behind the games, during the HLS 200 panel “A View from the Top.”

HLS in the Arts, on Sept. 15-16, will feature the best of the HLS Parody, an annual tradition that satirizes the school and the legal profession. From the archives, HLS remembers more than 50 years of Parody.

Cass Sunstein urges people to consume more diverse information for the good of our democracy

In March, the Harvard Federalist Society, an organization of conservatives and libertarians espousing individual freedom, limited government, and judicial restraint, held its first alumni symposium on campus.

For Trenton Van Oss ’17, coming to Harvard Law School meant adapting to a different culture and experience as a student who had been educated at Christian schools, and whose strong allegiance to the GOP put him in a distinct minority at a secular school with a predominantly liberal student body and faculty.

As he prepares to graduate, Mario Nguyên ’17 can stand as an example as someone who has overcome hardship and doubt, who has achieved more than he ever thought possible and plans to achieve much more. He will soon begin a job at a firm in his native Texas, with a goal of using his legal skills to bring about systemic change to benefit disadvantaged and marginalized people.

William T. Coleman Jr. ’46, the former secretary of transportation and one of the lead strategists and co-authors of the legal briefs for the appellants in Brown v. Board of Education, died March 31.

Noah Feldman, director of the newly-established Julis-Rabinowitz Program in Jewish and Israeli Law recently spoke with Harvard Law Today about the scope of Jewish law, his aspirations for the program, and his own background in the subject.

HLS hosted the fourth Celebration of Black Alumni in September, featuring the theme “Turning Vision into Action.” The actions of alumni who attended have resonated in courtrooms and classrooms, in elected office and the corner office, in communities and in the culture. The Bulletin spoke with five CBA participants about where their vision has led them and where they hope to yet go.

If you ask law students how they would solve a problem, some of them may talk about negotiating with disputing parties or seeking redress from the courts or spurring social action. For Tyler Vigen '16, solving a problem usually means writing a program.

In last year’s Academy Award-nominated film “Bridge of Spies,” Tom Hanks plays a lawyer who defends an accused Soviet spy in the U.S. The Hanks character appears to be dumbfounded that he has been asked to take on such an assignment. “I’m an insurance lawyer,” he says. The real lawyer whom Hanks portrays, James B. Donovan ’40, was that—and much more.

When he was a student at HLS, a friend made Geoff Shepard ’69 a campaign button that said “Nixon Shepard,” representing Shepard’s enthusiasm for the presidential candidacy of Richard Nixon and his hope that he would join Nixon in the White House. Shepard still has the button today and is still advocating for the president he served and defended.

Winner of the Pulitzer Prize in History for her book “The Hemingses of Monticello: An American Family,” Annette Gordon-Reed ’84 first read a biography of Thomas Jefferson as a child—and hasn’t stopped learning and writing about him. The HLS professor, who is also on the faculty at the university and the Radcliffe Institute, spoke to the Bulletin about her latest book, “Most Blessed of the Patriarchs: Thomas Jefferson and the Empire of the Imagination,” co-written with Peter S. Onuf. She discusses her own fascination with and (measured) admiration for the third U.S. president—and the significance of teaching history at the law school.

Being an in-demand Hollywood screenwriter was not something Josh Singer '01 expected when he was at Harvard Law School.

A recent panel discussion of the movie "Spotlight" at Harvard Law School touched on legal issues, secrets and shame, and even a potential lawsuit against the filmmakers.

Yochai Benkler, who has written extensively on the “networked public sphere,” including his influential book “The Wealth of Networks,” recently spoke about his proposal for a defense of whistleblowers, his testimony in a trial of a well-known leaker of military documents, and a problem he calls a growing crisis in the country.