Barack Obama

The White House released a statement from the President on Thursday, October 21 on the life of Paul Miller '86, who advised Presidents Obama and Clinton on disability and equal opportunity matters. Miller, a lawyer who was born with achondroplasia "dwarfism" and became a leader in the disability rights movement, died Tuesday at his home on Mercer Island, Wash. He was 49.

Harvard Law School Professor Jack Goldsmith wrote an op-ed for the Oct. 21, 2010 edition of the Washington Post titled “Our nation’s secrets, stuck in a broken system.” The piece addresses Bob Woodward’s book, “Obama Wars,” in which ostensibly classified information – presumably obtained from senior White House officials – is disclosed regardless of the “grave damage” that could result from its release.  

In an Oct. 8 op-ed in the New York Times, Harvard Law School Professor Jack Goldsmith argues that the trial of suspected terrorists – whether in criminal, civilian, or military court – is the “wrong approach.” 

Anthony Scaramucci '89—author of "Goodbye Gordon Gekko: How to Find Your Fortune Without Losing Your Soul" and adviser to the movie Wall Street 2: Money Never Sleeps—shared career advice with Harvard Law School students at an event cosponsored by the Traphagen Distinguished Alumni Speaker Series and the Office of Career Services on September 29.

HLS Dean Martha Minow was interviewed on August 22 for the ‘Bibliophiles’ column in the Boston Globe. In the Q&A, Minow talks about her own summer reading list, book groups with the President, and the relevance of fiction and poetry in advancing our national dialogue on ethnic and religious conflict.

Harvard Law School Professor Lawrence Lessig recently co-wrote an op-ed in the San Jose Mercury News on how new legislative templates by Google and Verizon threaten true net neutrality.

President Barack Obama '91 hosted a White House reception in honor of Elena Kagan '86, who was confirmed to be the next Justice on the United States Supreme Court on August 5, 2010. The Senate confirmed the former Harvard Law School Dean and Solicitor General by a vote of 63-37. With her confirmation, Kagan becomes the 20th Harvard Law School alumnus to serve on the Court. 

In a Boston Globe op-ed, “Obama should give Warren a recess appointment,” HLS Professor Charles Fried supports an interim appointment for Elizabeth Warren to head the new Consumer Financial Protection Agency. Warren is the Leo Gottlieb Professor of Law and chair of the Congressional Oversight Panel on the Troubled Asset Relief Program. Fried served as solicitor general in the second Reagan administration and as a justice on the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts. His op-ed appeared in the July 29, 2010, edition of the Boston Globe.

One hundred sixty-two former students of Harvard Law School Professor Elizabeth Warren sent a letter to the White House on July 28, urging President Barack Obama ’91 to appoint her as director of the newly created Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection.

HLS Professor Charles J. Ogletree Jr. co-wrote an op-ed, “After Shirley Sherrod, we all need to slow down and listen,” with Johanna Wald, that appeared in the July 25, 2010, edition of the Washington Post. Ogletree is the executive director of the Charles Hamilton Houston Institute for Race and Justice and the author most recently of "The Presumptions of Guilt: The Arrest of Henry Louis Gates, Jr. and Race, Class, and Crime in America." Johanna Wald is director of strategic planning at the Charles Hamilton Houston Institute for Race and Justice.

Susan Carney ’77 has been nominated by President Barack Obama ’91 to serve on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit.

President Barack Obama ’91 nominated Amy Berman Jackson ’79 to a seat on the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. Jackson was one of three nominations Obama announced on June 17, also including Judge James E. Boasberg and Justice Sue E. Myerscough.

Environmental law expert Richard Lazarus ’79 has been appointed the executive director of a new bipartisan commission created by President Barack Obama ’91 to examine the causes of the ongoing oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

Today, President Barack Obama ’91 nominated former Harvard Law School Dean and current Solicitor General Elena Kagan ’86 to the seat vacated by retiring Justice John Paul Stevens on the United States Supreme Court.

Edith Ramirez ’92 was sworn in as a commissioner of the Federal Trade Commission in April. Nominated by President Barack Obama ’91, she joins a five-member commission that works against deceptive advertising and enforces adherence to antitrust law.

The following op-ed by HLS Professor Alan Dershowitz, “Obama’s legacy and the Iranian bomb,” appeared in the March 23, 2010, edition of the Wall Street Journal.

The U.S. Senate confirmed Harvard Law School Dean Martha Minow’s appointment to the board of the Legal Services Corporation, a bi-partisan, government-sponsored organization that provides civil legal assistance to low-income Americans, today. Minow was joined by five other nominees in the confirmation by Executive Session, including John Levi '72 LL.M. '73.

An op-ed by Harvard Law School Professor Robert Mnookin, “Bargaining with the devil,” appeared in the February 17, 2010, edition of Foreign Policy magazine.

President Barack Obama ’91 has appointed another HLS alumnus to a key post in his administration.  Walter Crawford Jones ’88 will serve as the United States executive director of the African Development Bank.