Martha Minow

Fifty years after the Supreme Court determined in Gideon v. Wainwright that criminal defendants must be provided with counsel, scholars and practitioners from around the country grappled with continued limits on access to justice during an Harvard Law School conference in April titled “Toward a Civil Gideon: The Future of Legal Services.”

The Law School’s Class Day program was held on Wednesday, May 29, on Holmes Field, in front of Langdell Library. This year’s Class Day speaker, author and legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin reflected on his time at the law school. Professor Benjamin I. Sachs, who was selected by the class of 2012 to receive the Sacks-Freund Teaching Award, delivered remarks at the ceremony, as did Isabel Lima, Office Manager at WilmerHale Legal Services, who was the recipient of the Suzanne L. Richardson Staff Appreciation Award. Several students were recognized for their outstanding leadership, citizenship, compassion and dedication to their studies and the profession.

Harvard Law School has announced the appointment of Urs Gasser LL.M. ’03, executive director of the Berkman Center for Internet & Society, as a Professor of Practice.

John F. Manning ’85, the Bruce Bromley Professor of Law at Harvard, and an expert in administrative law, statutory interpretation, separation of powers law and the federal courts, has been elected a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

It’s a common refrain that immigrants taking the U.S. citizenship test know more about the workings of the federal government than the average holder of a U.S. birth certificate. A group of experts dedicated to grappling with the themes outlined in the Constitution gathered Monday at Harvard Law School (HLS) to explore that disturbing trend and the importance of civics.

The Board of Veterans’ Appeals denies a soldier’s claim for disability benefits for an injury to his lower extremities. But the decision is handed down while the soldier is serving in Afghanistan, and he doesn’t realize he has the right to appeal until after he returns from his deployment—after the appeal deadline has passed. For students in Harvard Law School’s new Veterans Legal Clinic, the chance to argue that the appeal deadline should have been tolled and the case allowed to proceed on the merits is proving invaluable educationally and personally.

Following a vote of the Harvard Law School faculty, I. Glenn Cohen, a leading expert on the intersection of health care, bioethics and the law, will be promoted from assistant professor to tenured professor of law, effective July 1. Cohen has served as an assistant professor since 2008, and as co-director of the Petrie-Flom Center for Health Law Policy, Biotechnology, and Bioethics since 2009.

During the weekend of Feb. 22, at the first-ever Legal Hackathon, a group of 25 Harvard Law School students worked around the clock to confront the question of content-use policies for HarvardX, and what they may mean for Harvard University and the future of education.

On Feb. 15, a panel of legal and public-health scholars, moderated by Dean Martha Minow and including Clinical Professor Ron Sullivan and Alan A. Stone, professor of Law and Psychiatry, gathered at Harvard Law School for a public forum on gun violence, gun policy and the prospects for meaningful reform in a post-Newtown landscape.

Cass Sunstein ’78, Felix Frankfurter Professor of Law and director of HLS’s new Program on Behavioral Economics and Public Policy, has been named a University Professor, Harvard University President Drew Faust announced today. Harvard’s highest honor for a faculty member, University Professorships were established in 1935 to recognize individuals whose work on the frontiers of knowledge crosses the traditional boundaries of academic disciplines.

A group of scholars gathered on Jan. 17 at Harvard Law School with Peter Barton Hutt ’59 to discuss and celebrate his career, including “20 years (thus far)” teaching an influential course at Harvard Law on food and drug law. Hutt, who has worked at the Washington, D.C. law firm Covington & Burling for more than five decades, has taught the course at HLS since 1993.

On Feb. 12, Harvard Law School Professor Laurence Tribe ’66, a constitutional law scholar, participated in a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing titled “Proposals to Reduce Gun Violence: Protecting Our Communities While Respecting the Second Amendment.”

Justice Clarence Thomas has become known as a quiet presence on the Supreme Court. But on Jan. 29, members of the Harvard Law School community got to hear him speak—and he did so with great humor and warmth. As part of the Herbert W. Vaughan Lecture Series, Thomas participated in a conversation with HLS Dean Martha Minow, after a day in which he met with faculty and students.

Legal scholar and tireless defender of equal rights Ruth Bader Ginsburg reflected on her career during a discussion with Harvard Law School Dean Martha Minow on Monday Feb. 4 before a packed room in Wasserstein Hall.

Daniel J. Meltzer ’75, the Story professor of law at Harvard Law School, has been appointed as the next Director of the American Law Institute (ALI). The ALI announced the appointment on January 18, 2013.

At a Jan. 8 event, Harvard Law School Professor Laurence Tribe participated in a panel discussion titled “Gun Violence: A Public Health Crisis.” The event, which was co-sponsored by the Reuters news agency and the Harvard School of Public Health, was part of The Forum at HSPH, a discussion series that aims to provide decision-makers with a global platform to address policy choices and scientific controversies.