Martha Minow

Seven hundred alumni and guests gathered in Cambridge on September 16-18 to commemorate the 3rd Celebration of Black Alumni at Harvard Law School. With more black lawyers entering the profession than ever before—and more achieving positions of prominence and power, the event, “Struggle and Progress: Leadership in the 21st Century,” focused on the progress that has been made and the barriers that remain.

Before an overflow crowd of students and faculty in the Ames Courtroom, U.S. Supreme Court Associate Justice Elena Kagan ’86 and HLS Dean Martha Minow engaged in a wide-ranging conversation about the current high court, Kagan’s storied career, and other issues during the Honorable S. William Green Lecture in Public Law, established by Patricia Freiberg Green in honor of her husband Congressman Bill Green ‘53.

In 1961, Newton Minow – then Chairman of the Federal Communications Commission – delivered a landmark speech to the National Association of Broadcasters on “Television and the Public Interest,” in which he described television programming as a "vast wasteland" and advocated for public interest programming. He challenged his audience “to sit down in front of your own television set when your station goes on the air and stay there, for a day, without a book, without a magazine, without a newspaper…to distract you. Keep your eyes glued to that set until the station signs off. I can assure you that what you will observe is a vast wasteland.” Fifty years– and innumerable advances in media communications – later, Minow visited Harvard Law School for a forum exploring the future of journalism and the role of the state in the construction of the public sphere.

The Harvard Law School community commemorated the 10th anniversary of September 11th with a vigil on Sunday, September 11 at 8:30pm on Jarvis Field. Hosted by Harvard Law School Dean Martha Minow, it was a moment for students, faculty and staff to come together and reflect on the events of that day and the years that followed.

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.

This fall, Susan Davies, currently serving as Deputy Counsel to President Barack Obama ’91, will join the HLS faculty as a Lecturer on Law. Vivek Kundra, the U.S. Chief Information Officer at the White House for the past two-and-a-half years, will hold a joint fellowship this fall, splitting his time between the Berkman Center for Internet & Society and the Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics and Public Policy at Harvard Kennedy School.

This May, Harvard Law School celebrated the class of 2011, conferring a total of 790 degrees—585 J.D.s, 195 LL.M.s, and 10 S.J.D.s during an afternoon ceremony in front of Langdell Library. Here, we present a video retrospective of the day's events, which included an impromptu appearance by Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg ’56-'58.

Harvard Law School Spring Reunions this year brought back a record number of alumni, nearly 800. Among them were U.S. Supreme Court Associate Justices Anthony M. Kennedy ’61 and Elena Kagan ’86, the law school’s former dean.

On June 28, HLS Dean Martha Minow presented the 2011 Dean’s Award for Excellence to seven individuals and one team of staff members at an awards ceremony in Ames Courtroom.

Children in foster care experience daunting challenges of stability and security in the school system, according to participants in the program “On the Road to Educational Equality,” held at Harvard Law School on May 24.

The Reginald F. Lewis Foundation has made a gift of $1.5 million to Harvard Law School to continue the Reginald F. Lewis Fellowships, an 18-year-old program that has offered fellowships annually to law graduates who have demonstrated a strong interest in law scholarship and teaching.

This year’s “HLS Thinks Big” event, inspired by the global TED (Technology Entertainment and Design) talks and modeled after the College’s “Harvard Thinks Big” event first held last year, took place on May 23, featuring topics ranging from legal assistance for undocumented students to risk analysis in constitutional design.

Harvard Law School Dean Martha Minow was recently interviewed on the Harvard EdCast, a weekly podcast presented by the Harvard Graduate School of Education. Host Matt Weber described her as the "quintessential spokesperson” for law and education due to her scholarship in both fields; in addition to her role in legal education, she is also a graduate of and lecturer at Harvard Graduate School of Education.

Harvard Law School Professor Vicki Jackson marked her appointment to the Thurgood Marshall Professorship of Constitutional Law with an Oct. 3 lecture titled "Proportionality and Judging in American Constitutionalism."

Harvard Law School Dean Martha Minow and Professors Elizabeth Warren, Laurence Tribe ’66, Nancy Gertner, and Noah Feldman all received honorary degrees at college and law school commencement ceremonies this spring.

On Thursday, May 26, 2011, Harvard Law School celebrated the class of 2011, conferring a total of 790 degrees—585 J.D.s, 195 LL.M.s, and 10 S.J.D.s during an afternoon ceremony in front of Langdell Library. HLS takes a look back at the day in pictures.

In her address to the Class of 2011, Dean Martha Minow praised the students’ accomplishments at HLS and their vast array of skills and achievements. But as they prepared to receive their diplomas, she emphasized the importance of one skill in particular, urging them to “cherish your talent for asking good questions.”

Harvard Law School graduation festivities began on Class Day, Wednesday, May 25, and continued through Commencement Day on Thursday, May 26. This year, the Law School conferred a total of 790 degrees—585 J.D.s, 195 LL.M.s, and 10 S.J.D.s.

Army Brigadier General Mark Martins ’90 accepted the Medal of Freedom, the highest honor conferred by Harvard Law School, and gave the inaugural Dean’s Distinguished Lecture on April 18 at HLS.

Mihir A. Desai, who currently serves as the Mizuho Financial Group Professor of Finance, the Senior Associate Dean for Planning and University Affairs, and the Chair of Doctoral Programs at Harvard Business School, has accepted a joint appointment to the faculty of Harvard Law School as a tenured Professor of Law.