Center on the Legal Profession

This fall, the Harvard Law School Library hosted a series of book talks by HLS authors, with topics ranging from Justice and Leadership in Early Islamic Courts to a Citizen's Guide to Impeachment. As part of this ongoing series, faculty authors from various disciplines shared their research and discussed their recently published books.

A room that was meant to offer a respite from the rigors of the Harvard Law School curriculum became a portal to exploring some of the most important issues in American law.

Harvard Law Professor John F. Coates has been named a fellow of the European Corporate Governance Institute (ECGI).

John Coates, the John F. Cogan, Jr., Professor of Law and Economics at Harvard Law School, has joined the American College of Governance Counsel as a Fellow.

David Wilkins ’80, the Lester Kissel Professor of Law at Harvard Law School, has been named to the American Bar Association’s Commission on the Future of Legal Education, the ABA has announced.

Since its founding nine months ago, Harvard Law School’s Access to Justice Lab has aimed to revolutionize thinking about access to legal help. Often misunderstood and sometimes controversial, the lab sponsored a five-hour symposium in April that drew scholars from across the country to Harvard Law School.

The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced that HLS Professor John Coates and Former SEC Chairman Elisse Walter are two of three new members appointed to its Investor Advisory Committee. The SEC also reappointed five members whose terms recently expired.

Harvard Law School’s 2016 renovation of Pound Hall’s second floor has received LEED Gold certification from the U.S. Green Building Council, marking the seventh certification for HLS.

Change is coming to the legal profession—whether attorneys like it or not—and HLS is at the forefront of efforts to anticipate it, and prepare students.

In late May, four Harvard Law faculty members, Charles Fried, Michael Gregory, Kathryn Spier and David Wilkins, each shared a snapshot of innovative research with the HLS community, followed by discussion as part of the 2015 Harvard Law School Thinks Big lecture.

HLS Professor of Practice Scott Westfahl '88, faculty director of HLS Executive Education, recently wrote "More women means more success," an article for the National Association of Women Lawyers' Women Lawyers Journal on the economic reasons for diversity at the management level.

For the growing number of empiricists at HLS, there’s nothing quite so satisfying—or unimpeachable—as resolving a thorny, often contentious, legal or policy question through rigorous analysis of cold, hard data.

The legal profession is going through dramatic change, affected by factors ranging from globalization to new technology to a fragile economic recovery. And a Harvard Law School institution dedicated to studying the profession is undergoing its own big change.

From rethinking how venture capital firms meet their legal needs to focusing on broadening access to legal services for all people, Sarah Reed '91 has been a pragmatic innovator.

Bharat Anand, a partner at Khaitan & Co., in New Delhi, India, was the keynote speaker on Sept. 23 at an event sponsored by the Center On The Legal Profession at Harvard Law School. Khaitan & Co. partners with the Center on the Legal Profession’s Globalization, Lawyers and Emerging Economies (GLEE) on research in India.

Professor David Wilkins was honored twice in July by academic societies in Spain. Wilkins is the Lester Kissel Professor of Law at Harvard Law School, as well as the director of the Program on the Legal Profession and Vice Dean for Global Initiatives on the Legal Profession.

When Clayton Christensen, professor at Harvard Business School and best-selling author of “The Innovator’s Dilemma,” coined the term “disruptive innovation,” he wasn’t focusing on the world of law.

Grover Cleveland, a Seattle attorney and the author of "Swimming Lessons for Baby Sharks: The Essential Guide to Thriving as a New Lawyer," delivered a talk at Harvard Law School on Wednesday, March 5. Cleveland’s talk, sponsored by the Program on the Legal Profession, focused on career advice for students and recent law school graduates. In a Q&A with Harvard Law Today, Cleveland offered practical tips for career success.

How best to assist people in financial trouble is the focus of the Consumer Financial Distress Project, a groundbreaking new study designed and led by Harvard Law School Professor Jim Greiner, Professor Dalié Jiménez at the University of Connecticut School of Law, and Professor Lois Lupica at the University of Maine School of Law.

Some recent faculty and clinical highlights—from research on anti-corruption efforts to conferences on financial regulation.