Article

Dean Martha Minow has announced that Steven Klinsky J.D. '81 M.B.A. '79, and his wife, Maureen, have endowed the Steven and Maureen Klinsky Professorship of Practice for Leadership and Progress at HLS, the the first endowed professorship of practice established at Harvard Law School, designed to bring visiting leaders from a wide range of fields beyond law to campus to teach and bring inspiration and broad perspective to the school and, more generally, to Harvard University.

In early July, the Uniform Law Commission approved a new act, the Uniform Powers of Appointment Act, at its annual meeting held this year in Boston. Harvard Law School Professor Robert H. Sitkoff, who focuses his research on economic and empirical analysis of the law of trusts and estates, served on the drafting committee for the Act. The Act codifies the law of powers of appointment, a staple of modern estate-planning practice.

Detlev Frederick Vagts '51, a renowned scholar of international law at Harvard Law School and one of the world's foremost experts on transnational business problems and the laws affecting international commerce, died Aug. 20. Vagts' career at Harvard Law School spanned more than 50 years.

The Harvard Law School Library's historical and special collections recently digitized its collection of 64 bound volumes of notebooks drafted by 17 students of the Litchfield Law School from 1803–1825. Litchfield is generally regarded as the first formal private law school in the United States.

Not many judges have served on every court in their home state. And not many have been on the bench for nearly 40 years. But Harvard Law School alum Robert Bell ’69 has an even more unusual distinction: He serves on a court that at one time ruled against him.

Ashish Nanda, the Robert Braucher Professor of Practice, faculty director of executive education, and research director at the Program on the Legal Profession at Harvard Law School, has been appointed director of the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad (IIMA), in India.

Dean Martha Minow announced this week that Scott Westfahl ’88 will be the new director of Executive Education at Harvard Law School.

Crimmigration—the intersection of criminal law and immigration—is a burgeoning legal area, and one that is of great interest to students, according to Harvard Law School Lecturer on Law and Clinical Instructor Phil Torrey. This fall, Torrey, who supervises the Harvard Immigration Project's Bond Hearing Representation project, will be offering a new clinical course on the topic.

On Thursday, Aug. 8, U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) delivered an address at Harvard Law School on proposed legislation to reform the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, just hours after news outlets reported additional revelations concerning the scope of information gathered by the National Security Agency.

Samantha Power ’99, who has served as an adviser to President Barack Obama ’91 on foreign policy and national security, won confirmation Thursday as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations.

Newly confirmed Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Gina McCarthy on Tuesday pledged action on climate change during the Obama administration’s remaining years, saying the concern is as much economic as it is environmental.

In an award ceremony held in New York City last month, the Investor Responsibility Research Center Institute (IRRCi) announced the winners of its the 2013 prize competition. The academic award went to Harvard Law School Professor Lucian Bebchuk LL.M. '80 S.J.D. 84, HLS Senior Fellow and Tel-Aviv University Professor Alma Cohen, and Harvard Business School Professor Charles Wang. The trio received the award for their study, "Learning and the Disappearing Association between Governance and Returns," which was published last month by the Journal of Financial Economics.

The Harvard Law School Library Blog, “Et Seq.,” frequently publishes historical documents and images from the law school’s archives. For a recent post, they showcased a historical image of the editorial board of Volume 51 of the Harvard Law Review celebrating a successful year outside of Austin Hall.

According to recent findings from the Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University and the Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project, teens are sharing more information about themselves on social media sites than they have in the past, but they are also taking a variety of technical and non-technical steps to manage the privacy of that information.

In the 100 years since its founding, Harvard's Legal Aid Bureau—the oldest student-run legal services program in the country—has helped thousands of clients. On Nov. 8 to 10, the Bureau will mark its centennial with a gala celebration at the law school which will feature keynote speakers and panel discussions on “Closing the gap: Evolving legal education and improving the clinical experience,” “Serving low-income communities across the three branches of government” and “Access to justice: Looking beyond legal services.”

During a two-week period that spanned from late May to early June, recent Harvard Law School Graduate Chas Hamilton '13 tried two cases before twelve-member juries in the Boston Housing Court. Here he reflects on the experience.

“HLS Thinks Big,” an event inspired by the global TED (Technology, Entertainment and Design) talks and modeled after the university's “Harvard Thinks Big” event, was held at Harvard Law School on May 28. Four professors—Daniel Nagin, Glenn Cohen '03, Jeannie Suk '02, and James Greiner—presented on some of their recent work and research.

Less than two weeks after being confirmed by the Senate as Environmental Protection Agency Administrator, Gina McCarthy delivered an inaugural address at Harvard Law School on Tuesday, July 30.