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In an April 18 op-ed published in The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Harvard Law School Professor William Alford ’77 addresses how budget cutting in Congress threatens to undermine the Special Olympics—an organization whose history, according to Alford, “is one of how civil society and government working together can create results that neither could wholly attain on its own.”

Last month, Joseph G. Phillips ’12 and Joanne Box LL.M. ’11, students in the HLS International Human Rights Clinic (IHRC), attended a U.N. disarmament conference, where they met with diplomats to urge adoption of stronger international laws regarding the use of incendiary weapons. The students worked under the supervision of HLS Lecturer on Law and Clinical Instructor Bonnie Docherty ’01, who is one of the country’s leading legal experts on cluster munitions and has expanded her work to other disarmament issues, including incendiary weapons.

Harvard Law School student Emily Inouye ’11 and alumna Cynthia Chandler ’95 have each received the Gary Bellow Public Service Award for their commitment to public interest and social justice work.

Former Harvard President and recent director of the White House National Economic Council Lawrence H. Summers stressed the importance of reducing the nation’s unemployment rate and bringing government spending and revenue into greater alignment, at a talk hosted by the Harvard Law School Forum on April 12, 2011.

The Federalist Society and the Journal of Law & Public Policy will present the Charles Fried Intellectual Diversity Award to Professor Jed Shugerman at the Federalist Society’s annual banquet on April 14th.  

“Liberty and justice for all” and other quintessentially American ideals must be extended to Muslim-Americans in the face of anti-Islamic rhetoric in the nation, said Democratic Congressman Keith Ellison of Minnesota, the first Muslim to be elected to the United States Congress, during an event at the Harvard Law School on March 28.

Harvard Law School Dean Martha Minow, who serves on the board of directors for the Legal Services Corporation (LSC), was selected as co-chair of an LSC task force to develop additional resources to help low-income Americans facing serious civil legal problems.

In her remarks at the 14th annual Harvard Latino Law, Policy and Business Conference, to Cecilia Muñoz, Director of Intergovernmental Affairs at the White House, discussed the implications for both the Latino community and the country of the 2010 census results, which found that Latinos are now the nation's largest minority group.

Harvard Law School Professor Hal S. Scott, Director of the Committee on Capital Markets Regulation, testified before the House Agriculture Committee's Subcommittee on General Farm Commodities and Risk Management on Wednesday, April 13, 2011 at 10am. Scott warned that the Commodity Futures Trading Commission and the Securities and Exchange Commission need to make major changes in coordinating the development of new rules required under the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act. The rules will be aimed at better regulating the derivatives market.

In a relaxed and often-humorous conversation before a packed room of more than 750 of their fellow Harvard Law School alumni, U.S. Supreme Court Associate Justices Anthony M. Kennedy ’61 and Elena Kagan ’86 on Saturday shared personal stories and offered a rare glimpse into the Court’s very private world, in a special reunion event moderated by HLS Dean Martha Minow.

On March 31, Professor Henry Smith delivered his Chair Lecture in honor of his appointment as Fessenden Professor of Law. His lecture, entitled Equity Revisited, explored the relationship between law and equity. He examined, through the lens of economic analysis, equity as a solution to opportunism on the part of those who exploit bright-line law, with a focus on equitable maxims, defenses, and remedies.

In an open letter published recently in The New York Review of Books, Harvard Law School Professor Yochai Benkler ’94 and co-author Bruce Ackerman, professor at Yale Law School, detail the detention of Bradley Manning, a US soldier charged with providing government documents to Wikileaks, and call on President Obama and the Pentagon to document grounds for what the authors describe as “illegal and immoral” confinement.

Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court appointee Fernande R.V. Duffly ’78 became the first Asian Pacific American to serve on the Supreme Judicial Court when she was appointed by Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick ’82 in December, 2010.

Four Harvard Law School alumni are among the National Law Journal’s list of the “Most Influential Lawyers.” Thirty-four attorneys were recognized in 10 specific practice areas.

A Harvard Law School student appeared before the First Circuit Court of Appeals yesterday as the lead lawyer in an illegal downloading and sharing lawsuit brought against a Boston University student by the music recording industry. This is the first case of its kind to reach the federal appellate level.

In an Apr. 4 op-ed published in The Boston Globe’s Opinion Blog “The Angle,” Harvard Law School Dean Martha Minow and co-author John Broderick (dean and president of the University of New Hampshire School of Law) address impending Congressional budget cuts that would force programs that provide pro bono legal aid to close their doors.

With a mixture of storytelling about his groundbreaking role in amateur basketball and critiques of the NCAA and NBA, former sports marketing executive Sonny Vaccaro gave the keynote address at the third annual HLS Sports Law Symposium on March 25.

In a Mar. 28 panel discussion moderated by Harvard Law School lecturer and former Maine Attorney General Jim Tierney, Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley and Connecticut Attorney General George Jepsen ’80 sat down with HLS students to discuss challenges they face in office.