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 The following article “Key Ways to Reform Corporate Elections” by HLS Professor Lucian Bebchuk LL.M. ’80 S.J.D. ’84 appeared in the May 27 edition of The Wall Street Journal. Bebchuk is the director of the Program on Corporate Governance at Harvard Law School, and the author of “The Case for Shareholder Access to the Ballot,” “The Myth of the Shareholder Franchise” and “The Case for Increasing Shareholder Power.”

Willard Tom ’79 has been tapped to become general counsel of the Federal Trade Commission.  Tom, currently an antitrust partner at Morgan, Lewis & Bockius in Washington, D.C., is rejoining the commission, having served as deputy director of the Bureau of Competition and head of the policy office during the Clinton administration.

In a May 31, 2009 Washington Post op-ed, HLS Professor Jack Goldsmith writes, “The revelation last weekend that the United States is increasingly using foreign intelligence services to capture, interrogate and detain terrorist suspects points up an uncomfortable truth about the war against Islamist terrorists. Demands to raise legal standards for terrorist suspects in one arena often lead to compensating tactics in another arena that leave suspects (and, sometimes, innocent civilians) worse off.”

In the following interview in the June issue of The American Legion Magazine, HLS Professor Richard Parker ’70, a Constitutional law scholar, discusses his views on the Constitution and his support for a constitutional amendment that would return the right to protect the U.S. flag from physical desecration. Parker is chairman of the board of directors for the Citizens Flag Alliance and the author of "Here, the People Rule: A Constitutional Populist Manifesto." The title of the American Legion interview is "The Power to Protect."

On May 5, Harvard Law School Professor Jonathan Zittrain ’95 was elected to a three-year term on the Internet Society’s Board of Trustees. A non-profit organization, the Internet Society seeks to provide leadership on internet related standards, education, and policy around the world.

Time Magazine has named Harvard Law School Professor Elizabeth Warren one of 100 Most Influential People in 2009. Warren has been recognized for her bankruptcy law work and her chairmanship of the Congressional Oversight Panel charged with overseeing the Treasury Department's Troubled Asset Relief Program.

A new report issued by the International Human Rights Clinic at Harvard Law School calls for the UN Security Council to act on human rights abuses in Burma. The report, “Crimes in Burma,” comes in the wake of renewed international attention due to the continued persecution of Nobel Peace Prize recipient Aung San Suu Kyi.

Timothy Massad ’84 a partner at Cravath, Swaine & Moore has been appointed by the Obama Administration to be chief counsel of the U.S. Treasury Department’s Troubled Asset Relief Program.

This spring, two faculty members, Bruce Mann, the Carl F. Schipper, Jr. Professor of Law, and Robert Sitkoff, the John L. Gray Professor of Law, gave lectures to commemorate their appointments to endowed chairs. News coverage and video of their lectures are included below.

In an op-ed, “Delayed petrol tax beats CAFE plan,” that appeared in the May 21, 2009, edition of The Financial Times, Harvard Law School Professor Mark Roe ’75 and Michael Levine of New York University School of Law discuss the need for a petrol tax in order to make the Obama Administration’s automotive goals work well.

On May 10, sibling teammates Victor Jih ’96 and Tamara Jih ’06 claimed victory in the 14th-season finale of the CBS reality show “The Amazing Race.” Brother and sister took home the million dollar prize for being first over the finish line at Maui’s King Kamehameha Golf Club in Hawaii.

The following op-ed, written by Harvard Law school Professor Lucian Bebchuk LL.M. ’80 S.J.D. ’84, entitled “Near-sighted stress tests,” was published in Forbes on May 21, 2009.

HLS Professor Jon Hanson and Adam Benforado ’05 wrote the following op-ed “Right or left, judges are activists” that appeared in the May 20 edition of the Philadelphia Inquirer. Benforado is an assistant professor of law at Drexel University's Earle Mack School of Law and Hanson is director of The Project of Law and Mind Sciences at Harvard Law School.

Todd Lantz ’09 received the 2009 Law Student Ethics Award from the Association of Corporate Counsel’s Northeast Chapter in April.

In his op-ed “The Cheney Fallacy,” HLS Professor Jack Goldsmith discusses why he believes Barack Obama is waging a more effective war on terror than George W. Bush. The op-ed was published in the May 18, 2009, issue of The New Republic. Goldsmith, a member of the Hoover Institution Task Force on National Security and Law, was an assistant attorney general in the Bush administration and is the author of “The Terror Presidency: Law and Judgment Inside the Bush Administration.”

The winners of Harvard Law School’s 56th annual Williston Contracts Competition were announced on April 28. The competition, sponsored by the Board of Student Advisers and organized and run by Harvard Negotiators, offers first-year students the opportunity to practice negotiation and contract drafting.

Last fall, budding real estate lawyer Lauren Smith ’09 enrolled in the transactional practice unit at Harvard Law School’s WilmerHale Legal Services Center with the aim of adding practical experience to her legal education. It proved to be an invaluable decision.

Michael E. Leiter ’00 is currently serving as director of the National Counterterrorism Center. He was confirmed by the Senate in June 2008, after serving as acting director in the Bush administration since 2007. In January, President Obama ’91 announced that Leiter would remain in his post as part of the new administration’s intelligence team.

On April 24, Harvard Law School Professor Emeritus Bernard Wolfman, a leading tax law expert, spoke on “Ethical Problems in Tax Practice” at the Sixth Annual Institute on Tax Aspects of Mergers and Acquisitions. The event, held at the offices of the New York City Bar, was presented by the New York City Bar in conjunction with the Center for the Study of Mergers and Acquisitions of Pennsylvania State University’s Dickinson School of Law.

Six Harvard Law School alumni were recognized by “The American Lawyer” as among the top 25 “Dealmakers of the Year” for 2008.  Honorees included three members of the HLS class of 1978, as well as three other alums.

On May 1, the White House appointed Brookings Institution economist Jason Bordoff ’04 as associate director for climate change at the Council on Environmental Quality.