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Scott Smith was living in Ames Hall in early 2003 when he got a call that sent him to his room to pack his things and leave school immediately. "I had 48 hours to report for duty," said Smith, who was then a captain in the Marine Reserves. "I was packing all my stuff and people kept coming by my room, saying, 'Where are you going?' When I said I was mobilized, they were shocked."

On Dec. 10, leaders of the internet campaigns for President George W. Bush and Senator John Kerry will debate the influence of the web in the 2004 election. This discussion is part of a three-day conference—Votes, Bits and Bytes—hosted by Harvard Law School's Berkman Center for Internet and Society to take a skeptical look at whether online technologies have changed political participation, citizenship, and governance, both in the United States and worldwide.

A team of Indian law experts met recently at Harvard Law School to finalize updates to Felix Cohen's landmark "Handbook of Federal Indian Law." Scholars consider the Cohen handbook--published in 1941--to be the leading text on federal Indian law. Cohen wrote the first edition while serving as an assistant solicitor in the Interior Department during the Roosevelt administration.

On Tuesday, Nov. 16, the Harvard Journal of Law and Technology will host a debate between spokespeople from the Electronic Frontier Foundation and the Recording Industry Association of America regarding the legitimacy of contributory copyright infringement liability for sellers of software and devices that consumers can use to violate copyright law.

President Bush has nominated Harvard Law graduate Alberto Gonzales to be the next U.S. attorney general, the nation's top law enforcement officer. A member of the HLS class of '82, Gonzales has served as the White House counsel for the past four years. If confirmed by the Senate, Gonzales will be the 10th Harvard Law graduate to serve as attorney general.

Last month, Harvard Law School's John M. Olin Center for Law, Economics and Business hosted a week-long law and economics program for Spanish law students and academics. The program attracted 30 attendees, all from Spain, and included courses on torts, fairness versus efficiency, litigation, risk, contracts, corporate governance, bankruptcy, antitrust, and crime and law enforcement.

Harvard Law alumni from both political parties won elections yesterday to gain or retain seats in the U.S. House and Senate.

On November 5, Harvard Law School will kick off four performances of David Auburn's Pulitzer Prize-winning play "Proof." Performances will be held on Nov. 5, 6, 12 and 13 at 7:30 p.m. in Ames Courtroom in Austin Hall. Tickets, which are $6 for the general public and $5 for students, can be purchased at the door or reserved ahead of time by emailing hay@law.harvard.edu.

Richard Holbrooke was the premier architect of the 1995 peace agreement that ended the war in Bosnia and a skillful negotiator credited with resolving the bitter dispute over dues owed in arrears by the United States to the United Nations. Last night, at a dinner held in his honor, the former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations received the prestigious 2004 Great Negotiator Award, presented by the Program on Negotiation at Harvard Law School.

From Oct. 22 to Oct. 24, leaders of the financial systems of the United States and Japan convened in Portsmouth, NH to discuss issues affecting the global financial system. The occasion was the seventh annual Symposium on Building the Financial System of the 21st Century: An Agenda for Japan and the United States, sponsored by the Harvard Law School Program on International Financial Systems, in cooperation with The International House of Japan.

Just days before the Israeli government submitted to the Knesset—Israel’s 120-member parliament—draft legislation to authorize the evacuation of Jewish settlers from the West Bank and Gaza Strip, the Harvard Law School Program on Negotiation held a two-day conference titled, “Past, Present, and Future of the Jewish West Bank and Gaza Settlements: The Internal Israeli Conflict.”

On Wednesday, October 13, Colonel Will A. Gunn, chief defense counsel for the Office of Military Commissions, will speak on "Military Commissions and the Global War on Terrorism: The Chief Defense Counsel's Perspective." Col. Gunn's remarks will begin at 6 p.m. in the Langdell South classroom.

On Wednesday, October 13, former Massachusetts Governor Michael Dukakis will reflect on his experience working with Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry and offer his thoughts on the 2004 election. The speech, which is free and open to the public, will begin at 7 p.m. in the Austin West classroom.

On Friday, October 8, a memorial service will be held for Professor Emeritus Archibald Cox, the famed Watergate special prosecutor and former solicitor general, who died in May. The service, which is open to the public, will begin at 2 p.m. in Harvard's Memorial Church.

At a ceremony on Oct. 4, Harvard Law School Dean Elena Kagan presented the Cox, Richardson, Coleman Award to California State Senator Sheila Kuehl. Named for three of Harvard Law School's most distinguished graduates, Archibald Cox, Elliot Richardson and William Coleman, the award honors graduates for distinguished service in government.

James S. Reid, Jr. of Cleveland, Ohio has made a gift to Harvard Law School to endow a professorship dedicated to the teaching of accounting, statistics and related subjects. Income generated from the gift--which totals $3 million and includes funds given by Reid, John D. Drinko and others who were encouraged to contribute--will support the salary, benefits and research endeavors of a tenured Harvard Law professor.

This semester, many first-year students at HLS are reading more than the typical load of cases and books on legal doctrine. The newly minted 1Ls are signing up for new first-year reading groups that cover everything from cyberlaw to the laws of war. Designed in part to foster student-faculty interaction in the 1L year, the new program consists of faculty members holding reading groups in their spare time with about a dozen students who sign up for specific subjects.

A recent surge in student demand for human rights clinical work has led to a major expansion of the HLS Human Rights Program's Clinical Advocacy Project. Beginning this year, students will have greater opportunities to do hands-on, advocacy work in the human rights field.