Alumni Focus

Stephen Gageler AC, LL.M. ’87, a justice of the High Court of Australia, returned to Harvard Law School in March to meet with faculty members, participate in classes, and speak on 'Alternative Facts in the Courts.'

Antonio Oposa Jr. LL.M. ’97 reflects on his legacy and efforts to bring environmental sustainability to his home country, the Philippines.

Rep. Joseph P. Kennedy III ’09, who got his start in civil legal aid as a student attorney at HLAB representing tenants in evictions, reflects on how his time as HLAB influenced his advocacy in the legislature, and why it is of utmost importance to safeguard access to counsel for those who cannot afford it.

Kicking of the Harvard Association for Law & Business' seventh annual symposium on Feb. 26, a panel of top-level executives in the financial world explored the possibilities of crossing over from a legal to a financial career.

Georgetown University Professor Sheryll D. Cashin ’89 delivered the Francis Biddle Memorial Lecture at Harvard Law School on Feb. 28 on “The Descendants: From Slavery to Jim Crow to Dark Ghettos, A Call for 21st Century Abolition.”

Ethel Branch ’08 grew up on her family’s ranch with no electricity, no running water, and a long list of questions about injustice. As she grew up, Branch knew she had to address these questions. “That confusion as to why the world changed when you crossed the Navajo Nation boundary line was a driving question for my youth and my life,” says Branch. It propelled her to study law and policy. And three years ago, at age 36, it led her to become Attorney General of the Navajo Nation.

Tom Perez M.P.P./J.D. ’87, former Secretary of Labor under President Obama and the current chair of the Democratic National Committee. At the John T. Dunlop Memorial Forum Lecture at Harvard Law School on Feb. 6, Perez addressed the future of organized labor and the challenges of income inequality in the United States.

Lawrence S. Bacow J.D./M.P.P. ’76, Ph.D. ’78, one of the most experienced and respected leaders in American higher education, will become the 29th president of Harvard University on July 1.

Kristin Turner ’17 was selected as the recipient of Harvard Law School's Public Welfare Foundation A2J Tech Fellowship. She will spend year working with Upsolve, a nonprofit that has developed a platform designed to guide both debtors and attorneys through the Chapter 7 bankruptcy process.

F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote that there are no second acts in American lives. But clearly, he never met Samantha Power '99, who, after eight years in the White House, has returned to Harvard as the Anna Lindh Professor of the Practice of Global Leadership and Public Policy at HKS and professor of practice at HLS.

The Harvard Law School Library uniquely owns and manages approximately one million pages of documents relating to the Nuremberg Trials: thirteen trials conducted just after World War II to prosecute leaders of the Nazi regime. To preserve the contents of these documents—which include trial transcripts and full trial exhibits—the library has undertaken a multi-stage digitization project to make the collection freely accessible online.

Bryan Stevenson has battled through the courts, defending the wrongly convicted and children prosecuted as adults, while condemning mass incarceration and racial bias in the criminal justice system; now, he is embarking on a fight to start a national conversation about the painful legacy of slavery, which he says “continues to haunt us today.”

Louis W. Fisher '16 has been selected as the inaugural Harvard Law Review Public Interest Fellow. He will spend a year working at the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc. and will have the opportunity to have a piece relating to his work considered for publication in the Law Review’s online Forum.

Sarah Benzidi LL.M. ’17 has been named the national winner of the inaugural NYBSA/ACCTM National Championship Alternative Dispute Resolution Law Student Writing Competition. Benzidi received her award and $10,000 prize at a ceremony in New York on Oct. 26.

With jokes, songs and, yes, real talent, the annual Parody show has brought the HLS community together in laughter for more than 50 years.

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.

Since April 1948, when the inaugural eight-page issue of the Harvard Law School Bulletin was sent to all graduates, the Bulletin has been covering the school, its students and—in more recent years—its alumni.

In September, as part of its bicentennial program, Harvard Law School celebrated the arts with a two-day festival featuring the work of alumni, staff, faculty and students.

During a late-night outdoor screening of “The Paper Chase,” a raucous audience of HLS students and faculty called out the lines “Rocky Horror Picture Show”-style. That evening, the story seemed to have a leavening effect.

The tradition of HLS graduates in the House of Representatives goes back to the mid-19th century. On Oct. 27, during Harvard Law School's bicentennial summit, the panel “HLS in the House’” gathered five graduates currently or formerly in the House.

Panelists at an HLS in the World seminar called “No Justice for Most: Brainstorming New and Old Ideas for Government, Professional, and Technological Solutions,” discussed the disparity in legal services available in urban and rural areas and other barriers to access to justice.