Alumni Focus

Twenty-six years ago, Peter Ferrara '79 picked a then obscure topic for his third-year paper: Social Security solvency.

AIDS, malaria and malnutrition claim millions of lives in the developing world every year. One approach to such problems is to provide free health products--condoms, malaria kits and vitamin supplements--to health clinics.

George Leighton '43 ('46) spent his childhood in Massachusetts summering in Plymouth and wintering in New Bedford. His summer home was a shanty with no running water or electricity near the cranberry bogs, and his winter home was an unheated apartment near the textile mills.

Can a veteran prosecutor whip the Department of Homeland Security into shape? Michael Chertoff '78 has already started.

As chairman of International Specialty Products Inc., Samuel Heyman '63 is a leader in business. But his early experiences in the U.S. Department of Justice made him a firm believer in government service.

Traveling across the country, sowing apple seeds and watching them grow sounds like an American folktale. For Linda Singer '91, it's her job.

Paul V. Applegarth J.D./M.B.A. '74 runs a government corporation with a new approach to foreign aid.

Nick Brown '02 gained fame as a contestant on the reality show "Survivor." Today his reality is the Green Zone in Baghdad, where he carries a laptop and a rifle as a U.S. Army JAG officer.

Eliot Spitzer '84 has no time to waste. Instead of hello and a handshake, the New York state attorney general greets a visitor with "OK, let's get to work."

Christopher Cox '76 ('77) and Jane Harman '69 sit on different sides of the aisle, but the urgent threat of terrorism unites them.

A principal at Fish & Richardson in Boston, Charles Hieken '57 has practiced all aspects of intellectual property law for more than 50 years. He and his wife, Donna, recently made a gift to the school to establish the Hieken Professorship in Patent Law.

Katherine Locker '98 knows that children with disabilities who are in the foster care system are some of the most vulnerable people on the planet.

In a nondescript building in suburban Virginia, two subway stops from the Pentagon, a team of a half dozen or so defense lawyers works on what is perhaps the toughest--and most controversial--legal assignment in America.

Last spring, an Oregon attorney named Brandon Mayfield was arrested by the FBI and jailed for two weeks. He was suspected of being linked to the Madrid train bombings, thanks to the FBI's mistaken match of a fingerprint to a print found on a bag of detonators near the scene.

In his recent book, "The Great Game: The Myth and Reality of Espionage," Frederick P. Hitz '64 gives credence to the saying that truth can be stranger than fiction.

Some honors take longer to attain than others. More than 75 years after graduating from law school, 108-year-old Walter Seward '24 ('27) has earned distinction as Harvard's oldest living graduate.

It was December 2002 when House Minority Leader Richard Gephardt called Jamie Gorelick '75 to offer her the last Democratic slot on the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States.

Professor Archibald Cox, 1912-2004, taught the nation what it means to be true to one's principles. Professor Emeritus Archibald Cox '37 died on May 29 at age 92. Tenured at Harvard Law School in 1946, he taught generations of students torts, administrative and constitutional law.

M. Bernard Aidinoff '53 is senior counsel at Sullivan & Cromwell in New York City, where he has practiced for nearly 50 years.

Sometimes making the greatest impact on a student's life is as simple as changing his fifth-grade homeroom. That's what Marina Volanakis '99 did for 10-year-old Gabriel, and it was enough to turn him from a disrespectful troublemaker into a dedicated student.

Ken Mehlman '91 was a Republican before law school. But HLS helped make him the Republican he is today. His predominantly liberal fellow students in fact made him "more Republican, more conservative," spurred by his view that rampant elitism drove their ideology, he said.

A restaurant employee is fired. He didn't violate company policy. In fact, he's a good employee, according to his manager. But he is fired because, as the regional manager put it, he is one of "those people."

Attorney Terry Lenzner '64 has made investigation his business.

Best known for his mystery novels and a memoir about his first year at HLS, author Scott Turow ' 78 spoke on campus in mid-October about a weightier issue: the death penalty.

Thanks to Josh Gottheimer '04, the greatest American civil rights speeches are together for the first time, demonstrating the injustices and progress of a growing nation and ultimately, he says, hope for its future.

Cornelius Prior '62 is chairman and CEO of Atlantic Tele-Network Inc., based in St. Thomas, Virgin Islands.

For 25 years, Douglas Foy ' 73 served as head of the Conservation Law Foundation, a New England-based environmental advocacy group whose frequent lawsuits changed the landscape of the region, literally. But now Foy has jumped from the courthouse to the State House, named by Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney ' 75 as the first chief of Commonwealth Development.

Depending on your perspective, Kourosh Kenneth Hamidi may be either a crank or a prophet. But William McSwain '00 wants to keep the Internet free for both.

While writing about human rights in South Asia in the early 1990s, Carol Rose '96 was asked by a Pakistani activist, "And what is happening with human rights in your country?" Rose was stunned.

Stacy Stern '93 isn't as famous as the Pets.com sock puppet. She never raised billions from venture capitalists or played foosball in the office during the height of the Internet boom. Yet in the annals of Silicon Valley, Stern can boast of a more impressive distinction: success.

Most law school grads who began their careers at large law firms probably remember the research assignments they received as young associates, with the long hours, the frustrating Lexis searches and the overbroad results--all for an answer that a more experienced lawyer could have found in 10 minutes.

At age 39, Joseph D. Kearney '89 is one of the youngest law school deans in the country. But the new dean of Marquette University Law School in Milwaukee would rather talk about how he wants to apply his legal experience to his new position.

As a college freshman, J. Russell George '88 trolled the halls of Congress, hoping to get autographs from famous politicians such as Sen. Bob Dole.

Growing up in Oregon in the 1960s and 1970s, Bern Johnson '87 saw wild rivers dammed and forests denuded by clear-cut logging. As a camper and fisherman, he quickly understood the need for protecting the resources he was enjoying.

In 1985, David Hoffman '84 took a mundane case that would change his life. A roof collapsed during the final year of warranty, and replacing it would cost $300,000. Hoffman's client, the owner of the building, was willing to put up $100,000, and the roof manufacturer offered the same amount.

Richardson is founder and executive director of the Chicago-based nonprofit organization The HistoryMakers.

When Court TV went on the air in 1991, June Grasso ' 77 anchored one of the first reports live from the field: a negligence case in Massachusetts involving the manufacturer of an all-terrain vehicle.

It was December 2000 in Ingushetia, Russia, where 170,000 displaced citizens of neighboring Chechnya were hiding from Russia's federal forces. Leonard Rubenstein ' 75 sat talking with a young man, one of dozens of Chechens he interviewed during his monthlong stay.

Riding in the back of the ambulance as the lights flashed and the siren wailed, Richard Wells '68 carefully tended to an 88-year-old woman who had just suffered a massive heart attack.

From his Times Square office overlooking Manhattan, Michael Hess '65 surveyed his 38-year career from public to private law--and back again. A native New Yorker, he is now blending his experience in both areas as senior managing director at Giuliani Partners, a crisis management firm hatched in 2002 after former Mayor Rudolph Giuliani's eight-year tenure.

For most of his life, Irving "Ike" Isaacson '39 has practiced law in Lewiston, Maine. It's been steady work, and a career he's proud of. But he's equally proud of what he accomplished nearly 60 years ago, something hardly anyone knew about. In fact, until recently, neither did he.

Gustave M. Hauser '53 met his future wife, Rita E. Hauser '58, at HLS when he was a teaching fellow and she a 1L.

A lone woman joins a line of men in Langdell Hall to register for the start of the 1954-55 school year.

The year 1989 wound down with the law school being painfully reminded that its portrait collection was still conspicuously all male.

There's nothing noteworthy about being a female student at Harvard Law School today: About half of the students are women.

In her new book, Judith Richards Hope details the struggles and successes of the women classmates who "took the place of a man."

Fifty years after the first women graduated from Harvard Law School, alumnae come together to look back at the progress and ahead to the possibilities.

The urinal is the political. So are the toilet and the condom dispenser and the diaper changing station and everything else commonly found in men's and women's rooms (and even the fact that there are men's and women's rooms).

Rest assured, Dean Blackwood '95 is not demanding a 45-foot trailer filled with cardamom incense sticks and candy bowls with all the green M&M's removed.