Alumni Focus

“Haiti’s Angry God,” an op-ed by Pooja Bhatia ’06, appeared in the Jan. 14 edition of the New York Times. Bhatia is currently living in Port-au-Prince as a fellow at the Institute of Current World Affairs. A former Wall Street Journal reporter, Bhatia is also filing reports and was interviewed by The Wall Street Journal.

President Barack Obama ’91 has appointed Rita Hauser ’58 and Roel Campos ’79 to serve on the President’s Intelligence Advisory Board (PIAB). As members of the PIAB, Hauser and Campos will provide the President with independent advice on the effectiveness of the U.S. intelligence community.

On December 24, President Barack Obama ’91 nominated Ronald Machen ’94 to serve as U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia, pending confirmation by the Senate. Currently a partner at Wilmer Hale in Washington, D.C., Machen devotes his practice to complex civil litigation, white-collar criminal defense, and internal corporate investigations.

It took a Hook to hand a Howe.

Finn M.W. Caspersen ’66: 1941-2009 Bruce Wasserstein ’70: 1947-2009 Two of Harvard Law School’s greatest alumni leaders died this fall, as the building that will stand as a tribute to their support was rising.

Luke Cole ’89, a leader in the environmental justice movement—which holds that many minority neighborhoods have become toxic dumping grounds—died June 6, 2009, in a traffic accident in Uganda at age 46.

Michael Weston ’97, special agent with the Drug Enforcement Administration, died in a helicopter crash in Afghanistan on Oct. 26, 2009, while working with the U.S. military to fight drug trafficking in the region.

George H. Kidder ’50, a partner for more than 40 years with the Boston law firm Hemenway & Barnes and a civic-minded lawyer who contributed extensively to the Boston community, died Aug. 20 at the age of 84 at his home in Concord, Mass.

Singleton, who hails from North Carolina and now lives in Cincinnati, found himself an “East Coast liberal” professor engaging a crop of young conservative law students in criminal justice reform.

It’s Tuesday afternoon in a Pound Hall classroom. The Socratic method is in use, and the class is engaged. But the professor is a Harvard Law student and he is teaching 13 teenagers—all involved in the juvenile justice system.

A few years ago, retired Judge Bentley Kassal ’40 began giving talks on his World War II experience: He was an air intelligence officer who participated in three invasions and was recognized by the U.S. Army with a Bronze Star for “meritorious service in direct support of combat operations.”

Last spring, David Hackett Souter ’66—the U.S. Supreme Court’s 105th justice—announced his retirement and stepped down at the end of the term. We asked four alumni who had firsthand experience with the justice for their reflections.

Coercive interrogations inflict discomfort or pain with the goal of eliciting information. Yet all too often, says Deborah Popowski ’08, those involved in such interrogations are supposed to be helping people, not hurting them.

When the U.S. financial system came excruciatingly close to collapse, Rodge Cohen was suddenly the man to call.

President Obama has nominated Paul L. Oostburg Sanz ’99 to be general counsel of the Navy, and Solomon B. Watson IV ’71 as general counsel of the Army.

President Barack Obama ’91 has nominated Joshua Gotbaum ’78 to head the U.S. Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation. This government-sponsored corporation is responsible for financially backing up the pensions of more than 44 million Americans.

Samuel J. Heyman ’63, who established the Heyman Fellowship Program at Harvard Law School to encourage graduates to pursue careers in federal service, died on November 7 in New York City. Heyman, who was also a member of the Dean’s Advisory Board, was 70.

Robert Verchick ’89 has been appointed to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Office of Policy, Economics and Innovation to serve as deputy associate administrator. He currently heads the Center for Environmental Law and Land Use at Loyola University New Orleans College of Law.

Bruce Wasserstein ’70, a transformative figure in the history of investment banking and corporate finance, and one of the most generous supporters in the history of Harvard Law School, died Wednesday. He was 61.

President Barack Obama ’91 is the recipient of the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize. Cited for “his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and co-operation between peoples,” Obama becomes the third sitting U.S. president to receive the award, along with Theodore Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson.