Alumni Focus

Former presidential candidate and consumer advocate Ralph Nader ’58 and former Deputy Attorney General and FCC General Counsel Bruce Fein ’72 come from somewhat different places ideologically, but both agree that lax oversight has allowed government to run amok.

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."

The HLS International Human Rights Clinic (IHRC), under the direction of Clinical Director Tyler Giannini and Lecturer on Law Susan Farbstein, recently filed an amicus curiae brief in the U.S. Supreme Court case Samantar v. Yousuf. 

Harvard Law School today announced the creation of the Public Service Venture Fund, which will start by awarding $1 million in grants every year to help graduating J.D. students pursue careers in public service.

David H. Souter ’66, a native New Englander and Harvard alumnus who served nearly two decades on the U.S. Supreme Court before stepping down in 2009, will be the principal speaker at the Afternoon Exercises of Harvard’s 359th Commencement.

At the southwestern tip of the Amazon, in Porto Velho, Rondônia, Brazil, stands Urso Branco, a prison notorious for deadly human rights violations. It’s nowhere anyone would choose to be. But it was into this dank, dark, and volatile world that Clara Long ’11, Fernando Delgado ’08, and James Cavallaro, executive director of Harvard Law School’s Human Rights Program, insisted on going.

Robert D. Joffe ’67, former presiding partner of Cravath, Swaine & Moore and an active member of the HLS alumni community, died Thursday, Jan. 28.  He was 66.

Lucy Koh ’93 has been nominated by President Obama on to serve on the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.

President Barack Obama ’91 has appointed another HLS alumnus to a key post in his administration.  Walter Crawford Jones ’88 will serve as the United States executive director of the African Development Bank.

“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.”