Alumni Focus

High in the Andes mountains, five Harvard Law School alumni are changing the way law professors in Colombia are trained—and they are using HLS as a model.

Rutherford B. Hayes, Harvard Law School class of 1845, was the first and only other HLS alum to be elected president of the United States.

Barack Obama ’91 has won the general election for the presidency of the United States. Michelle Obama ’88 will become the first HLS alumna to serve as First Lady.

It was as a law student that Obama first made history—and national headlines—when he was elected the first black president of the Harvard Law Review…

Michael B. Chertoff ’78, who will be stepping down as secretary of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security next January when a new Presidential administration takes office, took time following a panel presentation in October to answer questions about his experiences on the job and his plans for the future.

Gerhardt Bubník LL.M. ’69 still likes the ice. The former competitive skater hung up his skates years ago but has kept his edge, as a skating judge and then a legal adviser to the International Skating Union—all while building a law practice that spanned three political regimes.

Although she is now a partner at Ropes & Gray in Boston, Jane Willis ’94 credits much of her success as a litigator to a simple strategy she learned outside the law firm and the courtroom—at the blackjack table.

The international legal community needs to make “lawlessness” a top priority, said human rights scholar Samantha Power ’99 during a speech at Celebration 55: The Women’s Leadership Summit at Harvard Law School.

When Tony Rossmann ’71 started his own law practice in Sacramento, Calif., in 1976, he never expected he would help bring about one of the largest river restoration projects in the West.

Louisa May Alcott once described a philosopher as “a man up in a balloon” tethered to the earth by his family. In his Pulitzer Prize-winning biography, “Eden’s Outcasts: The Story of Louisa May Alcott and Her Father” (Norton, 2007), John Matteson ’86 chronicles the tension and affection in that vertical relationship.

From new alumni to retirees, broad-based giving is the lifeblood of HLS.

For some benefactors, financial aid is the priority.

When Dennis Langer ’83 heard about Harvard Law School’s new Public Service Initiative this year, he knew it was something he wanted to support.

Bernard Koteen ’40 grew up during the Great Depression and went to law school during the New Deal. “There was great emphasis by the Roosevelt administration on serving the public, so it was natural for many of my classmates and me to have that concern and begin our legal careers in public service,” said Koteen in a 2003 Bulletin interview.

There’s a saying: Do what you love, and the money will follow. For Adam Szubin ’99, it’s a little different: With some early help from a Heyman Fellowship, he’s been able to do what he loves—and follow the money.

The law school’s investment in public service is paying dividends.

With a cluster of research programs, HLS is a collection of think tanks rolled into one

In law school, Barack Obama ’91 already looked—and led—like a future president.

Finn M.W. Caspersen ’66 is chairman of the board and CEO of Knickerbocker Management, a private management firm that oversees the assets of various trusts, foundations and individuals.

The graffiti started appearing in mid-February: “Aba Lavichè!” Lavi chè was Creole for la vie chère—the high cost of living. I should have realized. Rising prices for gas, basic foodstuffs and school fees had been the talk since I’d arrived last August to work for a small NGO that does human-rights law.