Teaching & Learning

An Essay by Rachel S. Arnow-Richman '95.

With the fall elections, Republicans now control the White House, the Senate and the House of Representatives. Conservative thinkers are influencing policy and law across the nation.

Guided by their professors, students find HLS a training ground for academic careers.

For the first time in decades, HLS has changed the basic structure of its first-year experience, and students and faculty are singing the praises of The New 1L.

Both sides have advocates as Harvard University considers moving HLS.

As part of its Strategic Plan, HLS has instituted a program that introduces new students to the practical skills needed in the legal world.

In memory of an HLS professor known as a champion of public interest law, HLS students have created the Gary Bellow Public Service Award. Bellow '60, who founded the School's Clinical Program, died in April 2000.

Twenty years ago, the Federalist Society was founded to change the way people think about the law. It has done its job well, say members of a new HLS student organization that champions liberal values in the law.

"We ordinarily don't try to respond to the news of the hour," said Frank Vogel, director of the HLS Islamic Legal Studies Program. But for Vogel, like for so many other people, everything changed on September 11.

When some of Alan Stone's colleagues learn that he is teaching a seminar on film at HLS, they wonder, frankly, what the heck he is doing. Students, however, know exactly what he is doing, Stone says. And they like it.

For many 1Ls starting this year, HLS was their first choice. But some found it harder to decide. More than 60 years ago, William Waldron was faced with a similar dilemma: Harvard or Yale.

The current Strategic Plan builds on changes that have taken place at HLS over the last 30 years.

Founded in 1910 to “educate and assist students,” the Board of Student Advisers, the Law School’s oldest service organization, celebrates its 90th anniversary this year.

In what Dean Robert Clark '72 called a "stunning addition" to the criminal law faculty, University of Virginia Law School Professor William Stuntz will move north to Harvard in July.

Todd Rakoff '75, Byrne Professor of Administrative Law since 1996 and a member of the faculty since 1979, will begin in July in the new position of dean of the J.D. program.

A panel that included many former members of the Harvard Defenders marked the 50th anniversary of the group by examining the widely misunderstood role of the defender in the courtroom and in society.