Today Posts

The Wall Street Journal and Boston Magazine recently featured op-eds by HLS Professor of Law Alan Dershowitz: “Casey Anthony: The System Worked,” (July 7 in the Wall Street Journal) and “With the Bulger Brothers, the Cover-up Continues" (published July 8 on boston.com).

Harvard Law Professors Jonathan Zittrain ‘95 and Lawrence Lessig explored the role of journalists and information in the age of blogs, Twitter and Julian Assange, as part of a recent panel at the Aspen Ideas Festival.

In an op-ed titled “Too Hot to Handle ,” which appeared in the July 1 American Lawyer, Harvard Law School Professor David B. Wilkins ’80 and Ben W. Heineman, Jr. explore how law firms should evaluate a partner’s wish to represent a controversial client.

The op-ed, “Immigration and the death of the recovery,” by Vivek Wadhwa, a senior research associate for the Labor and Worklife Program at Harvard Law School, appeared June 29 in the Washington Post. According to Wadhwa, the United States economy will suffer unless we make it easier for foreign nationals who have studied in the U.S. to stay in the country to start their careers.  

Originally bound for Russian Emperor Nicholas II, a book covered in blue velvet with its title stamped in gold is now on public display as part of the HLS exhibit “Law Books in Fancy Dress: Beautiful Bindings from the Harvard Law School Library’s Historical & Special Collections.”

This May, Harvard Law School celebrated the class of 2011, conferring a total of 790 degrees—585 J.D.s, 195 LL.M.s, and 10 S.J.D.s during an afternoon ceremony in front of Langdell Library. Here, we present a video retrospective of the day's events, which included an impromptu appearance by Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg ’56-'58.

At the reins of New York’s federal public defender office for two decades, Leonard F. Joy ’56 represented notorious defendants in cases involving international intrigue, terrorism plots and arms trafficking. But Joy’s favorite case will always be one that reminds him why he transitioned into public defense as a young corporate lawyer. The case was particularly satisfying for Joy, not just because he won but because it offered the rare thrill of defending someone “who was truly good.”

Robert J. Katz ’72 is the new chairman of the Dean’s Advisory Board. Katz is a senior director at Goldman, Sachs & Co., for which he served as general counsel from 1988 through 2000.

Since William Stuntz’s death on March 15 at age 52, the renowned scholar of criminal justice at Harvard Law School and evangelical Christian has been eulogized in many ways, from the service at Park Street Church, to quotations in numerous obituaries, to the postings from his former students on an HLS journal site, to the appreciation on the New York Times editorial page. Below are excerpts from some of those remembrances.

“Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother” by Amy Chua ’87 (Penguin).The roar that accompanied the publication earlier this year of Chua’s memoir has resounded around the Internet,…

Kroger went from being a Marine reconnaissance scout to a Yale undergraduate to an aide for then-Rep. Charles Schumer ’74 and then for Bill Clinton’s presidential campaign, before he enrolled at Harvard Law School. After clerking for a year, he landed a job in 1997 as an assistant U.S. attorney in the Eastern District of New York, where he quickly racked up a list of high-profile convictions against drug dealers and mobsters.

When Priscilla Holmes ’55 attended Harvard Law School, as a member of the third class to admit women, there was only one “Ladies Room” on campus, in the basement of Austin Hall.

Harvard Law School Spring Reunions this year brought back a record number of alumni, nearly 800. Among them were U.S. Supreme Court Associate Justices Anthony M. Kennedy ’61 and Elena Kagan ’86, the law school’s former dean.

An active member of the HLSA, in 2009, Malik Dahlan LL.M. ’01 founded the Harvard Law School Association of Arabia, which will have its official launch this fall. This spring, he shared his vision for his firm and the HLSAA.

After spending a semester investigating how Citizen Schools, an organization that partners with middle schools across the country to expand the learning day, could save on program costs and best serve students with disabilities, a group of six HLS students presented their findings to their professor and fellow students—and to representatives from Citizen Schools itself.

Lobsang Sangay LL.M. ’96 S.J.D. ’04 is the first to admit he has rather big shoes to fill as he prepares to take office as prime minister, or Kalon Tripa, of Tibet’s government-in-exile.

A few weeks before he received his LL.M. from Harvard Law last year, János Fiala was handed a victory by the European Court of Human Rights.

Poor underwriting, predatory lending, sloppy record-keeping, neighborhood blight, ill-considered or invalid foreclosure decisions, the inability or refusal of banks to negotiate with homeowners, homeowner protection…