Today Posts

 The following op-ed by Professor Mark Roe, “Derivatives Clearinghouses are No Magic Bullet,” appeared in the May 6, 2010, edition of the Wall Street Journal. Roe looks at the Senate financial overhaul bill, part of which is built around an emerging Washington consensus that a clearinghouse for derivatives could stem a financial crisis such as that which we just experienced.  Roe argues that while a clearinghouse can be a useful step in the right direction, it's incomplete, with other legal improvements needed to make it work well.

Harvard Law School Professor Einer Elhauge ’86 has been selected to receive the Jerry S. Cohen Award for Antitrust Scholarship for his article “Tying, Bundled Discounts, and the Death of the Single Monopoly Profit Theory” (123 Harvard Law Review 397, 2009).

Harvard Law School’s International Human Rights Clinic submitted an amicus brief to the Supreme Court in support of a petition for certiorari in a major corporate Alien Tort Statute case, Presbyterian Church of Sudan v. Talisman Energy, Inc. The Clinic served as counsel on behalf of international law scholars and jurists to argue that those who knowingly aid and abet egregious human rights violations can be held liable under customary international law.

Sports agent Ronald M. Shapiro ’67 has a dream roster of clients that includes more baseball Hall of Famers than any other agent, including Cal Ripken Jr., Brooks Robinson, Eddie Murray, Kirby Puckett, and such future Hall of Fame probables as 2009 American League MVP Joey Mauer, for whom Shapiro recently negotiated a $184 million contract with the Minnesota Twins.

Today, President Barack Obama ’91 nominated former Harvard Law School Dean and current Solicitor General Elena Kagan ’86 to the seat vacated by retiring Justice John Paul Stevens on the United States Supreme Court.

Award-winning historian Annette Gordon-Reed J.D. ’84 will join the Harvard faculty in July 2010 as a Professor of Law at Harvard Law School and a Professor of History in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences. Gordon-Reed will also be the Carol K. Pforzheimer Professor at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study.

In the following op-eds, HLS professors Charles Fried, Randall L. Kennedy, Lawrence Lessig, Charles Ogletree, Ronald S. Sullivan, Visiting Lecturer Tom Goldstein, and former HLS Dean Robert C. Clark write in support of Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan, former HLS Dean and current Solicitor General.

Senior Foreign Policy Adviser in the Obama Administration and Pulitzer Prize-winning author Samantha Power ’99 will be the 2010 Class Day speaker at HLS. Selected by this year’s Class Marshals, Power will address graduates on May 26 as part of Class Day.

The op-ed “A better chance at justice for abuse victims,” by Professor Lawrence Lessig, appeared in the April 27, 2010, edition of the New York Times.

Harvard Law School Professors Gerald L. Neuman ’80 and Jack Goldsmith are amongst the new class of members elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Sumner M. Redstone '47 has donated $1 million to be used by Harvard College and Harvard Law School to establish scholarships for 30 students committed to public service. 

Harvard Law School students Michael Admirand ’10, Cori Crider ’06, and Jacob Howard ’09 each received the Gary Bellow Public Service Award for their commitment to public interest and social justice work at an award ceremony on April 9.

In an address to the Harvard Law School community, HLS Dean Martha Minow offered a survey of "The Past, Present, and Future of Legal Education: HLS and Beyond.” After discussing the historical evolution of legal education up to the present "time of innovation and renewal,” she offered a preview of future trends and developments.

Winners of Harvard Law School’s 57th annual Williston Competition, Harvard’s annual contract negotiation and drafting competition for first-year law students, were announced on April 5. 

Edith Ramirez ’92 was sworn in as a commissioner of the Federal Trade Commission in April. Nominated by President Barack Obama ’91, she joins a five-member commission that works against deceptive advertising and enforces adherence to antitrust law.

In The New Republic,  HLS Professor Charles Fried wrote "Everyone's Dean: Why Elena Kagan has earned the respect of conservatives, like me," an article which appeared in the April 19 edition of the magazine.  Fried teaches constitutional law and contracts at HLS, and he was solicitor general of the United States during the second Reagan administration.

"Suspending Adoption Is Not the Answer," an op-ed by HLS Professor Elizabeth Bartholet, faculty director of the Child Advocacy Program (CAP) at Harvard Law School, was published in the New York Times 'Room for Debate' blog on Apr. 15. Bartholet also appeared on NPR's 'On Point with Tom Ashbrook' to discuss the increased scrutiny on international adoption in light of the recent story about a 7-year-old Russian boy sent back to Moscow alone by his adoptive mother.