Today Posts

The debate raged online for almost a year: Who was Anonymous Lawyer? Was he real, or just the fictional character he claimed to be? He certainly seemed real enough to many readers of his Web log, anonymouslawyer.blogspot.com, where he posted cynical commentary about life in a large Los Angeles law firm. (This story is from the April 2005 issue of Harvard Law Today.)

On Wednesday, Harvard Law School will host a conversation on the rising trend toward privatization of government duties. The discussion on "Outsourcing Force" will examine a series of questions such as whether private companies are more efficient at operating prisons, police, and even the military. The event will take place at 7:30 pm on March 23 in Langdell South.

Paul Lettow was too young to vote for Ronald Reagan, but that hasn't kept the third-year law student from writing a book on Reagan's policies that is causing some to rethink the record of America's 40th president. "Ronald Reagan and His Quest to Abolish Nuclear Weapons" hit bookstores in February and earned praise in The New York Times for being "provocative, informative and largely persuasive." (This story is from the April 2005 issue of Harvard Law Today.)

It wasn't a makeover--it was a make-better. A team of decorators and their entourage of producers, assistants and camera crew members recently descended on the law office of Luz Herrera '99 for four days, while another set of designers whisked her away to a posh Los Angeles hotel for shopping, massages and manicures. Why was this young attorney getting the royal treatment? (This story is from the April 2005 issue of Harvard Law Today.)

This weekend, Harvard's Civil Rights-Civil Liberties Law Review will host its 40th anniversary conference, "Bridging the Gap: Constructions of Rights and Liberties in the New Civil Rights Era." The conference will bring scholars and public policy experts together to focus on issues like economic disparities, privacy rights and the balance between liberty and security. The event will take place Friday, March 18 and Saturday, March 19 at Harvard Law School.

This weekend, the Harvard Black Law Students Association will host its annual conference, "A Call to Consciousness: Defining Professional and Social Responsibility to Inspire Progressive Leadership." Acclaimed poet and political activist Nikki Giovanni will offer the keynote address. The conference was organized by second-year students Tara Curtis, Jenée Desmond-Harris, and Danielle Lewis along with faculty members and a 40-student committee.

For the first in the law school's history, a team of Harvard students will compete in the finals of the European Law Moot Court Competition, which began this week in Luxembourg. The team is one of four to qualify for the All European Finals, based on an original pool of 92 universities.

Harvard Law School recently captured the Northeast Regional championship of the 2005 Phillip C. Jessup International Law Moot Court Competition, defeating the University of Vermont and Boston College in elimination rounds. The HLS team consisted of team captain Hugo Torres (3L), Rachel Rebouche (2L), Brandon Miller (1L), Erica Gaston (1L) and Marc Jacob (LL.M.).

Professor Elizabeth Warren and three Harvard Law students are experimenting with a non-traditional way of sharing legal research about bankruptcy legislation. They're not using op-eds, the mainstream press or books to influence the political process; instead, they're blogging. Earlier this week, the group launched a website affiliated with the popular political site, Talkingpointsmemo.com. Their blog focuses exclusively on a recent bankruptcy bill under debate in the U.S. Senate.

Harvard's International Law Journal will host a symposium on March 5-6 to consider a range of perspectives on international legal theory and practice. "Comparative Visions of the Global Public Order" will offer roundtable discussions on topics ranging from corporate law to global pluralism. The symposium, held in Austin Hall at Harvard Law School, will also honor two retiring Harvard Law faculty members for their work in transnational law and international legal studies.

Harvard Law Professors Terry Fisher and Jonathan Zittrain along with John Palfrey, executive director of the Berkman Center, have filed an amicus brief to the Supreme Court in MGM v. Grokster -- a closely watched case that is likely to have a dramatic impact on the future of music downloading.

Harvard Law School's Program on International Financial Systems will host a panel discussion with senior government and industry officials to address the effect of regulations on the capital markets. "The Current State of Regulation of the Capital Markets: Too Much, Too Little or Just Right?" will take place on March 7 in Ames Courtroom from 2 - 5 p.m. A reception will begin at 5 p.m. following the discussion.

On Thursday, March 3, the Harvard Journal on Legislation and the Charles Hamilton Houston Institute for Race and Justice will present the 2005 JOL Spring Symposium, "Criminal Sentencing at the Crossroads." The symposium will examine federal sentencing guidelines in light of the United States Supreme Court's decisions in Booker and Blakely, which found the Guidelines inconsistent with the Sixth Amendment.

Justice Richard Goldstone, the first prosecutor for the International Criminal Court for the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda, addressed an audience at Harvard Law School last week to provide a firsthand account of the state of international criminal law.

This weekend the Federalist Society for Law and Public Policy Studies will hold its 24th annual student symposium at Harvard Law School. The two-day event will feature six panel discussions and a keynote speech by Judge David B. Sentelle of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. Harvard President Lawrence Summers and HLS Dean Elena Kagan will also speak.

The following op-ed was written by Professor Andrew Kaufman and published in The National Law Journal on February 21, 2005: "Justice Breyer deserves much credit for taking seriously the question whether he should have recused himself in the sentencing guidelines cases, but the revelation that he sought advice from an academic expert raises another issue of judicial ethics that should not be lost."

Second-year student Brian Fletcher has been elected the 119th president of the Harvard Law Review. Fletcher has advocated new policies such as changing submission guidelines in response to overwhelming feedback from professors for shorter articles and launched new initiatives like the "State of Scholarship" dinner series to make the Review an active part of the HLS community.

Following a unanimous confirmation vote in the U.S. Senate, this week President Bush swore in Michael Chertoff, a 1978 Harvard Law graduate, as the nation's secretary of the Department of Homeland Security. The new post is the latest in a series of public services positions Chertoff has held in both the executive and judicial branches of government.

Diane Rosenfeld, lecturer on law, was recently named a recipient of the Champions for Change Award for her contributions in research and advocacy on the subject of sexual violence. The award, presented by the Boston Area Rape Crisis Center and co-sponsored by Beauty and Main and The Charles Hotel, honored Rosenfeld's work particularly in the area of education.

Harvard Law School and Harvard University's Faculty of Arts and Sciences will collaborate to renovate Hemenway Gymnasium in a project slated to run from late May to September. The two schools will split the cost of the top-to-bottom interior rehabilitation of the 28,000-square-foot recreational fitness facility, which will be closed during construction.