Today Posts

After serving as an officer in the U.S. Navy, M. Alejandra Parra-Orlandoni focused on international law and national security during her time at Harvard Law School. But the most important things she learned, she says, were the ability to think critically and the importance of learning from the experience of others.

Citing its future role in “innovation, deep learning, collegiality, and service,” Dean John F. Manning saluted the opening of the Harvard Law School’s newest building, at 1607 Massachusetts Avenue, on Monday evening.

Harvard Law School graduates across the country won political victories in the U.S. Senate and the U.S. House of Representatives as part of the nation’s 2018 midterm elections.

Virginia Eubanks recently joined the Berkman Klein Center for a discussion of her book, “Automating Inequality: How High-Tech Tools Profile, Police, and Punish the Poor,” and the impact algorithms can have on different segments of society.

The service and unique perspective of the veterans currently enrolled at Harvard Law School enrich the entire HLS community, elevating awareness about the legal and policy issues affecting veterans and the significance of law in contemporary warfare; three military veterans in this year’s entering class shared their experiences in the military and at HLS.

Eve L. Howe ’21 is an expert in nuclear submarines -- specifically, the fluid systems that cool the nuclear reactors in military submarines. Drawn to military service because she wanted to use her engineering skills for public service, Howe spent five years as an officer in the U.S. Navy, where she solved complex technical problems to ensure the submarines would be able to accomplish their missions.

During his undergraduate studies, Stephen Petraeus wanted to explore a different world from the military life in which grew up. But as a sophomore, Petraeus felt a longing for that world and joined ROTC—a decision that led to eight years in the U.S. Army and two deployments to Afghanistan, including with the storied 173rd Airborne Brigade Combat Team.

With no other members of the military in the extended family, the parents of U.S. Navy Lieutenant Commander Sara Plesser Neugroschel LL.M. ’19 were “very, very surprised” when she decided to commission in the Navy after her 2L year at the University of Miami Law School, from which she graduated in 2009.

Students and faculty from the Harvard Immigration and Refugee Clinical Program spent a week in Texas volunteering at the Karnes Detention Center, where they met with fathers and sons who had been forcibly separated from each other under President Trump’s zero-tolerance policy. They offer their thoughts on this powerful and eye-opening experience.

The Library Innovation Lab at the Harvard Law School Library announced the launch of its Caselaw Access Project API and bulk data service, which puts the full corpus of published U.S. case law online for anyone to access for free.

“Tough Cases,” a new book in which 13 trial judges from criminal, civil, probate, and family courts write candid and poignant firsthand accounts of the trials they can’t forget, was the subject of a lively discussion at a panel sponsored by the Harvard Law School Library, which drew a packed house at Wasserstein Hall in October.

On Oct. 22, Lee Gelernt, the ACLU lawyer who spearheaded a national class action lawsuit against the Trump administration’s “zero-tolerance” policy on immigrants and asylum seekers attempting to cross the U.S.-Mexico border, spoke to HLS staff and students about the litigation’s claims and the ongoing efforts to reunite families.

A panel of legal and theological authorities recently gathered at Harvard Law School to discuss “Christianity and the Common Good” at a conference presented by Harvard with the Thomistic Institute, an organization that aims to promote intellectual Christian thought at universities. Conference guests included Supreme Court Associate Justice Neil Gorsuch ’91, who delivered the keynote.

Mark Wu, a leading expert on international trade and international economic law, was promoted to full professor, effective July 1. He was named the Henry L. Stimson Professor of Law.

At an award ceremony on Oct. 18, Clinical Professor Esme Caramello ’99, faculty director of the Harvard Legal Aid Bureau, was honored as one of the 2018 Top Women of Law by Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly.

A new book from researchers at the Berkman Klein Center, with its origins in a 3-year study of the media ecosystem surrounding the 2016 U.S. presidential election, disrupts the traditional narrative—invoking "fake news,” Russian interference, data breaches and social media—around what contributed to the divisive outcome.

As part of national Pro Bono Week, from Oct. 22 to Oct. 27, Harvard Law School's Office of Clinical and Pro Bono Programs is highlighting the work of outstanding attorneys engaged in critical pro bono legal work in the areas of immigration, civil rights, economic justice and climate change.

U.S. veterans and active duty military members who want to pursue graduate studies at Harvard will now have even more support thanks to a new graduate studies fellowship announced today by the Harvard Kennedy School.

A new space at HLS is one of several on campus offering students, faculty, and staff the opportunity to engage in meditation and prayer. Also new at Winthrop House is the Tufnell Park Meditation Room, which reflects Faculty Deans Ronald S. Sullivan Jr. and Stephanie Robinson’s commitment to students finding agency for self-care.

Dieter Grimm LL.M. ’65, a noted scholar, academic and public intellectual, and former justice of the Federal Constitutional Court of Germany, returned to Harvard Law School on September 18 to speak on “Courts under Political Pressure.”

This year, 13 Harvard Law School students were selected as Chayes International Public Service Fellows, part of a program honoring HLS Professor Abram Chayes ’49 that provides students with the opportunity to spend eight weeks during the summer working with governmental or non-governmental organizations concerned with issues international in scope or relevant to countries in transition.