Business

Harvard Law School Professor Matthew Stephenson ‘03 delivered the keynote speech at the 2nd annual Evidence-Based Anti-Corruption Policies Conference held on Jan. 11 and 12 in Bangkok, Thailand.  

In a Feb. 20 opinion piece for the online journal Project Syndicate, Harvard Law School Professor Mark Roe ’75 addresses European leaders’ support for imposing a “Tobin tax” on financial transactions.

In an online forum, Harvard Law School Professor Lucian Bebchuk engaged in a debate with Ohio State University Professor Rene Stulz regarding the role executive compensations played in the financial crisis.

On Feb. 15, Harvard Law School Professor Lucian Bebchuk testified before the U.S. Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Subcommittee on Financial Institutions and Consumer Protection at a hearing entitled “Pay for Performance: Incentive Compensation at Large Financial Institutions.”

Since Matthew Schoenfeld ’12 became president of the Harvard Association of Law and Business last year, it has attracted an impressive array of alumni mentors for students interested in business-related careers. This year, he launched an initiative to raise funds to mentor another group—abused children. This January, Schoenfeld arranged for a partnership between the HALB and the Big Brothers Big Sisters of Massachusetts, to raise money for children in need of mentorship due to abusive situations and child welfare intervention.

On Feb. 2, in a panel discussion at Harvard Law School titled “Are Law Schools in Crisis? The New York Times Editorial and its Discontents,” three law professors addressed questions brought up by two pieces that appeared recently in the Times claiming that law schools are in a state of “crisis.”

On February 3, the Harvard Women’s Law Association held its 6th annual conference. This year’s conference, entitled “Mind the Gap: Achieving Actual Parity,” was an open forum about achieving equality in the courtroom, workplace, and community. Kamala Harris, Attorney General of California, delivered the keynote address. 

Whether owners of limited liability companies should be subject to personal liability has been the subject of much controversy lately, in the U.S. and around the world. On Jan. 25, Bruno Salama, spoke to an HLS audience on the topic in the context of his research project and book “The End of Limited Liability in Brazil” tracing the status of corporate limited liability and veil piercing in Brazil. A professor of law at the Fundação Getulio Vargas in Sao Paulo, Salama was joined by HLS Professors Reinier Kraakman and Mark Roe ’75 at an event organized by the Harvard Law School Brazilian Studies Association.

A new study produced by Harvard’s Berkman Center for Internet & Society and the Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project, in partnership with the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation and the Give Foundation, examines a new cohort of charitable givers—those who make donations via text message from their cellphones.

For the last several years, former Harvard Law School Dean Robert C. Clark ’72 has broken with tradition in teaching his mergers and acquisitions course. It isn’t enough to read leading cases, he realized; students still may leave the classroom without any real understanding of how to structure a deal, identify and avoid pitfalls, and recognize why personalities matter—in short, how M&As work in the real world.

By the time Tope Lawani ’95 started law school, he knew he would not likely spend his career practicing law. Already the impact of his Nigerian childhood and a captivation with investment markets had planted the seed of an idea that would eventually pull him back to his homeland in hopes of reaping great returns for investors—and for Africa itself.

While years ago, clinics at Harvard Law School were focused primarily on poverty law, student demand for business-oriented clinical experiences has since skyrocketed. And for HLS students interested in the business world, there are now numerous clinical opportunities.

On Wednesday, Dec. 14, Harvard Law School Professor John Coates testified before the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Subcommittee on Securities, Insurance and Investment at an open-session hearing titled “Examining Investor Risks in Capital Raising.” 

Although the sweeping financial reform package that President Obama ’91 signed into law in July contained hundreds of provisions in its 848-page final version, Professor Mark Roe ’75 says it’s still not long enough.

Kenneth I. Chenault ’76, chairman and CEO of American Express, is widely considered one of the most successful and talented business strategists of our time. Joining AmEx in 1981 as director of strategic planning, he was named president and COO in 1997, and CEO and chairman in 2001. Chenault is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and the Business Roundtable.

In her study of money in law, Professor Christine Desan has found herself looking back as far as medieval times. But in the wake of the financial crisis of 2008, in large part caused by liquidity problems—money oversupplied and then frozen in credit markets—her historical scholarship has led her to insights into today’s economic predicaments.

As the groundbreaking anti-foreclosure work by HLS students continues to land significant victories for homeowners in Massachusetts, a recent conference to spread the Harvard model was attended by more than 150 lawyers, law students and community organizers from around the country who want to halt foreclosures in their own communities. The second annual HLS “Community Responses to the Foreclosure Crisis” conference, organized by the Harvard Legal Aid Bureau (HLAB), ran for three days and included panel discussions and small, interactive workshops where participants received practical advice for fighting foreclosures.

Law students interested in a law firm career can attend firm-sponsored meet-and-greets to speak with associates. Students interested in public interest careers can meet one-on-one with visiting alumni advisors. But HLS students interested in military careers have fewer chances to mingle with those who have pursued that path. To provide that opportunity, OPIA welcomed to HLS five alumni who have served in the armed forces, to provide guidance and answer student questions.

On Nov. 4-6, Harvard Law School’s Program on International Financial Systems (PIFS) co-hosted the 14th annual “Symposium on Building the Financial System of the 21st Century: An Agenda for Japan and the United States,” with the International House of Japan. The event, held this year in Cambridge, Mass., brought together more than 100 hundred senior executives and government officials from the financial industry, policymaking, law and academic arenas.

In a panel discussion sponsored by HLS Lecturer on Law Peter Carfagna ’79 and Harvard Law School's Committee on Sports and Entertainment Law, “Negotiating with The League: Representing the NFLPA,” Peter Kendall, a retired NFL player who was involved in the league’s summer contract renegotiations offered an insider’s account of the collective bargaining victory that preserved this fall's season.