Business

Former Harvard President and recent director of the White House National Economic Council Lawrence H. Summers stressed the importance of reducing the nation’s unemployment rate and bringing government spending and revenue into greater alignment, at a talk hosted by the Harvard Law School Forum on April 12, 2011.

In a New York Times op-ed about the challenge to Arizona’s public financing scheme currently pending in the Supreme Court, Harvard Law School Professor Charles Fried and co-author Cliff Sloan '84 write: “The [Arizona] law simply ensures that, when a candidate relying on private money speaks, the publicly financed candidate has the money to answer.” The op-ed—“Free Speech Worth Paying For”—appeared in the March 26, 2011 edition of The New York Times.

On February 25, Unbound: Harvard Journal of the Legal Left presented “Local 1330 v. U.S. Steel: 30 Years Later.” Conference organizers chose to focus on Local 1330 because the case demonstrates that workers can be treated as collateral damage in the corporate quest for greater profits. Co-moderator Harris Freeman, Western New England College of Law professor, said that its lessons are particularly relevant today as labor unions and fundamental workers’ rights are being challenged in Wisconsin and face similar risks in other states. The conference was also moderated by Temple University Beasley School of Law professor Brishen Rogers and SEIU Law Fellow Lela Klein.

Shareholders could reduce the toxicity of corporate boards’ use of a “poison pill”—a device designed to block shareholders from considering a takeover bid—if they could replace board majorities more quickly, writes Harvard Law School Professor Lucian Bebchuk LL.M. ’80 S.J.D. ’84 in an op-ed that appeared in the Feb. 24, 2011, edition of the Wall Street Journal.

Harvard Law School Professor David B. Wilkins will receive the Outstanding Scholar Award from The Fellows of the American Bar Foundation. The award is given annually to a member of the academy who has engaged in outstanding scholarship in the law or in government.

On Wednesday, Jan. 26, 2011, HLS Professor Hal Scott testified before the US House of Representatives Committee on Financial Services in a hearing entitled “Promoting Economic Recovery and Job Creation: The Road Forward.”

Genachowski’s path to the chairmanship of the FCC in some ways mirrored that of his predecessor, Kevin Martin ’93, though they arrived via different sides of the political aisle.

In a Dec. 15 letter to the U.S. Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs and the U.S. House of Representatives Financial Services Committee, the Committee on Capital Markets Regulation urged the Committees to hold oversight hearings on the implementation through rulemaking of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act.

JOTWELL—the Journal of Things We Like (Lots)—published “Top-Down Versus Bottom-Up Law Reform in Trusts and Estates: Future Interests and Perpetuities” by HLS Professor Robert Sitkoff on Nov. 22.

The Committee on Capital Markets Regulation, an independent research organization directed by Harvard Law School Professor Hal Scott, reported on Dec. 9, 2010 that, during the first 3 quarters of 2010, the competitiveness of U.S. public equity markets in global markets showed slight improvement over 2009.

Hal S. Scott, the Nomura Professor and director of the Program on International Financial Systems at Harvard Law School and director of the Committee on Capital Markets Regulation, co-authored two letters to the Financial Stability Oversight Council on two provisions of the Dodd-Frank Act.

In an op-ed for Project Syndicate, "Pricing Corporate Governance," Harvard Law School Professor Lucian Bebchuk discusses how markets price the corporate-governance provisions of companies. He also details his findings from a recent study "Learning and the Disappearing Association between Governance and Returns"  with HLS Visiting Professor of Law Alma Cohen and HLS Lecturer in Law and Economics Charles C.Y. Wang. Bebchuk is director of the Corporate Governance Program at Harvard Law School. He is co-author, with Holger Spamann, of "Regulating Bankers’ Pay."

More than 100 law students, lawyers, and community activists from around the country gathered at Harvard Law School November 15-16 to learn about Project No One Leaves, the HLS student initiative that has had remarkable success in keeping Boston neighborhoods intact despite the foreclosure crisis.

Harvard Law School visiting professor Katherine Porter ’01 testified before the Congressional Oversight Panel on October 27. At a hearing on the TARP Foreclosure Mitigation Program, Porter—who specializes in consumer credit, consumer protection regulation, and mortgage servicing—spoke about how the allegations of legal errors in the foreclosure process may impact the housing markets, the soundness of banks, and the financial markets overall.

Professor John C. Coates published “Corporate Governance and Corporate Political Activity: What Effect Will Citizens United Have on Shareholder Wealth?” in September, as part of the HLS Working Paper series.  

Harvard Law School’s International Human Rights Clinic submitted an amicus curiae brief to the Second Circuit in support of a petition for rehearing en banc in a major corporate Alien Tort Statute (“ATS”) case, Kiobel, et al. v. Royal Dutch Petroleum Co., et al.

The efforts of students in the Harvard Legal Aid Bureau and the WilmerHale Legal Services Center to keep Boston residents in their homes after foreclosure were featured in a major story last night on the PBS NewsHour.

Anthony Scaramucci '89—author of "Goodbye Gordon Gekko: How to Find Your Fortune Without Losing Your Soul" and adviser to the movie Wall Street 2: Money Never Sleeps—shared career advice with Harvard Law School students at an event cosponsored by the Traphagen Distinguished Alumni Speaker Series and the Office of Career Services on September 29.

The Committee on Capital Markets Regulation, an independent and nonpartisan research organization dedicated to improving the regulation and enhancing the competitiveness of U.S. capital markets, released data confirming that the competitiveness of U.S. public equity markets in global markets has resumed its deterioration throughout this year’s first half.  

In an op-ed for Project Syndicate, Harvard Law School Professor Lucian Bebchuk raises questions about the recent U.S. Supreme Court decision in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, which grants corporations greater leeway in political spending.