Environmental

Effective Jan. 1, three faculty members were promoted and two new scholars joined the HLS faculty.

Eloise Lawrence, a community lawyering advocate, was named assistant clinical professor of law at Harvard Law School and deputy faculty director of the Harvard Legal Aid Bureau.  

Emily Broad Leib ’08, founder and director of Harvard Law School’s Food Law and Policy Clinic, has been named clinical professor of law at Harvard Law School.

In 2018, avid hiker Alexis Wheeler '09 founded the Harvard Club of Seattle's Crimson Achievement Program (CAP), an initiative that helps illuminate the path to college for high-potential ninth- and 10th-graders from Western Washington school districts in low-income areas.

When Benet Magnuson joined Kansas Appleseed in 2013 as its executive director he pretty much had only himself to supervise. But within a couple of years the social justice nonprofit had a dozen staffers working all over the state.

At a packed Brattle Theatre last week, five short films created by 12 Harvard Law students from eight countries debuted. The documentaries, ranging across topics from gentrification to climate change, are the results of an innovative January term workshop taught by Martha Minow, former Harvard Law dean and 300th Anniversary University Professor.

Emily Broad Leib ’08 wanted to help Mississippi Delta residents through public policy, but what they needed first was a woodchipper.

Seventy-four years later Setsuko Thurlow still remembers the moment of detonation after the U.S. dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima, the first of two exploded over the island nation, a deployment that proved so horrendous the weapons have never been used since.

A recent report out of the Harvard Law School Food Law and Policy Clinic calls for greater nutrition education in the medical field, and identifies policy approaches to increase nutrition competency of U.S-trained physicians.

Though the news isn’t all bad, Harvard Law Professors Jody Freeman and Richard Lazarus warned of brewing issues ahead at the annual Supreme Court Environmental Law Review and Preview.

With the start of the academic year, four new scholars have joined the ranks of the Harvard Law School faculty and two have been promoted to professor of law.

Supreme Court Associate Justice John Paul Stevens, the second longest-serving justice in the Court's history, died July 16, at the age of 99. With the passing of Justice Stevens has come an outpouring of remembrances and testaments to his influential presence during his thirty-five years on the Court.

Maureen E. “Molly” Brady, an expert in property law, land use law, local government law, legal history and intellectual property law, has joined the Harvard Law School faculty as assistant professor of law.

Six members of the Class of 2019 share their unique perspectives, varied experiences, and the lessons they will take with them from their time at Harvard Law School.

Harvard Law School Green Team leads the way to zero waste Commencement.

Emanuel Powell ’19 is the winner of this year’s Gary Bellow Public Service Award, established in 2001 to honor Professor Gary Bellow ’60, his commitment to public service, and his innovative approach to the analysis and practice of law.

The American Academy of Arts and Sciences has announced that Jody Freeman LL.M. '91 S.J.D. '95, Archibald Cox Professor of Law, has been elected a member of the honorary society, one of twelve members of the Harvard faculty to receive the honor this year.

Animal law advocates from a variety of disciplines and perspectives come together at Harvard Law School for the fifth annual Animal Law Week.

The Harvard Law School Food Law and Policy Clinic and the Johns Hopkins Center for a Livable Future have released "Advocacy & Lobbying 101 for Food Policy Councils," a resource for food policy councils and others working to change the food system in the U.S.

"The smart city is ultimately a vision full of false promises and hidden dangers," says Ben Green, an affiliate at the Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society and author of the forthcoming book, "The Smart Enough City: Putting Technology in its Place to Reclaim our Urban Future."

Andrew Patterson '20 shares a reflection on his time spent working as an advocate for Legal Permanent Residents throughout the naturalization process with the local organization Project Citizenship.

During Winter Term, 12 Harvard Law School students traveled to 12 countries as Cravath International Fellows to pursue clinical placements or independent research with an international, transnational, or comparative law focus. Four of them share their experiences.

On February 13, the Harvard Law School Library hosted Prof. Susan Crawford for a book talk and discussion on her newly-released title, "Fiber: The Coming Tech Revolution—and Why America Might Miss It."

Last spring, Thomas Wolfe '19 shared his experience working on issues of water contamination in the Mississsippi Delta with the Mississippi Delta Project, an HLS Student Practice Organization that provides policy and legal services to clients in one of the poorest regions in the poorest state in the U.S.

Speaking at Harvard Law School, U.S. Rep. Joe Kennedy III '09 (D., Mass.) called Monday for a new national economic agenda based on “moral capitalism” that addresses the needs of embattled workers.

President of Ireland from 1990 to 1997 and the United Nations high commissioner for human rights from 1997 to 2002, Mary Robinson LL.M. ’68 now leads the Mary Robinson Foundation—Climate Justice. She’s the author of “Climate Justice: Hope, Resilience, and the Fight for a Sustainable Future,” published in the U.S. in September, and co-producer of Mothers of Invention, a podcast that advocates a feminist approach to fighting climate change.

A plan designed by a team of Harvard University students to create a reliable source of renewable, affordable electricity for a Puerto Rican community hammered in 2017 by Hurricane Maria has moved a step closer to reality. The students are enrolled in Professor Wendy Jacobs' Harvard’s “Climate Solutions Living Lab” course.

According to Harvard Law School lecturer Jonathan Lovvorn, saving the planet and its inhabitants from climate catastrophe begins with the world’s most vulnerable population: animals.

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.

A letter drafted by HLS's Emmett Environmental Law and Policy Clinic Director Wendy Jacobs, and signed by nearly 100 hospital leaders and Harvard faculty, calls on the Environmental Protection Agency to withdraw its proposed rule on scientific “transparency,” saying that the change would drastically limit the scientific and medical knowledge that underlie a host of EPA regulations that protect human health.

Alice Cherry ’16 and Kelsey Skaggs ’16 have been named 2018 Echoing Green Fellows. In 2016, Cherry and Skaggs co-founded Climate Defense Project (CDP), a legal nonprofit that provides advice and support to the climate movement in the United States and internationally.

As attorney general of the Navajo Nation, Ethel Branch ’08 aims to strengthen tribal law and native voices.

Antonio Oposa Jr. LL.M. ’97 reflects on his legacy and efforts to bring environmental sustainability to his home country, the Philippines.

Last week, the Animal Law & Policy Program (ALPP) at Harvard Law School partnered with the HLS Student Animal Legal Defense Fund (SALDF) to organize the third annual “Student Animal Law Trip to Washington D.C.”

On April 20, Harvard Law School will host the third and final major event in its year-long program celebrating 200 years of HLS. HLS in the Community will convene alumni, faculty, students, and staff to explore the extraordinary reach and impact of Harvard lawyers.

After Hurricane Maria roared over Puerto Rico in 2017, Puerto Rican native Natalie Trigo Reyes ’19 felt “completely overwhelmed.” Within days, however, she raised $40,000 for relief efforts, collected truckloads of emergency goods, and helped plan the school’s response to the disaster.

A group of 29 Harvard Law School students (led by Natalie Trigo Reyes ’19) traveled to Puerto Rico over spring break to lend a hand to local residents who are still struggling to obtain disaster relief aid.

Each year, teams of Harvard Law School students are given the opportunity to spend their Spring Break experiencing legal services work with clinics and legal organizations in the Boston area, or working on projects around the country and abroad.

John Leshy, former solicitor for the U.S. Interior Department, sought to set the record straight on public lands Wednesday at Harvard, disputing activists’ views opposing U.S. government ownership and reminding listeners that the divisiveness of the debate is what should concern users of those vast areas traditionally managed for public benefit and enjoyment.

Ethel Branch ’08 grew up on her family’s ranch with no electricity, no running water, and a long list of questions about injustice. As she grew up, Branch knew she had to address these questions. “That confusion as to why the world changed when you crossed the Navajo Nation boundary line was a driving question for my youth and my life,” says Branch. It propelled her to study law and policy. And three years ago, at age 36, it led her to become Attorney General of the Navajo Nation.

2017 was a year of notable accomplishments for Harvard Law School's International Human Rights Clinic (IHRC), and for Bonnie Docherty '01, associate director of Armed Conflict and Civilian Protection and lecturer on law at HLS.

Led by Professor Wendy Jacobs, director of the Emmett Environmental Law and Policy Clinic at Harvard Law School, the Climate Solutions Living Lab course launched last spring to help push forward the transition to a carbon-free future that supports planetary and human health.

Each year, as we honor military veterans nationwide for their service, Harvard Law Today profiles students in the incoming class who have held positions in the Armed Forces. The Class of 2020 includes the largest number of former or current service members in Harvard Law's recent history.

Steven Kerns ’20 was a high school dropout, a self-described ‘rebel without a cause’ from Long Beach, Calif., when he joined the U.S. Army as a teenager looking for adventure, with vague notions of changing the world.

“The Remarkable Evolution of American Environmental Law from Nixon to Trump and Beyond” panel during Harvard Law School's bicentennial summit focused on the uncertain future of the Environmental Protection Agency in the current administration. Panelists A. James Barnes ’67, Richard J. Lazarus ‘79, William Reilly ’65 and Gina McCarthy looked at the EPA’s distinguished history.

On Thursday, Nov. 2, Dr. David Shulkin, Secretary of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, will deliver the 2017 Disabled American Veterans (DAV) Distinguished Lecture at Harvard Law School. In advance of his visit to the law school, Secretary Shulkin answered a few questions about the Department of Veterans Affairs and its service to veterans.

Joseph Goffman, who, over a 30-year career, has shaped environmental law and policy at the highest levels of the Executive branch and as a senior congressional staffer, will join Harvard Law School's Environmental Law Program in November as Executive Director.

At HLS in the Arts this past weekend, Paola Eisner ’19 exhibited a large still life that she painted before she went to college, and pages from a children’s book that she began working on before she started law school. Like these, many of the interests and projects that she pursues today have deeper roots.

On Sept. 5, Harvard Law School Lecturer Jonathan Lovvorn was named the first policy director for the school's Animal Law & Policy Program. Lovvorn, who previously taught Wildlife Law in both the Fall 2015 and Fall 2016 terms, will continue as a lecturer, teaching a new course this fall on Farmed Animal Law & Policy.

The Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University today announced the incoming and returning fellows, faculty associates, affiliates, and directors who together will form the core of the Center’s networked community in the 2017-2018 academic year.