Public Service

In February, five students from Harvard Law School were selected to join their peers from 10 other leading U.S. law schools in Washington, D.C. to explore the future of public and private international law at the sixth annual Salzburg Cutler Fellows Program.

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.

In 2018, ten Harvard Law School students were selected as Cravath International Fellows. During Winter Term, they traveled to nine countries to pursue clinical placements or independent research with an international, transnational, or comparative law focus. Here, four of them describe their experiences.

The Holberg Prize—one of the largest international prizes awarded annually to an outstanding researcher in the arts and humanities, the social sciences, law or theology—named U.S. legal scholar Cass Robert Sunstein as its 2018 Laureate. Sunstein is currently the Robert Walmsley University Professor at Harvard University.

Animal law advocates from a variety of disciplines and perspectives came together at Harvard Law School  for the fourth annual Animal Law Week, an event co-hosted by the Harvard Animal Law & Policy Program and Harvard Law School's Student Animal Legal Defense Fund . 

To commemorate International Women's Day, the Harvard Women's Law Association hosted the  "Women Inspiring Change" portrait exhibit, which features portraits of inspiring women working in the fields of law and policy. Honorees were chosen by the International Women's Day Exhibit Committee from nominations by HLS students, staff and faculty. The exhibit, held annually at HLS since 2014, will be on display this year through March 9.

At a workshop on immigrants’ rights held Monday morning at the Memorial Church, attorneys Jason Corral and Cindy Zapata of the Harvard Immigration & Refugee Clinical Program shared legal advice on how to deal with the more aggressive enforcement of immigration laws under the Trump administration.

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.

Three Harvard professors and a Ph.D. student in African and African American studies have launched the DACA Seminar, a series of events on campus aimed at sparking conversations about the future of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) and immigration policy and reform, while working to understand options available to Harvard's undocumented students.

Frank E.A. Sander ’52, a longtime Harvard Law School professor and a pioneer in the field of Alternative Dispute Resolution, has died. He was 90.

Last week, the Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University launched AIandInclusion.org, a new website related to preventing bias in algorithms and ensuring that voices and perspectives from diverse populations help shape the future of artificial intelligence.

An event at HLS in February honored the work of Harvard Law School Professor Emeritus and Civil Rights Theorist Lani Guinier. Renowned for her books, including “The Tyranny of the Meritocracy,” Guinier joined the HLS faculty as Bennett Boskey Professor of Law in 1998.

The Harvard Law School trial team of Rahul Garabadu ’19 and Marilyn Robb ’18 won first place at the Northeast Regional Qualifiers of the National Trial Competition, sponsored annually by the American College of Trial Lawyers and the Texas Young Lawyers Association.

Peter Berkowitz, a political scientist and the Tad and Diane Taube Senior Fellow at Stanford University’s Hoover Institution, delivered the Scalia Lecture at Harvard Law School on Feb. 5.

Tom Perez M.P.P./J.D. ’87, former Secretary of Labor under President Obama and the current chair of the Democratic National Committee. At the John T. Dunlop Memorial Forum Lecture at Harvard Law School on Feb. 6, Perez addressed the future of organized labor and the challenges of income inequality in the United States.

Lawrence S. Bacow J.D./M.P.P. ’76, Ph.D. ’78, one of the most experienced and respected leaders in American higher education, will become the 29th president of Harvard University on July 1.

A panel of leading experts convened at Harvard Law School on Jan. 25 to explore the consequences of the Federal Communications Commission's recent Restoring Internet Freedom Order.

Kristin Turner ’17 was selected as the recipient of Harvard Law School's Public Welfare Foundation A2J Tech Fellowship. She will spend year working with Upsolve, a nonprofit that has developed a platform designed to guide both debtors and attorneys through the Chapter 7 bankruptcy process.

Harvard Law professor Jack Goldsmith shares his perspective on American institutions and the Trump presidency in a recent interview with Weekly Standard editor-at-large Bill Kristol.

On Jan. 5, New England Patriots Defensive Captain Devin McCourty, teammates Johnson Bademosi, Matthew Slater and Duron Harmon, and team president Jonathan Kraft participated in a 'Listen and Learn' event at HLS, organized by the Fair Punishment Project and the Office of Public Interest Advising, featuring panel discussions on inequities in the criminal justice system.

On Saturday, November 20, family, friends, students, and colleagues of the late Harvard Law School Clinical Professor David Grossman gathered at HLS to celebrate his life, honor his community activism, and support his fight for social justice at the second annual David A Grossman (DAG) Fund fundraiser.