Public Service

Harvard students who have served in the various branches of the Armed Forces represent a diverse range of backgrounds and experience, but all have at least one thing in common: a profound dedication to serving the nation, under the most perilous of circumstances.

In the summer of 2015, 19 Harvard Law School students traveled to 15 countries as Chayes International Public Service Fellows, each spending eight weeks working within the governments of developing nations, or with the inter- and non-governmental organizations that support them.

Delivering the 2015 Disabled American Veterans (DAV) Distinguished Lecture at Harvard Law School on Oct. 22, Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus ’75 told attendees that “one of my proudest moments as Secretary” was the reinstatement of the Reserve Officers Training Program on the Harvard campus in 2011.

During a conversation Thursday with Harvard Law School Dean Martha Minow at Wasserstein Hall, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy LL.B. '61 addressed a wide variety of topics, including the American criminal justice system, teaching law abroad, and his opinion on being described as the high court's swing vote on major issues.

The Harvard Law School Association presented its highest award this past spring to William P. Alford ’77 and Charles J. Ogletree ’78 —two of Harvard Law School's most distinguished professors, mentors to generations of jurists, advisers to senators, presidents and world leaders, and celebrated doers of good works—and longtime friends.

Harvard Law School’s Community Enterprise Project has published a first-of-its kind guidebook for immigrant entrepreneurs. The guidebook offers a comprehensive analysis of the many legal implications of immigrant entrepreneurship.

Brandeis University has selected Harvard Law School Dean Martha Minow as the winner of the 2015-16 Joseph B. and Toby Gittler Prize, presented annually to a person whose body of published work reflects scholarly excellence and makes a lasting contribution to racial, ethnic or religious relations.

85 Harvard Law students participate each year in Harvard Defenders, a student practice organization in which they represent low-income clients in criminal show-cause hearings.

After 15 years in Congress, Adam Schiff has emerged as a leading Democratic voice on national security.

Jeff Robinson ’81 worked as a Seattle criminal defense lawyer for 34 years—a span of time that, he notes, “basically coincided with the largest increase in our incarcerated population in the history of the United States.” Now, as the newly appointed director of the ACLU’s Center for Justice, he will be tackling that metastasis head-on.

As head of the primary govern­ment agency tasked with protecting the rights of consumers, Edith Ramirez has focused much of her efforts on digital privacy.

“Seattle Justice: The Rise and Fall of the Police Payoff System in Seattle,” by Christopher T. Bayley ’66 (Sasquatch Books). In the early 1970s, as the newly…

Sept. 29 of this year marked the 10th anniversary of the day Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. ’79 took his seat on the U.S. Supreme Court.

After I learned that David Grossman had entered hospice care, I sat at my computer, trying to write a goodbye email, but the words were not coming. I did not know how to express how much Dave’s mentorship impacted my life and my career, and I still do not. Eventually, I gushed out how much Dave meant to me and hit “send.” Then I pictured him reading it, and smiled, realizing how much he would be teasing me for its sappiness.

Dan Meltzer was my favorite teacher in law school, and he remains the person I most want to be when I grow up. But I must confess that his class was often one of my more stressful experiences at Harvard. Not because Dan was mean or overbearing—quite the opposite. What stressed us out was that we loved Dan from the first day, and nobody wanted to let him down.

Jonathan Hiles '16 was 5 years old when Kareem Bellamy was arrested for murder. This past spring, Hiles helped Bellamy win a $2.75 million settlement from the state of New York for the 14 years he was wrongfully imprisoned.

Doctors who provide medical assistance to people labeled terrorists are increasingly vulnerable to prosecution in the United States and other Western democracies, according to a law briefing by the Harvard Law School Program on International Law and Armed Conflict (PILAC).

On September 8 at Harvard Law School's Wasserstein Hall, U.S. Supreme Court Associate Justice and former HLS Dean Elena Kagan ’86 shared lessons learned from her career and offered a glimpse into the Court’s private world in a talk with HLS Dean Martha Minow.

In celebration of Constitution Day—the annual commemoration of the signing of the U.S. Constitution on Sept. 17, 1787—several Harvard Law School professors spoke about the document upon which the American legal and political systems have been built.

A special reception was held at the White House on July 20 to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act. On hand to introduce President Barack Obama ’91 and Vice President Joe Biden was Harvard Law School graduate Haben Girma ’13, who is currently a Skadden Fellow at Disability Rights Advocates in Berkeley, Calif. Girma was the first deafblind student to graduate from HLS.