Public Service

Almost exactly 10 years ago, Bernard Nussbaum '61 began his job as Bill Clinton's White House counsel.

With devotion to the president and the office, Alberto Gonzales '82 tackles the complications and controversies of the White House counsel's job.

Years ago, when Wes Williams' children attended their first knighting ceremony, they asked, "Is there going to be a beheading?"

While many young people disdain the political process, some recent HLS alumni seek elective office to help their communities

Known for her tart tongue and her tears (when she announced that she wouldn't run for president in 1988), Patricia Schroeder knew how to get things done in Congress, including the passage of the Family and Medical Leave Act.

When he was an HLS student, Michael Dukakis ran for his first office and was elected a member of the Brookline, Mass., Town Meeting.

HLS students fill envelopes for Thomas J. O'Connor Jr., a Democratic candidate for U.S. senator from Massachusetts in 1960. Though O'Connor lost, student Democrats got to cheer some winners that year--including Senator John F. Kennedy, who spoke via telephone to an overflow crowd in Sanders Theatre during his campaign for president, according to the HLS yearbook.

War has a way of finding Jim Haynes '83. Just six months after President George Bush appointed him general counsel of the Army in 1990, Iraqi President Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait, sparking the Persian Gulf War.

Years before Enron's collapse spotlighted the vulnerability of employee retirement savings, Karen Ferguson '65 was immersed in what she half-jokingly refers to as the "arcane" area of pension law.

Roy Prosterman '58 wants people in the poorest countries to own property. Think of it, he says, as an insurance policy for the planet.

Nicole De Sario '03 clears tables after lunch at the CASPAR Emergency Center for the homeless in Cambridge, as part of Harvard Law School's inaugural Springfest Volunteer Service Day on April 20. About 300 students took part in the event, which also included work at the Charles River Earth Day Cleanup, Habitat for Humanity, and the Greater Boston Food Bank.

Joy Covey '89, a graduate of the J.D./M.B.A. program, recently wrapped up four years at Amazon.com, where she worked as the chief financial officer and strategist for the online retail giant.

Not everyone would trade a top job at the Department of Justice to teach at a brand-new law school nestled deep in the Appalachian Mountains.

Cynics call them do-gooders, hopelessly naïve people disconnected from the real world. These days, the cynical view could easily prevail.

In memory of an HLS professor known as a champion of public interest law, HLS students have created the Gary Bellow Public Service Award. Bellow '60, who founded the School's Clinical Program, died in April 2000.

Scott Harshbarger '68, the president of Common Cause, is charged with reinvigorating the venerable watchdog organization.

It didn’t take long for the U.S. Citizens’ Stamp Advisory Committee to deliver Claude Pepper ’24 to the top of its list. His nearly 50…

The first group of 27 Heyman Fellows was recognized at an inaugural dinner of the Harvard Law School Program on Government Service held in Washington,…

As the crowd cheers him on, Kyle Cauthron '02 (center) vies for a fly-fishing trip to Montana, one of the most coveted items up for bid at this year's public interest auction.

Professors Gary Bellow, Abram Chayes, and James Vorenberg Harvard Law School lost three of its great citizens during one week in April. Though we mourn their loss, we also…