april 2009 4 Howell Jackson ’82 is appointed acting dean of Harvard Law School. Congressional Oversight Panel Salute to a general Chairwoman Elizabeth Dean Kagan becomes U.S. solicitor general Warren testify- ing before the Senate Finance On March 19, 2009, Dean Committee on Elena Kagan ’86 was Capitol Hill in March confirmed by the United States Senate as the 45th solicitor general of the United States—and the first woman solicitor “To lead the Solicitor GETTY IMAGES general in U.S. history. General’s President Barack Obama ’91 Office is the Warren overseeing Treasury’s honor of a nominated Kagan in early January, lifetime.” economic bailout plan and on Feb. 10 the Senate Judiciary —ELENA KAGAN ’86 Committee held a hearing to consider DOOHER KATHLEEN n November, Harvard Law The panel, charged with examining her nomination. integrity. That is due, in large measure, ISchool Professor Elizabeth Warren the Treasury Department’s plans for In her opening statement to the to the people who have led it.” was appointed to a five-member the $700 billion economic bailout committee in February, Kagan said, Kagan served in the White House Congressional Oversight Panel to package, known as the Troubled “To have the opportunity to lead the during the Clinton administration, first monitor the Treasury’s economic Asset Relief Program, has issued five Solicitor General’s Office is the honor as associate counsel to the president rescue plan. Warren was one of three reports on the effectiveness of the of a lifetime. As you know, this is an (1995-96) and then as deputy assistant experts nominated to the bipartisan regulatory structure now governing office with a long and rich tradition, not to the president for domestic policy and panel by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi the country’s financial system. only of extraordinary legal skill but also deputy director of the Domestic Policy and Senate Majority Leader Harry The panel also submitted a special of extraordinary professionalism and Council (1997-99). >>4 Reid. report on regulatory reform to >>5 Two more renowned scholars head to HLS Smith and Lessig join faculty Henry E. Smith Lawrence Lessig Professor of Law Professor of Law, Director of Harvard’s Edmond J. Safra Foundation Center for Ethics In January, Smith, an expert in intellectual property, natural resources, property and Lessig, an expert in constitutional law, taxation, joined the HLS faculty from Yale, contracts and the law of cyberspace, will join where he was the Fred A. Johnston Professor the HLS faculty in the fall. He is currently a of Property and Environmental Law and a professor at Stanford Law School, where he professor in the Program in Cognitive Science. founded the Center for Internet & Society. Prior The co-author of the casebook “Property: to joining the Stanford faculty in 2000, he was Principles and Policies,” Smith has published on the faculties of the University of Chicago numerous articles on the law and economics of Law School and HLS. property, and intellectual property. He serves As director of the Safra Foundation Center, MARTHA STEWART MARTHA on the board of advisers for the Journal of >>6 Lessig will expand on its work >>6 Harvard Law Today Nonprofit Org. INSIDE Harvard Law School U.S. Postage 125 Mount Auburn Street PAID Boston, MA 2 3Ls win 54K verdict for tenant Cambridge, MA 02138 Permit No. 54112 3 Taxing issues 5 HLS reunion on Pennsylvania Ave. 7 A master of the skill of negotiating 8 Digitizing a 20th-century justice HLT_april09.v2_03.indd 1 4/15/09 4:45:07 PM 2 BRIEFS Students win $54K verdict for tenant Enhancing child safety Best books of the year HLS Professor John Palfrey ’01, co- Two books by HLS professors were director of the Berkman Center for included on The Economist magazine’s Internet & Society and vice dean, library list of “Books of the Year” for 2008: and information resources, chaired a Noah Feldman’s “The Fall and Rise of task force of academics, child safety the Islamic State” (Princeton University experts and executives of technology Press, 2008) and Cass Sunstein’s companies—including Microsoft and Google—to assess “Nudge: Improving Decisions About the risks faced by youth on social networks. Created in Health, Wealth, and Happiness” (Yale 3Ls Eli Schlam February 2008 by the Attorneys General Multi-State University Press, 2008), with Richard and David Working Group on Social Networking, the task force Thaler. An essay by Feldman, “Orthodox Haller, of the Harvard Legal issued a report this January, “Enhancing Child Safety Paradox,” published in the July 22, Aid Bureau and Online Technologies,” with recommendations for 2007, edition of The New York Times helping keep minors safe on the Internet. Magazine, was also selected for inclusion in this year’s “The Best American Spiritual Writing” anthology. In its n November, two HLS students landed a Sander CLEO award Jan. 5 issue, in an article titled “The Power of Ideas,” $54,000 verdict against the Bank of New York Newsweek magazine named Sunstein one of four I for cutting off the water and heat of a man it was During its 40th anniversary celebration, thinkers “whose philosophies seem to have captured trying to force out of the home he rented. The landlord the Council on Legal Education the intellectual moment.” had failed to make mortgage payments. Opportunity celebrated Professor The verdict—which was reached by the 12-person Emeritus Frank E. A. Sander ’52 and his Student participates in Leaders Summit jury in Boston Housing Court after four hours of efforts to increase minority students’ deliberation—may yet be doubled or tripled under the presence in law schools. In the mid- Andrew Klaber J.D./M.B.A. ’10 at- state’s consumer protection law. 1960s, Sander and former Dean of Admissions Louis tended the Asia Society’s third annual The case was tried by 3Ls David Haller and Eli Toepfer ’43 organized a summer seminar program for Asia Young Leaders Summit in Tokyo in Schlam of the Harvard Legal Aid Bureau, under the minority students interested in law. The seminar led November. Chosen from among nearly supervision of Verner Moore, and the WilmerHale to the formation of CLEO and Sander became CLEO's 1,000 nominees, Klaber was one of 160 Legal Services Center, with Eric Levine ’08. first chairman. More than 7,000 students have since emerging leaders from 30 Asia-Pacific “Students are hopeful that the size of the award will participated in CLEO programs nationwide. countries and the U.S. who met with leaders from busi- encourage banks to improve treatment of tenants in ness, government, academia, media, civil society and the properties they acquire through foreclosure and Glendon honored with Laetare Medal the arts to address crucial issues facing the Asia-Pacific to consider maintaining properties instead of evicting region. Klaber is the founder of Orphans Against AIDS, people,” said Haller. HLS Professor Mary Ann Glendon was a nonprofit that provides academic scholarships and HLS clinics are involved in 50 to 100 similar cases, named the recipient of the University basic healthcare for children orphaned or affected by now pending, he added. Haller co-founded No One of Notre Dame’s 2009 Laetare Medal. HIV/AIDS throughout seven Asian and African coun- Leaves, an organization Glendon, who was the U.S. ambassador tries. THE SIZE of that advises tenants to to the Vatican in 2008, is the 133rd the award will remain in foreclosed recipient of the award, which was Immigration work honored encourage banks dwellings until the established in 1883 to honor Catholics “whose genius to improve legal process has been has ennobled the arts and sciences, illustrated the Clinical Law Professor Deborah Anker exhausted. ideals of the church and enriched the heritage of LL.M. ’84, director of the Harvard Im- treatment of William Allen had humanity.” Glendon will receive the award on May migration and Refugee Clinical Program, tenants.” lived in his Dorchester 17 during Notre Dame’s commencement ceremony. was recognized by the Central American David Haller ’09 apartment for four President Barack Obama ‘91 is scheduled to deliver the Refugee Center in New York for her pio- years. In December commencement address. In 1994, Pope John Paul II neering work on behalf of immigrants 2007, he learned that the owner had lost the property appointed Glendon to the Pontifical Academy of Social and refugees. The author of “Law of Asylum in the Unit- in a bank foreclosure a month earlier. The city turned Sciences. She was named president of the academy in ed States,” Anker has focused much of her work on gen- the water off, cutting off heat to Allen’s home. 2004. der and gender-related violence as a basis for asylum. After Allen turned to Legal Services, Levine contacted the Bank of New York, which owned the Urs Gasser joins Berkman Center property, to notify them that Allen was living in the apartment. The bank responded by changing the locks HARVARD LAW TODAY Urs Gasser LL.M. ’03, an associate professor of law at and reporting Allen to the police as a squatter. Executive Editor Editorial Office the University of St. Gallen in Switzerland, has been Allen, who is on Social Security disability, lived Robb London ’86 Harvard Law Today named executive director of the Berkman Center for Editor 125 Mount Auburn St. without water or heat for four months. Students filed Christine Perkins Cambridge, MA 02138 Internet & Society. He succeeded John Palfrey ’01, who 617-495-3118 a restraining order with the Boston Housing Court to Managing Editor [email protected] was appointed vice dean, library and information re- force the bank to turn on the water.