During the introduction to the book launch event for “Big Data, Health Law, and Bioethics,” one of the editors, Harvard Law School Professor I. Glenn Cohen ’03, faculty director of the Petrie-Flom Center for Health Law Policy, Biotechnology, and Bioethics, told a story about how powerful – and perhaps foreboding – big data can be.Continue Reading »
Diverse Perspectives
HLS weighs in
The latest word from Harvard Law faculty, alums, fellows and other affiliated authorities.
Six Months Isn’t ‘Long Term’
An op-ed by Robert C. Pozen and Mark J. Roe. President Trump tweeted on Friday that he had directed the Securities and Exchange Commission to study a suggestion from a business leader, later revealed as outgoing Pepsi CEO Indra Nooyi : “Stop quarterly reporting & go to a six month system.” The popular theory is that quarterly reporting discourages firms from making long-term investments. But switching to semiannual reporting wouldn’t help. Find us CEOs with stockpiles of good, long-term projects that they are not pursuing—but that they would, if only they had three extra months to report earnings. Reporting every six months is nobody’s definition of “long term.” Besides, investors have waited patiently as Amazon, Netflix and many biotech firms have followed long-term strategies.Continue Reading at The Wall Street Journal »
Two Small Nudges Help Cut Back on Opioid Prescriptions
An op-ed by Cass Sunstein. A major source of the opioid crisis is overprescribing by well-meaning doctors who want to relieve patients’ pain, but are insufficiently focused on the risks. Could behavioral economics help change that — and save lives?…What can be done? Led by the University of Southern California’s Jason Doctor, a team of researchers found a dramatic way to nudge doctors to reduce opioid prescriptions. Their starting point was simple: When patients die, clinicians often don’t find out.Continue Reading at Bloomberg »
Don McGahn Served His Own Interests, Not the President’s
An op-ed by Noah Feldman. Lawyers are not supposed to disclose conversations with their clients, at least not without a fight over attorney-client confidentiality. Senior presidential advisers aren’t supposed to discuss consultations with their boss, at least not without first asserting executive privilege. Yet we now know, thanks to the New York Times, that White House Counsel Don McGahn has been cooperating with Robert Mueller’s investigation of Donald Trump. Why is the world of normal procedures being turned upside down? There’s a technical answer; and then there’s the deeper logic (or illogic) behind it: the bizarre nature of decision-making in the Trump presidency.Continue Reading at Bloomberg »
Recent Highlights
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HPOD marks the 50th Anniversary of the Special Olympics
On Sept. 17, the Harvard Law School Project on Disability (HPOD) will commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Special Olympics with Timothy Shriver, Special Olympics International Board Chairman. Continue Reading »
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65 Years, Countless Stories: Loretta Lynch ’84
Former Attorney General of the United States Loretta Lynch ’84, the first African-American woman attorney general, shares her HLS experience and discusses her career as the country’s chief law enforcement officer. Lynch will be one of hundreds of Harvard Law alumnae gathered on campus on Sept 14-15 to commemorate Celebration 65. Continue Reading »
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Advice to new HLS students from U.S. Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan ’86
At Harvard Law School on Aug. 27, Associate Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court and former Harvard Law School Dean Elena Kagan ’86 sat down for a conversation with John Manning ’85, dean and Morgan and Helen Chu Dean and Professor of Law at Harvard Law School.Continue Reading »
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65 Years, Countless Stories: Michelle Wu ’12
This September, Harvard Law School will commemorate 65 years since women first graduated from Harvard Law School. In this “Countless Stories” video series, Boston City Counselor Michelle Wu ’12 discusses her advocacy for inclusion, innovation, and transparency in city government.Continue Reading »
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Experiential and Essential
With 29 clinics in a wide range of fields of law and policy, Harvard Law School students can develop skills in an experiential program that constantly adapts to their interests, as well as to new approaches and areas of the law. Here are four accounts from students using that opportunity to address pressing legal and social issues.Continue Reading »
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Operationalizing innovation in legal organizations
On Google’s main campus in Mountain View, Calif., Harvard Law School’s Center on the Legal Profession convened more than 80 innovation leaders from around the world—half from law firms and half from in-house legal departments—in June, for a series of in-depth workshops around how their organizations operationalize innovation.Continue Reading »
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Harvard Law School Welcomes the Class of 2021!
For more than two centuries, thousands of students have been shaped by — and have shaped — a great tradition of rigorous legal reasoning and analysis at Harvard Law School. The Class of 2021 joined that long tradition last week as they gathered in Cambridge with their fellow classmates for J.D. Orientation.Continue Reading »
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Early Arrivals
On Tuesday, Aug. 21, Harvard Law School’s Graduate Program officially welcomed the LL.M. Class of 2019 — 188 students from 65 countries who will spend the upcoming academic year pursuing a Master of Laws degree — along with six students set to begin their studies for the Doctor of Juridical Science (S.J.D.) degree.Continue Reading »
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The Political Solicitor General
With the Supreme Court divided ideologically along partisan lines for the first time in history, the Solicitor General—no matter the administration—has become more political. How did this post, long regarded as the keel keeping the government balanced, come to contribute to forceful tacks one way or the other, to the Court’s seeming indifference?Continue Reading »