Harvard Law Today

According to Harvard Law School lecturer Jonathan Lovvorn, saving the planet and its inhabitants from climate catastrophe begins with the world’s most vulnerable population: animals.

It was Thursday night and the Ames Courtroom was decked out for a Hollywood-style awards ceremony--1Ls and their dates arrived in tuxes and ball gowns while a jazz combo played, and anticipation was in the air. The winter’s first snow was falling outside, but in Austin Hall, the Tortys had come to town.

This fall, Harvard Law School has announced two senior administrative appointments: Mark C. Jefferson was appointed assistant dean for Community Engagement and Equity at Harvard Law School, and Adam Sherman has joined Harvard Law School as the assistant dean for Academic and Faculty Affairs, overseeing the HLS Office of Academic Affairs.

In November, practitioners, technologists and innovators from across the legal spectrum came together for a series of discussions on the impact of ever-changing modern technologies on today’s practice of law. The 2018 Harvard Legal Technology Symposium, held Nov. 5 to Nov. 9, was hosted by the Harvard Association of Law and Business, in collaboration with the […]

When Myanmar’s military junta tightened its grip in the late ’80s to quash a nationwide democracy movement, Yee Htun fled the brutal crackdown on dissent along with her mother, a doctor turned human rights activist, and three siblings. After five years in a refugee camp in Thailand, they immigrated to Canada as government-sponsored refugees, unsure of when they might return home.

On a March evening, Michael Thomas Jr. gave a tour of Gannett House to his dad and two brothers, who were visiting to see where Barack Obama first made headlines as the first black leader of the Harvard Law Review. But they were also there to celebrate Thomas, who had recently been elected the journal’s third African-American president.

Andrew Leon Hanna ’19 recently won the 2018 Bracken Bower Prize from the Financial Times and McKinsey & Company for the best book proposal about emerging businesses from someone 35 or under. Hanna’s book proposal, “25 Million Sparks”, aims to celebrate refugee entrepreneurs.

J. Mark Ramseyer, Mitsubishi Professor of Japanese Legal Studies at the Harvard Law School, has been conferred the Order of the Rising Sun, Gold Rays with Neck Ribbon, from the Japanese government. One of the oldest and highest national decorations, this award recognizes his extensive contributions to the development of Japanese studies in the U.S.

In October, David J. Harris, managing director of the Charles Hamilton Houston Institute for Race & Justice at Harvard Law School, received the Massachusetts Governor's Award in the Humanities. Harris was one of four leaders recognized for their "public actions, grounded in an appreciation of the humanities, to enhance civic life in the Commonwealth."