Toby’s blog

I just got the following from the Office of Clinical and Pro Bono Programs:

We are excited to announce a new clinical program which is part of our expanded offerings in Government Lawyering:

Government Lawyering – Policy and Practice: Semester in Washington, DC
Spring 2009

This will be the first time students can work off campus for a full semester in a variety of settings – in the House and in the Senate, at the Justice Department, the Federal Election Commission, the EPA and other federal government offices

The accompanying course will be taught in DC by Jim Flug, ’63 (along with an advisory board of  HLS professors David Barron, Elizabeth Warren, Alex Whiting, Phil Heymann and John Manning)

Students will receive 4 classroom credits; 5 clinical credits and 1 required writing credit, for which they will need an HLS faculty sponsor. Admission to this course and clinic are by permission.  Applications are due October 1, 2008.  The program is limited to 12 students (2L’s and 3L’s only). Students are responsible to find their own housing; Clinical Programs will cover one round trip to and from Cambridge

I noticed that Brian Leiter has had some interesting things to say on the movement of faculty to Harvard (and from other schools).  Take a look at his blog and particularly at two of his recent posts (here and here).

While we have long had a student-faculty ratio like that at some of the small, elite liberal arts colleges (like Bowdoin or Middlebury) we have made a concerted effort in recent years to try to further drive down that ratio by hiring some outstanding scholars.  Many of them have come here from other law schools.  We expect the trend to continue and believe that this is one of the things that makes Harvard Law School the most exciting place in the world to pursue a legal education.  Harvard has the most intellectually interesting and diverse faculty in the nation and it is great to see outsiders take notice, particularly those who, like Professor Leiter, watch these trends carefully.

…Stephanie Robinson. You probably thought I was going to say Barack Obama. But there’s a more imminent election to replace Tavis Smiley as commentator on the Tom Joyner Morning Show. Stephanie is a lecturer here at Harvard Law School as well as an HLS alumna and the CEO of the Jamestown Project.

Thanks to Professor Ron Sullivan for the heads up on this!

Saw this on the home page and didn’t want you to miss it!

I just got this in my inbox and it looked interesting — my classmate Adam Hootnick ‘01 is one of the presenters:

Event: TAKING THE PLUNGE: How to Dive into a Dream Career in the Arts

Date: Wednesday, April 2, 2008

Time: 6:00–7:30 p.m.

Location: Pound Hall 335, Harvard Law School

A Panel Discussion sponsored by the HLS Law and the Arts Initiative

The Panel

Viola Canales ‘89 – Author of Orange Candy Slices and Other Secret Tales and The Tequila Worm, winner of the 2006 Pura Belpré Medal for Narrative

Adam Hootnick ‘01 – Director and producer of Unsettled, former producer at MTV News & Docs for politics and international affairs

David Zippel ‘79 – Tony Award winning lyricist for City of Angels, two time Academy Award Nominee, two time Grammy nominee, and three time Golden Globe nominee

Moderator

Harvey Silverglate ‘67, Prominent criminal defense and civil liberties litigator; journalist publishing in The Wall Street Journal, The Boston Globe, and The Los Angeles Times; author of the forthcoming Three Felonies a Day: How the Feds Target the Innocent

The HLS Law and Arts Initiative is a collaborative venture involving students, alumni, faculty, HLS career services and other members of the community interested in the widest possible array of intersections between law and the arts. Please join us and let us know what you are doing!

For more information, check www.law.harvard.edu/faculty/jhalley/lawandarts.

In case you don’t keep an eye on the home page, I wanted to highlight these videos from the big public interest reunion. We had 600 public interest alumni back on campus to mix and mingle and attend a series of panel and events. Speeches by former Mass. Governor William Weld ‘70 and death penalty litigator Bryan Stevenson ‘85 and a “conversation” between Dean Elena Kagan ‘86 and Michigan first couple Jennifer Granholm ‘87 and Daniel Mulhern ‘86 were part of the fun.

These links take you to the full stories and within the stories are links to the video:

Gov. Bill Weld

Gov. Jennifer Granholm

Bryan Stevenson

The Harvard Association of Law and Business is a student-run organization focused on creating a network for Harvard Law School students interested in pursuing business either in or out of the legal profession. The organization’s president, Ben Wu, 2L, spoke with admissions staffer Julia Foresman about his background in banking before HLS, the events he has planned this year, and his goals for HALB.

Podcast: Ben Wu (6:24)

Just heard from 1L Ben Wu that he has a fun summer job lined up:

“My summer position is in Corporate Development at Marvel Studios, the Beverly Hills-based West Coast and filmmaking arm of Marvel Entertainment, Inc. (producers of Spider-Man and X-Men). I’ll be reporting to the Chairman of Marvel Studios, David Maisel, an HBS graduate, and will be working on strategy and finance projects to build their film and licensing businesses. Marvel Studios just raised a $525 million debt facility to build an in-house movie studio. This summer the studio is filming its first Marvel-produced movie, Iron Man, starring Gwyneth Paltrow and Robert Downey, Jr. It is exciting because I will be there to assist and witness the business evolve from a pure licensing-based model to a production-based model.”

We’ll check back with him this summer to find out how it’s going…

For David Moss, it’s the problem-solving skills that make a legal education so valuable in the business world. “Law school teaches you how to dissect a problem, determine what’s most important, focus on that, and logically walk through it and come up with solutions that make sense. That’s a skill set that’s very transferable.” Moss is a 2L and the president of the Harvard Association for Law and Business (HALB).

Compared to students with an MBA, says Moss, “law students may lack hard skills that they could pick up in business school like accounting or operations, but those are easy enough to [learn] on the job. The critical-thinking skills take more time to develop.” And it’s those critical thinking skills that HLS offers in spades.

HALB offers a range of opportunities for students passionate—or even just curious—about applying those skills to the business world. The goals of the organization are threefold:

1. Provide opportunities for social networking.
2. Educate students about business issues, ensuring, for instance, that corporate lawyers have the information they need to succeed in their careers.
3. Educating students about the myriad of alternative career paths at the intersection of law and business.

The events hosted by the organization include happy hours, introductions, and discussion panels, like a recent J.P. Morgan discussion entitled ‘The Anatomy of a Deal.’ Says Moss, “We have a fairly open platform, so when students find something of interest, we help them put it on.”

Moss enjoys getting to know a range of people at HLS, some of whom he met while co-chairing the Public Interest Charity Poker Tournament last year. He also feels like he’s been able to connect with professors. In a reading group with Alan Dershowitz, he says, there were 12 1Ls. “That opportunity to get to know a professor outside of the classroom is a really unique experience.”

Podcast: David Moss (6:08)

Daniel Gorlin runs the Harvard Committee on Sports & Entertainment Law.
This student organization brings to campus top executives and lawyers in the sports and entertainment industries and makes them accessible to students.

Through the organization, a wide range of speakers participate in discussion panels during events that are open to all students. The speakers have included major league baseball executives, members of the National Basketball Association, sports lawyers, entertainment agents, entertainers and celebrities, and commentators from ESPN. “A recent panel explored the impact baseball player agents have had on the evolution of the sport over the last ten to twenty years, from competitive balance to steroids,” says Gorlin. The theme of another panel: Is it the responsibility of celebrities to be good role models?

At another event, speakers addressed the control exerted over player’s personal autonomy, including what they wear and how they act off the field. Gorlin adds, “We recently featured a panel that was focused on the legal issues around using real people in the movies and on television,” such as the movie Borat and various reality television series.

The alumni are “tremendous,” he says. “It’s a very tough industry to break into, but having some of those friendly people in those positions is always very helpful.”

Meanwhile, Gorlin is busy supporting the brand-new Israel Baseball League. “It’s an unbelievable start-up,” he says. For working with the league, he’s received two winter credits and four clinical credits. “I’ve been exposed to the legal and business issues of this league as it writes its charter and by-laws,” he says, adding that he’s learning about revenue-sharing and organizational structuring in a clinical setting. “It’s been an unbelievable experience.”
The first pitch is in June!

Podcast: David Gorlin (8:20)