Recent Highlights

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  Richard J. Lazarus appointed Professor of Law at Harvard

  Richard J. Lazarus ’79, one of the nation’s foremost experts on environmental law and also a leading practitioner in the U.S. Supreme Court, will join the Harvard Law School faculty this summer as a tenured Professor of Law.

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  Brainstorming new strategies for environmental protection (video)

  On Dec. 3, an all-day conference marking the 40th anniversary of the Environmental Protection Agency's creation was held at Harvard Law School. EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson was the keynote speaker; also among the speakers and panelists was former Vice President Al Gore, who addressed the luncheon. The event was sponsored by the Law School, the Harvard Kennedy School, the Harvard School of Public Health, and the Harvard University Center for the Environment. 

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  Freeman selected as public member of the Administrative Conference of the U.S.

  Harvard Law School Professor Jody Freeman has been selected as a public member of the Council of the Administrative Conference of the United States (ACUS), an independent agency of the United States government tasked with improving the efficiency and fairness of federal agencies.

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  Go Green: New bike shelters installed near Pound Hall

  On Earth Day, the Wasserstein Hall, Caspersen Student Center, Clinical Wing project gained a set of new bicycle shelters at the Lewis Lot, south of Pound Hall. There are 26 bicycle racks within the two enclosures. Additionally, four new bicycle racks have now been added under the Pound Hall overhang facing Lewis International Law Center, and three new bicycle racks now sit under the Holmes Hall west entrance. All the bicycle racks are ready for use.

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  The greening of the Law School

  Every unit, division, and School at Harvard is in a race to meet a pledge: Reduce greenhouse gas emissions 30 percent by 2016, with 2006 as the baseline year. Harvard Law School is gaining ground on its goal. Buildings on its campus now use about 22 percent less energy than four years ago. The result is a 15 percent drop in greenhouse gas emissions between fiscal year 2006 and fiscal year 2009.

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  Robert Verchick ’89 appointed to Environmental Protection Agency post

  Robert Verchick ’89 has been appointed to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Office of Policy, Economics and Innovation to serve as deputy associate administrator. He currently heads the Center for Environmental Law and Land Use at Loyola University New Orleans College of Law.

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  Environmental Law and Policy Clinic files Supreme Court amicus brief in mining permit case

  The HLS Environmental Law and Policy Clinic, under the direction of Assistant Clinical Professor Wendy Jacobs and Clinical Instructor Shaun Goho ’01, has filed an amicus curiae brief in the U.S. Supreme Court case Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition v. United States Army Corps of Engineers.  The brief was filed on behalf of Trout Unlimited, a non-profit membership organization dedicated to conserving, protecting and restoring North America’s coldwater fisheries and watersheds.

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  Two HLS students assist with asbestos case heard before the Supreme Court

  Justin Raphael ’09 and Andrew Furlow ’09 both had gained litigation experience during their summer law firm work. But sitting in the U.S. Supreme Court on March 30, watching constitutional scholar Samuel Issacharoff present an oral argument they’d helped research and prepare, they gained an entirely new appreciation of the process.

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  Lazarus discusses recent and future Supreme Court cases on environmental law

   On April 1, the Court issued a ruling in one of Lazarus’s most recent cases: Entergy v. Riverkeeper. Here, he discusses that case, as well as trends in environmental law more broadly.