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Catherine Howard wins the David Grossman Exemplary Clinical Student Award

Harvard Law School Student Catherine Howard '16 is the winner of the inaugural David A. Grossman Exemplary Clinical Student Award. The award, named in honor of the late Clinical Professor of Law David Grossman '88, a public interest lawyer dedicated to providing high-quality legal services to low income communities, recognizes students who have demonstrated excellence in representing individual clients and undertaking advocacy or policy reform projects.

Credited with embodying Grossman's tireless pro bono spirit, Howard was chosen for excellence in representing her clients, her compassion in legal practice, and her contributions to the clinical community.

During her 2L year, as a student in the Education Law Clinic, she worked to advance the interests of traumatized children in Massachusetts through the Safe and Supportive Schools Act. Howard showed extraordinary talent at drafting successful language for a budgetary line item that was passed by the legislature, outstanding analysis of statutory language, and the ability to work skillfully on a team in developing an overall strategy to secure passage of the legislation.

Throughout her 3L year, working in the Criminal Justice Institute (CJI), Howard demonstrated exceptional skills in and out of the courtroom, representing numerous clients who faced criminal charges and who could not afford an attorney. She has advocated for them from arraignment to disposition, in the Dorchester and Roxbury Divisions of the Boston Municipal Courts. Along the way, Howard earned the praise and respect of judges, clients, and peers.

“As a clinical student, Catherine's approach to her clients is full-hearted, strategic, and selfless,” said Clinical Instructor Lia Monahon, who supervised Howard in the Criminal Justice Institute. “One of the hardest things for student attorneys working on criminal cases is to find pride, grace and eloquence in an argument or position that faces bad odds. Catherine's capacity for this is boundless because she is completely motivated by her client.”

In addition to her work with CJI, Howard served as editor-in-chief of Harvard's Journal on Racial and Ethnic Justice and as co-chair of the leadership and mentorship committee of the Harvard Black Law Students Association. She also engaged the law school community as a member of the Reclaim HLS movement, which has focused on issues of diversity and inclusivity.

“My clinical experiences have been the most rewarding moments of my law school career,” said Howard. “The Criminal Justice Institute and the Education Law Clinic have allowed me to live out the passions that brought me to law school in a meaningful way, even as a student. While I am so deeply honored to be recognized by this award, I am most validated by what I am able to accomplish with my clients every day.”

“We are delighted that Catherine is the inaugural David Grossman Exemplary Clinical Student Award winner,” said Lisa Dealy, assistant dean for the Clinical and Pro Bono Programs. “Catherine embodies David's spirit of tireless and excellent advocacy in representing clients and improving the legal system.”

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Dean Minow urges graduates to work together to change the world

Credit: Martha Stewart

On May 26, 2016, on Holmes Field, Harvard Law School Dean Martha Minow congratulated the graduates, telling them, “You have made the law yours and the world will be better for it.”

Enormous opportunities await them, Minow said, assuring the assembled J.Ds, LL.Ms, and S.J.Ds, “You are ready.”

Minow cited six HLS alumni who took risks and showed drive to “produce genuine solutions to hard problems.” They included Juliette Kayyem '95, a civil rights attorney at the U.S. Department of Justice, who has become a national leader in homeland security issues, managing federal and state cooperation during the BP oil spill, terrorist bombings, and weather disasters.

You have made the law yours and the world will be better for it.

Dean Martha Minow

She also praised U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch '84, who is working to overhaul the American criminal justice system, “tackling systemic challenges with persistence, patience, diplomacy, and courage.”

Samual Pisar LL.M. '55 S.J.D. '59, who earned an doctorate in law at HLS in 1959, was a vital advisor to the governments of the United States, Poland and France, as well as a leading trade lawyer and author.

Ariel Ye, LL.M. '99, has become a leading expert in dispute resolution, arbitration, and crisis management in the Asia Pacific region, and Minow noted, has recently been named one of the top 15 women lawyers in China.

Ray Halbritter '90 has led his Oneida tribe in building successful businesses and settling centuries-long disputes with the state of New York. In addition, with skills honed the HLS Program on Negotiation, he has battled bigotry against Native Americans.

Lastly, she cited James Donovan LL.B. '40, who served as a defense attorney for a Soviet spy captured by the United States. Recently portrayed by Tom Hanks in the movie Bridge of Spies, Donovan “defended the rule of law, despite political pressure, and had foresight to prepare for and later to negotiate the exchange of prisoners between the United States and the Soviets.”

Like these graduates who preceded them, this year's class shows “smarts and drive,” Minow said. “There is no greater assemblage of gifted, hard-working, imaginative, and well prepared individuals anywhere in the world than the Harvard Law School Class of 2016.”

Minow asked the graduates to use their influence to better their communities and the world: “Listen generously to others, dig deep into your talents, take risks, remember who you are work on genuine solutions to hard problems, and you will make a difference, over and over again. Individually, you are superb. Working together, with people both like and unlike yourselves, you will change the world.”

 

 

Reflections of the Class of 2016: The Community

J.D.s and LL.M.s from the class of 2016 describe what they like best about the Harvard Law School Community.

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See more Reflections of the Class of 2016

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Elizabeth Reese: The making of a modern warrior

This is the third in a series of profiles of students from the Harvard Law School Class of 2016.

Credit: Lorin Granger/HLS Staff Photographer Elizabeth Anne Reese '16

Being Native American defines Elizabeth Reese '16. Then again, so does being the granddaughter of a Lutheran minister from Pennsylvania. Together, the two have helped shape a woman and a lawyer.

Reese was raised 20 miles north of Santa Fe, New Mexico, at the foot of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains, as a member of the Pueblo of Nambé tribe. The village there is small and old-it dates back to the 14th century-as is the tribe that makes the reservation home. Some 1,100 members of the 2,000-person Nambé tribe live on the 20,000-acre reservation, which is filled with cottonwoods, juniper, and scrub oak, and surrounded by sandstone and mountains and river. Such isolation has helped the community maintain its culture and traditions.

Reese was raised squarely in that community and in that culture, although she's always felt she belonged in two very different worlds. She grew being called Elizabeth but also Yunpovi (which means Willow Flower in the Tewa language). She may have been surrounded by scrub pine, but her father read her Homer as a child, which helped her navigate traditionally elite white spaces more easily than she might have otherwise.

She considered her educational journey an opportunity to learn things that would aid her in making a difference for her people-for her tribe specifically, but for native people more broadly. First, she went to Yale.

“When I went off to school at Yale I really wanted to make sure I understood the world of education and power that exists in America, because that world is something few Indian people have been a part of and understood,” says Reese. “And yet, that's where so many decisions that impact us and define what will happen to us get made.”

As an undergraduate she developed a background in political theory, which led her to England and the University of Cambridge. There she earned a Master of Philosophy in political thought and intellectual history and did work on Indian political theory. She counts herself as one of the first Native Americans to attend the university and one of the first scholars there to focus on Indian ideas.

Reese's commitment to the study-and protection-of Native concerns led her to Harvard Law School and shaped her focus during her three years. She built visibility, programming, and recruitment as a leader in the HLS Native American Law Students Association. She helped to write a District Court amicus brief intervening in a tribal water jurisdiction case through the Native Amicus Briefing Project. She also served as a congressional intern and a fellow for the Senate Judiciary Committee, and interned at the Department of Justice in the civil rights division.

Now she is hoping to become a warrior.

“There's a common theme in Indian society that lawyers are the modern warriors for Indian people,” says Reese. “I'm really excited to become one of those warriors and to join the fight to ensure that tribal sovereignty survives for my children, my grandchildren, and my great grandchildren.”

After graduation Reese will clerk for Judge Amul R. Thapar at the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Kentucky. Late in the year she'll head to Washington, D.C., as a Sumner M. Redstone Fellow in Public Service at the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund. The breadth of cases she'll be part of-from litigating voting rights on one side of the country to school desegregation on the other side-excites her.

While Reese hopes to spend the early part of her career working on civil rights cases that affect the lives of people of color in the U.S-including her family members-she also hopes to someday practice Indian law. After all it's the law, she says, that determines whether or not Indian tribes survive.

“It can't be understated how fragile our future is-how our survival is still something we have to fight for,” says Reese. “Unlike a lot of other groups or identities, this is our only homeland. Our culture exists nowhere else in the world if we fail to ensure its survival here. I take that challenge very seriously and hope I can do all I can to protect my tribe and my people and our sovereignty.”

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Naz Modirzadeh named professor of practice

Naz K. Modirzadeh '02, director of the Harvard Law School Program on International Law and Armed Conflict (PILAC)

Naz K. Modirzadeh '02, the founding director of the Harvard Law School Program on International Law and Armed Conflict (PILAC), has been appointed as a professor of practice at Harvard Law School. She joined the HLS faculty as a lecturer on law in Fall 2014.

For more than a decade, Modirzadeh has carried out legal research and policy work concerning a number of armed conflict situations. Her scholarship and research focus on intersections between the fields of international humanitarian law, international human rights law, and legal frameworks governing terrorism, as well as Islamic law pertaining to protection of civilians. She frequently contributes to academic and professional initiatives in the areas of humanitarian action, counterterrorism, and the laws of war.

Harvard law School Dean Martha Minow said: “Naz is internationally known and so widely respected for her groundbreaking work on humanitarian law and armed conflict - two crucial topics affecting so many across the world. Her interests and expertise in human rights law, armed conflict, and Islamic law converge in profound and novel ways. A gifted teacher and strategic thinker, Naz models and conveys thoughtful and deep analysis that influences decision makers at the highest levels. How lucky we are that this alum is joining the law school faculty!”

Modirzadeh regularly advises and briefs international humanitarian organizations, United Nations agencies, and governments on issues related to international humanitarian law, human rights, and counterterrorism regulations concerning humanitarian assistance.

In addition to taking part in several expert advisory groups for UN research initiatives, she serves as a non-resident research fellow at the Stockton Center for the Study of International Law at the U.S. Naval War College and a non-resident Research Associate in the Humanitarian Policy Group of the Overseas Development Institute. She is also on the Board of Directors of the International Association for Professionals in Humanitarian Assistance and Protection.

“HLS is an extraordinary place to be thinking through the complex challenges of interpreting, developing, and applying international law in armed conflict,” said Modirzadeh. “I am thrilled and honored to be given the opportunity to work with our amazing students and faculty.”

Modirzadeh has written or co-written a variety of journal articles, reports, legal briefings, and case studies, including “International law and armed conflict in dark times: A call for engagement,” International Review of the Red Cross, Vol. 96, No. 895/896, pp. 737–749 (2014); “Folk International Law: 9/11 Lawyering and the Transformation of the Law of Armed Conflict to Human Rights Policy and Human Rights Law to War Governance,” Harvard National Security Journal, Vol. 5, No. 1, pp. 225–304 (2014); and “Medical Care in Armed Conflict: International Humanitarian Law and State Responses to Terrorism,” Legal Briefing, Harvard Law School Program on International Law and Armed Conflict, September 2015 (co-author with Dustin A. Lewis and Gabriella Blum). She is also a contributor to the Lawfare blog.

In 2010, she received the Lieber Prize of the American Society of International Law for her article “The Dark Sides of Convergence: A Pro-Civilian Critique of the Extraterritorial Application of Human Rights Law in Armed Conflict,” Naval War College, International Law Studies (Blue Book), 86th Volume, pp. 349–410.

At PILAC, Modirzadeh is responsible for overall direction of the program, collaboration with the Faculty Director and other affiliated faculty, development of research initiatives, and engagement with key decision-makers in the armed forces, humanitarian organizations, government, and intergovernmental organizations.

She previously worked for the Harvard Program on Humanitarian Policy and Conflict Research and for Human Rights Watch, and served as assistant professor and director of the International Human Rights Law graduate program at the American University in Cairo.

She received her undergraduate degree from the University of California, Berkeley and her J.D. from Harvard Law School.

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Holger Spamann, expert in corporate governance and finance, appointed professor of law at Harvard

Credit: Martha Stewart Holger Spamann LL.M. '01, S.J.D. '09

Holger Spamann L.L.M. '01 S.J.D. '09, an expert in corporate governance and finance, has been appointed as a tenured professor of law at Harvard Law School.

Spamann joined the HLS faculty in 2009 as a Lecturer on Law and he was named an assistant professor of law in 2011. He also served as co-executive director of HLS's Program on Corporate Governance.

“Holger is a polymath; his knowledge spans the psychology of judges, the diffusion of legal systems across borders, comparative corporate governance, corporate law theory, law and economics, experimental design, and the impact of regulation on accounting and finance practices,” said Martha Minow, Morgan and Helen Chu Dean and Professor of Harvard Law School. “He honed his legal knowledge –and knowledge of five languages– in France, Germany, England, and the United States, and his deep learning across many disciplines is matched by his contagious intellectual curiosity and scrupulous scholarly integrity. Accomplished scholar, imaginative and devoted teacher, and fantastic interlocutor and colleague, Holger is a treasure!”

Spamann's research focuses on the law and economics of corporate governance and financial markets, judicial behavior, and comparative law. His work combines traditional legal tools with theoretical and empirical approaches from the social sciences, including mathematical models, statistics, and experiments.

This spring, he taught “Corporations” and “Hedge Fund Law and Policy” at HLS. Last fall, he was a visiting assistant professor of law at the University of Chicago.

“I am so thrilled and honored to join this faculty permanently,” Spamann said. “Harvard is unrivaled in my fields of corporate law and law & economics. My colleagues and my students are amazing. I could not be happier.”

Before embarking on his academic career, Spamann was a trainee lawyer (“Referendar”) under the direction of the Court of Appeals for the State of Hamburg in Germany. Prior to this, he worked in private equity M&A as an associate with Debevoise & Plimpton in New York.

Spamann has produced influential research in corporate law and governance in a number of journals and his work has been featured prominently on Social Science Research Network's (SSRN) list of the 100 most-cited law professors. His articles include “The U.S. Crime Puzzle: A Comparative Perspective on U.S. Crime & Punishment,” 18 American Law and Economics Review 33-87 (2016); “Empirical Comparative Law,” Annual Review of Law & Social Science 11 131-153 (2015); “Fixing Public Sector Finances: The Accounting and Reporting Lever” (with James Naughton), 62 UCLA Law Review 572-620 (2015); “The 'Antidirector Rights Index' Revisited,” 23 Review of Financial Studies 467 (2010), and “Regulating Bankers' Pay” (with Lucian Bebchuk), 98 Georgetown Law Journal 247 (2010). One of his current working papers, “Monetary Liability for Breach of the Duty of Care?,” recently won the 2016 prize for the best working paper in the law series of the European Corporate Governance Institute.

He is also the author of “Corporations: Virtual Casebook,” an online substitute for a traditional hardbound casebook, and the creator of the “Simplified Codes” website, which provides students with a more accessible version of the Delaware General Corporation Law and a guide to the Federal Proxy Rules.

In addition to an LL.M. and an S.J.D. from Harvard Law School, Spamann holds a Ph.D. and an A.M. in economics from Harvard University, a B.Sc. in economics from the London School of Economics, as well as a German law degree from the University of Hamburg and a French law degree from the Sorbonne. He has fluency and/or proficiency in five languages: German, French, English, Russian and Spanish.

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The Promise of Peace: Negotiation Workshop hosts Ambassador Wendy Sherman

Credit: Martha Stewart

When Wendy Sherman, former under secretary of state for political affairs, was in the midst of negotiations over Iran's nuclear program, she often felt that her team was playing “several games of multidimensional chess at the same time.”

On April 20, Sherman delivered a guest lecture to the Harvard Law School Negotiation Workshop. In welcoming Sherman to Harvard Law School, Clinical Professor Robert Bordone '97 said that Sherman's accomplishments at the State Department represent “the very best in American diplomacy.” “Ambassador Sherman's service to the nation – advancing peace and security for the United States and the world community – demonstrate the power of creativity, tenacity, effective assertion, and critical perspective-taking that are at the heart of what we aspire to teach in the Negotiation Workshop here at the Law School,” he said.

Credit: Martha Stewart

Sherman's remarks focused on her time as the lead U.S. negotiator of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA). Her experience offered a fascinating window into the inner workings of what happened at the negotiating table in this complex international negotiation.

Sherman shared the long history of political, military, and economic tensions that have ebbed and flowed between Iran and the international community since the 1950s, when Iran first established its nuclear program. At its outset, the Iranian nuclear program was intended for peaceful purposes. However, over time, she said, the United States, and much of the international community, came to suspect that the program had evolved to include the development of nuclear weapons. Anxiety about Iran's nuclear program – along with Iran's destabilizing action in the region, its involvement in state-sponsored terrorism, and other sources of concern – contributed to the United States' distrust of Iran. In turn, Iran grew distrustful of the United States as a result of the heavy economic sanctions that the United States, and others, imposed in recent years and the potential for U.S. military action.

Credit: Martha Stewart Clinical Professor Robert Bordone '97, director of the Harvard Negotiation and Mediation Clinic, teaches the Negotiation Workshop at Harvard Law School.

While the sanctions never halted Iran's nuclear program, they did, in Sherman's words, “help bring Iran to the negotiating table.” By the time Sherman joined the U.S. negotiating team in 2011, President Barack Obama had examined the alternatives to negotiation and decided that they were unattractive: Further economic sanctions would likely be unenforceable and could hurt the global economy, and military action – though it would temporarily wipe out the nuclear facilities – could not “bomb away knowledge,” Sherman said. As a result, Obama came to the critical decision that he might potentially consider a very limited, civil, and peaceful enrichment program in Iran, if Iran submitted to vigorous and tough monitoring and verification measures.

With this broad guidance in mind, Sherman and her team of experts went to work for the next two and a half years, with the P5+1 (UK, France, Russia, China, Germany and the U.S.) and the European Union, developing an agreement that would ensure that Iran would never be able to obtain a nuclear weapon. In return for extensive monitoring of an extremely limited nuclear program to ensure that it remained peaceful, the United States, and others, would lift some sanctions on Iran in order to allow its economy to grow.

Some measures along the way seemed successful, such as the diplomatic negotiations – held outside the public view – between the United States and Iran facilitated by leaders from Oman. These talks resulted in the Joint Plan of Action (JPOA), a set of interim steps and a roadmap for further negotiations, agreed by the P5+1, the EU and Iran. Although not designed to be a confidence-building measure, the JPOA acted as one after being presented to the P5+1 and enduring through several more rounds of talks.

Many issues and parties raised the level of complexity of the negotiations – hence the simultaneous games of chess. From the governments in the P5+1 and the EU to Iran's regional neighbors, the United States Congress, and other powerful figures and forces within Iran, a tremendous number of parties had a stake in the outcome of the deal. The elements of the negotiations themselves posed a challenge, as well: “Reaching a consensus on the technical issues,” Sherman recalled, “was a Rubik's cube.” Experts held seminars for one another on sanctions, transparency measures, and even the science behind enriching uranium – and these technical issues were on the table at the same time as the political questions that needed to be resolved. In navigating this complex terrain, the parties consistently tried to find the best devices to move the negotiation forward. For instance, when the Iranian delegation was not yet ready to put agreement terms on paper, she used a whiteboard “to test ideas” before committing to items.

In the end, Sherman believes that the major success of the talks was the achievement of coming to an agreement about such a contentious issue, despite years of distrust between Iran and the United States and its partners. She was quick to add that “the devil is in the details”: Now that the implementation stage has begun, there are sure to be further issues to iron out as the terms of the agreement are enacted, and much distrust remains between the two countries. But in reflecting on her overall experience, Sherman highlighted ten key insights and lessons about negotiation that she shared with Workshop students, echoing many of the themes from the course:

1. There was a clear objective: Clarity and communication from top U.S. leaders enabled the team to identify areas of flexibility;


2. Despite outside pressure, the team's focus remained in the negotiating room;


3. The political will existed amongst all parties to get the deal done;


4. The team understood all parties' interests;


5. Timing was everything: The parties understood the alternatives to negotiation, and none was attractive;


6. All parties had leverage in different ways;


7. All parties had stamina;


8. The US delegation had excellent intelligence, communication, and a team of experts with whom to consult;


9. For the US, the negotiations were never about trust alone; they were about verification and monitoring;


10. Everyone compromised some, but no one conceded everything, with one major exception: Iran would never be allowed to obtain a nuclear weapon.

In concluding her session with Workshop students, Sherman touched on potential applications of her work to other unstable areas around the world, including Syria and North Korea. While these situations pose their own unique challenges, Sherman is confident that the progress made by negotiating the JCPOA with Iran was an important step toward a more peaceful world. It was remarkable, she said, to support “the promise of peace in the fog of war.”

Following her formal remarks, Sherman answered questions from Negotiation Workshop students for nearly 45 minutes. In thanking Sherman for speaking to his class, Bordone noted, “In the span of 90 minutes you have ably summarized the key themes of this course, demonstrated their applicability in the real world, and inspired us all by your wisdom, humor, and humility.”

Ambassador Sherman's visit to the Spring Negotiation Workshop is the latest installment in an annual feature of the course in which a prominent real-life negotiator speaks to enrolled students about their professional negotiation experience in an area of practice. Past speakers have included Bob Barnett, Ron Shapiro, Rose Gottemoeller, Grande Lum, and Clifford Sloan. The Negotiation Workshop is offered each January term and spring, and combines theory and practice to improve students' understanding of negotiation and their skills as negotiators.

This article was written by Sara del Nido Budish, Clinical Fellow at the Harvard Negotiation & Mediation Clinical Program.

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Expanded student government cultivates change on campus

Credit: Elizabeth Knox '16 HLS Student Body President, Kyle Strickland '16 and Vice President Mavara Agha '16

For Harvard Law School Student Body Vice President Mavara Agha '16, making change happen is about capacity. “This year, we have nearly tripled membership in Student Government, which has enabled more students to be involved in improving the student experience here at HLS.”

Agha and Student Body President, Kyle Strickland '16, have coordinated the work of seven new student action committees on topics ranging from Academic Affairs to Health & Wellness. These new committees advocated for reforms to the campus printing and course evaluation procedures that have already achieved results.

Credit: Mavara Agha JD '16 Students playing in the first Health & Wellness Dodgeball Tournament

Based on input from students and faculty, HLS is piloting a new online course evaluation format, which will utilize course-specific questions and make certain qualitative comments available to other students. Students and professors are already using these new evaluations in several courses this spring.

“We're hopeful that we have helped build a strong foundation for future progress,” says Strickland. This year, Student Government distributed $143,000 for existing student organizations and helped establish eight new student groups. It also drafted a new student constitution, which was passed in a student vote this spring. (Read the full 2015-2016 Student Government Year in Review.)

Credit: Aida Vajzovic JD '17 Sold-out Thanksgiving charity dinner

Over the course of the year, Student Government sponsored over 30 events. Many of these events were informal student-faculty lunches, in which faculty members hosted small groups of students for a meal at a local restaurant. More than 100 students participated in lunches with faculty members such as Jack Goldsmith, Crystal Yang '13, Alvin Warren and Jesse Fried '92.

While Strickland and Agha are graduating, they acknowledge that there is more work to be done. In a joint statement, they noted “we worked to create positive impact that we hope will go well beyond our time here.”

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Harvard Law students host mini-symposium on data privacy

On April 12, students in Professor of Practice Urs Gasser's Spring 2016 Comparative Online Privacy Seminar at Harvard Law School hosted a student-led mini-symposium on data privacy in the U.S. and the EU with experts from private companies, law firms, and academia. The student-moderated discussion focused on bringing data privacy from theory to reality, and included a close look at the strengths and flaws of the current U.S. and EU regulatory regime. As part of the symposium, students presented their seminar papers to the outside experts in roundtable conversations.

Invited panelists brought together insights on the trajectories of current data privacy protections in various industries. Panelists included Sara Cable, assistant attorney general and director of data privacy and security in the Consumer Protection Division of the Office of the Massachusetts Attorney General; Heather Egan Sussman, a privacy and data security partner at Ropes & Gray; John Deighton, the Baker Foundation Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School; Scott Gallant, of Gallant Consulting Group; and Dipayan Ghosh, a privacy and public policy advisor at Facebook.

Among other topics, the experts discussed the implementation of privacy-by-design, the importance of data flow within and among companies, and data's increasing importance among start-ups. Panelists debated the trade-off between privacy and greater data functionality in companies that collect and use more data face a growing concern over breaches. Panelists also illuminated the various data breach notification laws across states, including the unique set of laws in Massachusetts.

Panelists and student participants agreed that student privacy and data breach laws will remain an important discussion. Many also agreed that while state laws and local enforcement are beneficial, greater consistency is needed. The current trend toward a principle-based approach by translating the distinct needs of regulators and consumers into universal principles could provide a solution. Other potential solutions mentioned by panelists included building privacy into the design of company practices, rethinking the notice-choice-consent model, and ultimately endorsing greater transparency and choice for subjects to control their own information.

This event brought together many of the themes featured in Gasser's written works, as well as those related to various projects and initiatives at the Berkman Center.

The Berkman Center's privacy-focused projects include Privacy Tools for Sharing Research Data and the Student Privacy Initiative. Gasser has written extensively on a variety of privacy related issues, such as student privacy, privacy behaviors on social media, and privacy law, both within the U.S. and abroad, independently and through his capacity as executive director of the Berkman Center. His current projects include a book detailing current digital privacy challenges, affecting factors, and solutions, which will be inspired by the discussions and readings generated in this class.

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Creating a Kinder World

A panel featuring Susan Benesch, Perry Hewitt, Sandra Cortesi and Chris Bavitz gathered in April for a discussion on combatting bullying in online spaces. The discussion, moderated by Berkman Center Executive Director Urs Gasser, was followed by audience breakout sessions.