BY DINA AWERBUCH
Seven new full-time professors join Harvard Law School’s faculty this fall to create the largest number of full-time faculty in HLS’s history. In addition, the law school has hired five new clinical professors, some of whom began teaching last spring. The Record is pleased to welcome the newcomers.
Yochai Benkler
Professor Benkler, HLS ’94, is best known for his research on the effect of information technology on the economy and society through the facilitation of large-scale collaboration. His expertise focuses more generally on information law and policy, communications law, and intellectual property. Benkler began his career as an associate at Ropes & Gray, before clerking for Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer, HLS ’64. Prior to his most recent appointment at Yale Law, Benkler taught at NYU Law, and has taught as a visiting professor at HLS. Benkler will teach Introduction to Patents, Copyrights, and Similar Exclusive Rights Regimes in the fall, and Patent Law and a Motivation seminar in the spring.
Gabriella Blum
Previously the Learned Hand Visiting Assistant Professor of Law at Harvard, Professor Blum, LL.M. ’01, S.J.D. ’03, joins the full-time faculty as an assistant professor this fall. Blum’s work focuses on international conflict, including conflict management, counter-terrorism operations, law of armed conflict, and negotiation. She recently published her book “Islands of Agreement: Managing Enduring Armed Rivalries.” Blum will teach International Negotiation and Public International Law this year.
Noah Feldman
A 1997 graduate of Yale Law, Professor Feldman joins HLS from the NYU Law faculty. One of the leading constitutional scholars of his generation, Feldman’s work focuses on law and religion, constitutional design, and the history of legal theory. Graduating summa cum laude from Harvard College in Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations, Feldman earned a D. Phil in Islamic Thought as a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford University. He clerked for Chief Judge Harry T. Edwards of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit and for Supreme Court Justice David Souter, HLS ’66. In addition to his academic work, Feldman has served as a constitutional advisor to the Coalition Provisional Authority in Iraq and is an adjunct senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations. He also regularly contributes to the New York Times Magazine and other news publications.
D. James Greiner
Professor Greiner holds a J.D. from the University of Michigan Law School and a Ph.D. in statistics from Harvard University. Prior to earning his Ph.D., Greiner worked as an associate at Jenner & Block, as a trial attorney in the Federal Programs Branch of the Department of Justice, and as a clerk for Judge Patrick Higginbotham of the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals. Greiner’s statistical work analyzes the application of quantitative thinking to judicial and administrative processes. In the spring of 2006, Greiner co-taught a seminar on Quantitative Social Science, Law, Expert Witnesses, and Litigation to students from the law school and Harvard University’s Department of Statistics and Government. Greiner will teach Civil Procedure in the fall, and Expert Witnesses and Litigation in the spring.
William Rubenstein
Professor Rubenstein, HLS ’86, comes to Harvard from the UCLA School of Law. Rubenstein’s expertise focuses on class action law. After clerking for the Honorable Stanley Sporkin, U.S. District Court, Washington, D.C., he began his career litigating sexual orientation and AIDS discrimination cases at the ACLU. Rubenstein has also served as an Advisor on the ALI’s Project on the Principles of the Law of Aggregate Litigation, and as co-chair of the Class Action Subcommittee of the Mass Torts Committee of the ABA’s Litigation Section. In addition to teaching as a visiting professor at HLS in 1990-91, 2004, and 2006-07, Rubenstein has taught as an adjunct professor at Stanford and Yale Law Schools. He has received numerous teaching awards. Rubenstein will teach Civil Procedure this fall, and a seminar on Sexual Orientation and the Law during the winter term.
Robert H. Sitkoff
A graduate of the University of Chicago Law School, Professor Sitkoff has held a full-time faculty position at Northwestern University School of Law and a tenured position at New York University School of Law, as well as visiting appointments at HLS and the University of Michigan Law School. Sitkoff is an expert in trusts and estates, and has previously taught courses in modern American trust law, business associations, contracts, and corporations as well. Sitkoff also serves as a member of two ALI consultative drafting groups.
Kathryn Spier
Professor Spier joins the HLS faculty from Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management and School of Law, where she taught Strategy and Organization, Business Strategy for Lawyers, and a Law and Economics colloquium. Spier holds a Ph.D. in Economics from MIT, and earned her B.A. summa cum laude from Yale University. As part of HLS’s law and economics faculty, Spier’s expertise focuses on liability, strategic contracting, and litigation strategy. Spier was an assistant professor at Harvard University’s Department of Economics eighteen years ago, and has since taught at the University of Chicago Graduate School of Business, at Northwestern, and as a visiting professor at HLS. Spier will teach Business Strategy for Lawyers in the spring.
Clinical Professors
To meet increasing student demand for practical legal experience – the administration reports 75 percent of student participate in a clinic prior to graduation – HLS has hired five new clinical professors. The new appointments more than double the number of clinical faculty. Robert Bordone, HLS ’97, is the director of the Harvard Negotiation and Mediation Clinical Program, and teaches a seminar on Negotiation and Dispute Resolution and the Negotiation Workshop. David Grossman, HLS ’88, is the director of the Harvard Legal Aid Bureau, and teaches Introduction to Advocacy: Skills and Ethics in Clinical Practice, Housing Law and Policy, and Introduction to Advocacy: Civil – The Lawyering Process. Brian Price serves as the director of the Hale and Door Legal Services Center, and taught Transaction Practice during the 2006-07 academic year. Previously the supervising attorney of the Yale Law School Criminal Justice Clinic, Ronald Sullivan, HLS ’94, will be the faculty director of the HLS Criminal Justice Institute. An expert in both domestic and international prosecution, Alex Whiting will teach Government Lawyer and the War Crimes Prosecution Workshop.