The Harvard Law School Association of Massachusetts

invites all HLS alumni to join a virtual event:

The Harvard Admissions Case:
View of the Litigation from Harvard Counsel's Perspective

Wednesday, September 23, 2020

4:00 - 5:00 p.m. ET

Zoom Meeting

Register for Event


Join us for what is sure to be an informative and exciting conversation about the Harvard Admissions Case with William F. Lee, lead counsel for Harvard and Senior Fellow of the Harvard Corporation and Felicia Ellsworth, counsel for Harvard and Lecturer on Law, Harvard Law School. Introductions by Barry White '67, President of the HLSA of Massachusetts and Dennis White '75, HLSA of Massachusetts Board Member.

Panelists

  • William F. Lee

    Lead Counsel, Harvard
    Senior Fellow, Harvard Corporation
    Eli Goldston Visiting Lecturer on Law, Harvard Law School
    Partner, WilmerHale

    Bill Lee is a partner at WilmerHale and is one of the country’s foremost trial, appellate and intellectual property lawyers. He has tried more than 200 cases, both jury and jury-waived, to judgment and argued more than 100 appeals before the Court of Appeals. Bill has been awarded a lifetime achievement award by the American Lawyer and was selected as one of the National Law Journal’s 100 Most Influential Lawyers in America; one of The American Lawyer’s Litigators of the Year; the outstanding US IP Practitioner by Managing IP; and one of the fifty most powerful people in Boston by the Boston Business Journal

     

    Bill was lead trial counsel for Harvard in the case attacking its race conscious admissions policy.  He also served as lead trial counsel for Apple in its worldwide litigation with Samsung, and was lead trial counsel for Broadcom in the highly publicized cases between Broadcom and Qualcomm. He also represented Pfizer in a trial that, after seven days, resulted in a settlement of $2.15 billion. 

     

    From July 1987 through June 1989, Bill  served as associate counsel to Independent Counsel Lawrence E. Walsh in the Iran-Contra investigation. In that capacity, Bill was responsible for certain portions of the grand jury investigation and resulting indictments. He has also served as a special assistant to the Massachusetts Attorney General for the purpose of investigating alleged incidents of racial bias in the Commonwealth's courts.

     

    Bill served as the managing and co-managing partner at WilmerHale from 2000 to 2012 and was managing partner at the time of the merger of Wilmer Cutler and Pickering and Hale and Dorr.

     

    Bill is the Senior Fellow of the Harvard Corporation and the Eli Goldston Lecturer at Harvard Law School. He is a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the American College of Trial Lawyers. Full faculty bio.

  • Felicia Ellsworth

    Counsel, Harvard
    Lecturer on Law, Harvard Law School
    Partner, WilmerHale

    Felicia Ellsworth is a first-chair trial lawyer and experienced appellate advocate who combines her significant trial experience with her recognized appellate skill to represent clients at all stages of litigation. Ms. Ellsworth’s practice focuses on high-stakes disputes in both state and federal trial and appellate courts, including the Supreme Court of the United States. She is a member of the American Law Institute, which is the leading independent organization in the United States producing scholarly work to improve the law, and is routinely recognized as a leading trial and appellate and litigator in industry publications, including Law360, Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly and The American Lawyer, which named her “Litigator of the Week” in October 2019. Most recently, Ms. Ellsworth was trial counsel to Harvard University in the case challenging its use of race in its undergraduate admissions practice, which earned her the "Litigator of the Week" title. Full faculty bio.

 

Wednesday, September 23, 2020

When:

4:00PM - 5:00PM Wed 23 Sep 2020, Eastern timezone

Virtual Event Instructions:

Please register by reserving a free ticket.