Harvard Law Record
The Independent Newspaper
January 31, 2011
HISTORY IN THE MAKING: BLIZZARD EIP Schedule
CLOSES HARVARD LAW SCHOOL Modified;
Snow Day Brings Celebration, Scheduling Woes
BY JOEY SEILER
On the afternoon of Jan. 11, Dean of
Students Ellen Cosgrove emailed Har-
vard Law students to tell them that
classes would be canceled due to the
forecasted blizzard on Wednesday,
Jan. 12. Facebook, chat statuses, and
apartments erupted with excitement
over the rare treat at Harvard Law
School: a snow day.
Faculty who have been at the Law
School for some time say this may be
only the third closing for inclement
weather in more than 30 years. Ac-
cording to Cosgrove, five years ago
Cambridge saw over two feet of snow,
but Winter Quarter exams were still
held as scheduled. Just last year, Cos-
grove emailed students to let them
know that "each year a few hopeful
students inquire about snow days —
the answer is that Harvard remains
open in snow — always has — sorry
Nesson, Students File Appeal in File-Sharing Case
BY JOEY SEILER
During winter break, while most stu-
dents were trying to forget about exams
and the impending start of J-Term, sev-
eral students’ work appeared in a brief
filed with the First Circuit appealing the
damages award in a file-sharing case.
Prof. Charles Nesson ’63 and a team of
Harvard Law students represent Joel
Tenenbaum in a lawsuit filed against him
by the Recording Industry of America for
copyright infringement for illegally shar-
ing music files. After losing at the trial
level, Tenenbaum was on the hook for
$675,000 in damages, or $22,500 each
for the 30 songs he was accused of shar-
ing over Kazaa. District Court Judge
at Harvard Law School
www.hlrecord.org — twitter @hlrecord
about that."
This year, though, presented several
new problems, according to Cosgrove.
With the storm predicted to start
overnight, commuters would have
more trouble in the morning compared
to previous storms that started at
noon, which could be addressed with
small adjustments to keep the day's
schedule on track.
"It was a relatively unique combina-
tion of intensity and timing," Cos-
grove told the Record via e-mail. "I
also think that the state and local gov-
ernments have put increasing pressure
on businesses and schools to close in
order to keep people off the roads,
which allows the emergency crews to
do their jobs. This is a real change in
culture in the last few years."
The heavy snow and newfound free-
dom led many students to Cambridge
Common and surrounding parks and
Nancy Gertner reduced the damages to
$67,500, but Tenenbaum and his team
believe the award is still too high.
Copyright law provides for statutory
damages between $750 and $30,000 per
infringed work and up to $150,000 per
work for “willful” infringement. Nesson
and five students (Jason Harrow ‘11,
Phillip Hill ‘13, Andrew Breidenbach
‘11, Eric Fletcher ‘11, and Nathan Love-
joy ‘13) assembled this brief to raise
three arguments about the damages on
appeal: extraordinary damages assessed
against people not making money from
the infringement is “absurdly extreme,”
said Nesson; Congress never intended for
this regime to be applied to normal peo-
ple as opposed to commercial infringers;
DAVID BRODY/HL RECORD STAFF
hills for snowball fights and sledding.
Several students also built an igloo on
the lawn of Hastings Hall dormitory.
Unfortunately, the combination of an
already compressed January term and
the unexpected closure presented a rel-
atively unique scheduling problem. Be-
cause of the ABA's regulations
governing class time, professors had to
reschedule their missed classes. That
make-up time for some students bled
into the upcoming holiday or the day
previously reserved for students to
study for exams.
"It will depend on the class," Cos-
grove told the Record. "We need to
make up work in a condensed time
frame. Some faculty might schedule a
make-up over the holiday, others might
schedule on the reading day. Neither
option is ideal but it is also hard to
schedule exams on the weekend and
conflict with religious observance."
and, most importantly to Nesson, the
jury’s role in assessing these damages is
flawed.
“When Congress created these statu-
tory damages, they explicitly imagined
that it would be judges who had the wis-
dom to assess them,” said Nesson. When
the Supreme Court ruled that juries had
to be involved, though, it “brought a con-
stitutional requirement that the jury not
be left completely at sea.”
Instead, Tenenbaum’s jury was in-
structed that infringement occurred and
given a form to fill out with one range of
damages for innocent infringement and
another for willful infringement. There
was no context given, said Nesson, that
NESSON, cont’d on pg. 2
Vol. CXXXI, No. 4
Fall Upper-
Level Classes
Pushed Back
BY JENNY PAUL
A change in the Harvard Law
School academic calendar for 2011-12
will bring rising 2Ls back to campus
by early August, while many 3Ls will
bask in the glow of a 19-week summer
vacation.
The 2011 Early Interview Program,
designed to facilitate law firm hiring
of Harvard 2Ls for the summer of
2012, will be held from Aug. 15-19,
one week earlier than in 2010. Flyout
week — a weeklong respite from class
in September in which students sched-
uled callback interviews with out-of-
town law firms — has been
eliminated. Instead, upper-level
courses will begin Sept. 12, and stu-
dents will be expected to complete
their callback interviews before the
start of classes.
The reasons for changing the hiring
schedule and academic calendar were
twofold, said Assistant Dean for Ca-
reer Services Mark Weber. With the
change, students will get a “leg up” on
the job market without an interview
week that disrupts their class and
learning schedules, he said.
“We said, if we could move the in-
terviews up a week and students could
get their callback interviews done be-
fore classes, they’d get the best of
both worlds,” Weber said.
Weber noted that Harvard Law stu-
dents have been successful in securing
employment no matter when EIP and
flyout week were scheduled.
“We just think this will be even bet-
ter for our students,” he said. Weber
INSIDE
EIP, cont’d on pg. 2
The HL Record
News
• HLAB Elects 2011 Board
• WLA Plans Equality Conference
Culture
• “Tacky Prom” is Back
• Indie Band to Play Boston
Harvard Legal Aid Bureau Elects 2011 Board
Page 2
BY JENNY PAUL
Members of the Harvard Legal Aid
Bureau elected a new board of direc-
tors in January to manage Bureau serv-
ices and shepherd a development plan
to expand its legal service offerings in
the coming months.
Ten second-year law students will
serve on the Bureau’s board of direc-
tors for 2011. The Bureau’s 50 second-
and third-year “student advocates,”
who represent clients from Boston and
surrounding areas, elected the new
board.
The election process is “pretty infor-
mal,” newly elected President David
Williams said.
“A few weeks before elections start,
people talk about ideas they have, but
there’s definitely no official campaign-
ing,” Williams said. “It’s very colle-
gial. We’re all kind of one big happy
family.”
Williams said board members take
on the day-to-day management of the
Bureau. Members of the Board manage
case assignments, case files, recruit-
ment of new student advocates, and fi-
nancial issues, he said.
“Basically, we’re almost like our
own private law firm,” he said. “Run-
ning an organization like this takes a
lot of manpower….We don’t have a
huge support staff like a big firm’s
going to have. A lot of it is really peo-
ple who are dedicated to the organiza-
tion and would be good at doing these
particular tasks.”
Much of the Bureau’s work is cen-
tered in housing and family law, so stu-
dents choose to concentrate in one of
those areas. They then receive cases in-
cluding post-foreclosure and eviction
OCS: New Schedule Nesson Files Appeal
cases and divorce, custody, and re-
Will Eliminate
Flyout Week Class
Disruption
EIP, cont’d from pg. 1
also said the callback interview sched-
ule will be more flexible for students
and employers, who can choose to
schedule the second-round interviews
in either August or early September.
Weber said he spoke with student
leaders, administrators, and faculty
before finalizing the change, and they
voiced support for the new schedule.
Law firm recruiters have also been
supportive of the change, Weber said,
though he noted that firms would
rather have all law schools schedule
interview programs later in the year,
closer to when the firms will actually
be utilizing the summer classes they
hire.
“I think in a perfect world, law firms
would prefer that all of the hiring was
done outside of August, but we’re not
in a perfect world, and, quite candidly,
they understood why we made the
Harvard Law Record
The 2011 HLAB Board of Directors poses in front of Bureau headquarters. Front (l-r): Training Director
Tyeesha Dixon ‘12; Research/Tech Director Anush Emelianova ‘12; Outreach Director Sam Levine ‘12;
Vice President of Practice Standards Marcia Hook ‘12; Communications Director Sam Ferriss ‘12. Rear
(l-r): President David Williams ‘12; Membership Director Rebecca Livengood ‘12; Executive Director
Emily Hostage ‘12; Secretary/Treasurer Adrianna Rodriguez ‘12; Intake Director Michael Lumley ‘12.
straining order disputes, Williams said.
Each student works on about four to five
cases at a time and is supervised by a
clinical instructor. Clinical Prof. David
Grossman ’88 serves as managing attor-
ney for the Bureau.
Because students choose the cases the
Bureau takes on, each student advocate
is personally invested in the Bureau,
Williams said.
“There’s a level of investment and
dedication that you just don’t get with
your traditional clinical program,” he
change,” he said. “The consistent
message I’ve heard from employers is,
‘We’ll make the necessary adjust-
ments, because we want to hire from
Harvard.’”
Hiring data from the 2010 EIP pro-
gram and information on the 2011
program will be available later in the
spring semester, Weber said. He cau-
tioned that first-year students do not
have to worry about planning for their
EIP experience yet.
“We haven’t spent a lot of time
other than letting students know the
[EIP] dates, because it shouldn’t be a
priority of theirs right now,” Weber
said. “They should be getting re-ac-
climated to school, focusing on their
studies, learning about all the differ-
ent things they can do with a law de-
gree, and then we can start focusing
on the summer.”
said. “There’s also a large community
sense, too, which all of us enjoy and get
a lot out of.”
The Bureau is also developing an em-
ployment discrimination pilot program
this semester to supplement its current
employment law practice, Williams said.
Currently, the Bureau represents clients
in wage and hour cases, where clients
seek to recover unpaid or underpaid
wages from employers. The Bureau also
represents clients in unemployment in-
surance hearings at the Massachusetts
NESSON, cont’d from pg. 1
would encourage jurors to consider dif-
ferent types of infringement, like com-
mercial acts, or legislative intent.
“I think the jury is very much affected
by the top number they’re given on the
scale,” said Nesson. “It’s a very odd
thing because the jury is instructed they
can return a judgment that the judge
herself found would be unconstitu-
tional,” referring to Judge Gertner’s re-
duction of the damages by a factor of
ten.
That system may be changing. Two
years ago, said Nesson, it was almost
impossible to drum up sympathy for
Tenenbaum. Now that the focus of the
case is on damages, more people find
the law unreasonable, he said. With a
similar case proceeding in Minnesota
against Jammie Rasset-Thomas, repre-
sented pro bono by Kiwi Camara ’04,
there may soon be a split in circuits re-
garding statutory damages. That, says
Nesson, could be all that’s needed.
In Nov. 2010, the Supreme Court de-
nied certiorari for Harper v. Maverick
Recording Company, a similar case
against a 16-year-old file sharer. She
was unable to raise an innocent in-
fringer defense, as 17 U. S. C. §402(d)
essentially precludes innocence when
notice is given on “the published
phonorecord.” As Justice Alito said at
the time, arguing to grant certiorari, that
January 31, 2011
DAVID BRODY/HL RECORD STAFF
Department of Unemployment Assis-
tance. If the pilot program is successful,
the board may decide to roll out a more
comprehensive employment law pro-
gram in the fall of 2011, Williams said.
"Creating a comprehensive employ-
ment law practice will not only give Bu-
reau members more diverse practice
opportunities, but it also fills a large need
in the community. "In these tough eco-
nomic times when jobs are scarce, pro-
tecting workers' rights is more important
than ever."
law may be a bit dated.
“He recognizes in his opinion that the
way the law is being applied, a law cre-
ated for the analog world, doesn’t make
sense in the digital world,” said Nesson.
“I think that’s a real straw in the wind.”
Alito recognized the lack of a circuit
split and left, in his dissent, the door
open for another opportunity. By the
time a Supreme Court appeal rolls
around, though, new students may need
to play a role in Tenenbaum’s case.
Harrow, who Nesson describes as the
head of the team, has worked on the
case since his second year. As part of
the winning Ames Moot Court team
this past year, Harrow had already
logged quite a few hours in mock trials
and writing briefs. Nesson hopes to in-
clude him in the oral argument before
the First Circuit as well, which offers a
different perspective.
“It's hard to admit this after all the
time my teammates and I put into moot
court, but Ames is not real. Our ‘client’
in the Finals, Kermit McBride, never
really went to jail. But Joel is a real per-
son, and right now he has a judgment
against him that says that he has to pay
$67,500 to some of the biggest compa-
nies on the planet for sharing 30 songs,”
said Harrow. “That means that every
word we say to the court has to further
the goal of reversing that — not of
making us look good, like in Ames.”
GET SET TO TAKE TACKY BACK AT
January 31, 2011
SEVENTH ANNUAL “TACKY PROM”
HL Central, Student Government Host Dance, Open Bar
BY JENNY PAUL
Thought that frumpy bridesmaid
dress your cousin forced you to buy for
her special day a few years back would
never see the light of day again now
that you were at Harvard Law School?
Think again.
Pull that dress out of the back of your
closet and strut (or stumble) down
Mass. Ave. on your way to HL Cen-
tral’s seventh annual Tacky Prom on
Friday, Feb. 11.
The event will be held in Ropes Gray
from 9 p.m. – 1 a.m., and is cospon-
sored by Student Government. Friends
of Harvard Law students are also wel-
come, though everyone must be at least
21 to attend the Prom, which will fea-
ture snacks and an open bar with beer
and wine. There is no charge to attend
the event.
More than 500 students attended
Tacky Prom last year, said Diana
Berisha ‘12, HL Central’s 2L/3L events
coordinator. It’s the biggest event HL
Central organizes during the year, she
said.
“Tacky Prom is a great event because
it is one of the few social events at HLS
that really brings out almost everyone
Got rid of your “Jane Fonda Step Aerobics” leotard
20 years ago? Here are some local stores where you
can purchase other people’s fashion missteps.
Urban Renewals
122 Brighton Ave
Allston, MA 02134
Goodwill
230 Elm Street
Somerville, MA 02144
Page 3
at the law school, gets them to dress up,
and have a good time,” Berisha said.
“Most 2Ls and 3Ls would probably say
it was one of the highlights of their
time at Harvard.”
First-years, don’t be shy — students
go all out to assemble their tackiest get-
ups.
“There’s a lot of people who do
pretty impressive old-bridesmaid-dress
tacky, puffy sleeves — Napoleon Dy-
namite style,” Berisha said. “That and
‘80s tacky are the most prevalent.
There’s a whole mix of different kinds
of outfits.”
This year’s Tacky theme draws from
Ke$ha’s “Your Love is my Drug.”
“We chose the Ke$ha theme just be-
cause we wanted something fun and
current that fits with the Valentine's
Day love theme, but in a tacky way,”
Berisha said.
There may be plenty of desert hipster
junkie couture with neon tribal paint,
but, really, anything goes. According to
Berisha, there is no “perfect” Tacky
Prom outfit.
“I think for the most part, it’s what-
ever your own definition of tacky is,”
she said.
HLS students strut their tackiest ensembles at Tacky Prom 2009.
-Photos courtesy of HL Central
The Garment District
200 Broadway
Cambridge, MA 02139
Great Eastern Trading
Company
49 River Street
Cambridge, MA 02139
 STUDENTS WORK AND PLAY IN DISTANT
Page 4 Harvard Law Record January 31, 2011

LANDS DURING J-TERM

Twenty Harvard Law students spent J-Term in San Jose, Costa Rica for a course taught by Profs. James Caval-
laro and Stephanie Brewer.

I was in a 20-person class called "Doctrine and Practice of the Inter-American Court
of Human Rights." As the Court is located in San Jose, Costa Rica, the course was
taught there. This gave us the opportunity to tour the Court and meet with one of the
lawyers for the Court (the equivalent of a clerk) who explained to us how the Court
functioned. The course was co-taught by Prof. James Cavallaro and Prof. Stephanie
Brewer, who have both litigated cases before the Court and were able to provide in-
sight into how they strategized both the legal and advocacy aspects of cases. We also
had the opportunity to meet with Judge Sonia Picado, a former judge of the Court and
the first woman to serve on the Court. She told us about her experience serving on
the Court, including the discrimination she experienced as a woman, and answered
questions about her opinion on the development of jurisprudence at the Court.
-Katie Fischl ‘12
I conducted research for a paper on legislation before the Brazil-
ian National Congress that would effectuate a major overhaul of
the notoriously inefficient Brazilian tax system. I had the oppor-
tunity to speak with the main architects of the proposal, including
the Attorney General Luís Inácio Adams. The project provided
me the unique chance to observe a legal regime in a state of fun-
damental flux, as the government works to accommodate rapid
modernization and economic development.
-Jason Gross ‘12

Jason Gross ‘12 and Brazilian Attorney General Luis Inacio Adams pose after meeting in the Attorney General’s
office in the capital city of Brasilia.
 STUDENTS TRADE SNOW FOR SUN, FUN,
January 31, 2011 Harvard Law Record Page 5

EXPLORATION (AND SCHOOL, TOO)

Gaurav Toshniwal ‘12, Jason Gross ‘12, and Parker Zangoei ‘12 in front of the Escadaria Selaron, a landmark in the bohemian neighbor-
hood of Lapa in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

I spent four weeks in Brazil during January term this year — three weeks in
Rio de Janeiro and one in Sao Paulo. The purpose of my trip was to do research
and conduct interviews that would assist me in writing a paper about the Brazil-
ian Bar Association's regulations for foreign firms practicing in Brazil. The
Brazilian economy has taken off in the last several years, and with a booming
economy comes a boom in investors seeking to find an entry into the growing I travelled to Brazil to work on an independent paper on financial regulation.
market. Naturally, where investment increases, so does legal work, and in the The paper examines Brazilian financial regulation and macroeconomic policy
past two years, thirteen major international firms have opened offices in Brazil. during the recent financial crisis and contrasts Brazil’s relatively successful per-
Brazil, like most countries, has rules that govern who can and who cannot es- formance with the more turbulent experience of other big commodity exporters
tablish a legal practice within the country and in what kind of work such prac- such as Russia. I spent the first two weeks of my trip at a Brazilian law school,
tice can engage. With the vast influx of international firms, there exists some Fundação Getulio Vargas (FGV), in Rio de Janeiro, where he discussed and de-
tension in what the Brazilian Bar Association rules are and how they will be in- veloped his paper with professors at that school. I also travelled to São Paulo to
terpreted and implied — not to mention the political pressures playing a role in interview various market participants including risk managers at financial in-
the background. I was able to interview several partners at law firms in Brazil, stitutions, economists at private sector banks and portfolio managers and traders
both at local firms and at international firms with an office in the country. Out at investment management firms.
of these interviews, I was able to gain insight into the perspective of each group -Gaurav Toshniwal ‘12
and their individual expectations about the future of the countries expanding
legal market.
I've always found traveling to be a worthwhile endeavor, and Brazil was no
exception. Experiencing a new culture and its people was a great experience
that proved for a great time. I'm currently enrolled in David Wilkins's course on
Global Lawyers and Emerging Economies where I continue to study Brazil and
plan to go back in, hopefully, the not too distant future.

-Parker Zangoei ‘12

 OPINION
Harvard A 3L’s Advice: To Succeed at HLS,
Page 6 January 31, 2011

Law March to the Beat of Your Own Drum

Record BY ALBERT WU
I got off the waitlist for Harvard
part of Harvard Law above all else
was being snuffed out. Getting an LP
when grades were released in Febru-
need to shed my identity because of
what I thought was success or how
others were succeeding. My success at
Law School on July 4th weekend. I
ary further woke me up that I was Harvard Law School was part and par-
ESTABLISHED MCMXLVI
remember the day vividly: my room-
doing something wrong, especially cel with retaining my identity.
mate at Penn Law had just forwarded
because I received it in the course for A professor of mine here at law
Publisher
Naira Der Kiureghian me the lease to sign for our apartment
which I studied the most after be- school once told me that in order to
in Philadelphia. For seven months, I
grudgingly attending every class, de- have direction in life, it is not only
had been laying plans to live in the
Editor-in-Chief
Joey Seiler spite my instincts otherwise. “So necessary to know just who you are,
City of Brotherly Love, taking classes
really,” I dared to ask, “what is there but who you are not. Many students
at Wharton or maybe pursuing a
to lose if I do things differently next here will find and meet their callings
J.D./M.B.A. Looking back on it now,
Managing Editor
Jenny Paul year?” by becoming partners, judges, and ac-
I am fairly certain I was one of the last
As a 2L, I began to focus on things ademics. They will go on to represent
students to be admitted into Harvard
outside of school, such as my friends our school in extraordinary ways, but
Law’s class of 2011.
Photo Editor
David Brody and my health, to balance with the that’s not who I am. My vision of suc-
The countless letters I sent to Toby
habits I had previously thought were cess has, and always will be, working
Stock, the Dean of Admissions at the
necessary for me to be a “successful” across communities to give people
time, over the span of those seven
Contributors
Harvard Law School student. It faith in their leaders and their govern-
Edmund Mokhtarian months probably helped. I sent those
worked. I ended up getting H’s and ment.
Jenna Swiren letters because I was confident Har-
even a Dean’s Scholar, I joined Stu- My passion shouldn’t have to be put
Albert Wang vard Law was the one place that
dent Government and was able to on hold only to be rekindled three
would open up limitless opportunities
Albert Wu make some minor but important years down the line. I need to define
and challenge me to compete against
changes, and, most importantly, I my success instead of accepting a def-
the best and the brightest. My scores
began building the foundations for inition forced on me by others during
were right on the cusp, though, so
lifelong friendships. my moments of insecurity. I give
when I went to bed the night after I
record@law.harvard.edu I was actually a little worried before credit to my friends, for giving me
got the phone call from Toby saying I
Submit Letters and Editorials to:

or I decided to change my approach to respite from the echo-chamber of anx-

had been accepted to HLS, I got down
Harvard Law Record being a law student. In hindsight, my iety, and I need to remember that
on my knees and prayed for the first
Harvard Law School fears were unfounded. I had struggled Walden Pond is also not too far away.
time in my life.
Cambridge, MA 02138-9984 with the insecurity of thinking I did- Someone marched to his own beat
By mid-September, I was miserable.
n’t have what it took to “succeed” at there. Perhaps I can figure out how to
The passion that motivated those let-
law school, but realized that I didn’t do that here.

Indie group’s mellow set makes

ters and that made me want to be a
Letters and opinion columns will be
published on a space-available basis.
The editors reserve the right to edit

upcoming concert a must-see

for length and delay printing. All
letters must be signed. Deadline for
submissions is 11:30 p.m. Tuesday.
The Harvard Law Record is a publication
of The Harvard Law School Record Cor-
poration. All rights reserved. The Harvard BY JENNA SWIREN merchandise, including beer cozies and old-school sun-
glasses, on this tour.
Law School name and shield are trade- Best Coast, a West Coast indie band fronted by Bethany
marks of the President and Fellows of You don’t have to be an indie music fan to enjoy the low-
Cosentino, made a splash in the Boston indie scene during
Harvard College and are used with permis- fi, summery music. The band’s lyrics are simple, but leave
a Fall 2010 tour. The chillwave band returns this February
sion from Harvard University. an indelible impression. Cosentino and fellow band mem-
to a larger venue alongside Wavves, a genre mate of which
ber Bobb Bruno
Cosentino’s boyfriend is
have explosive
a member.
stage personalities
Want to Although Paradise
that are spectacular
Rock Club does not
to witness. If noth-
have the same under-
write for the ing else, a mellow
ground feel as the Mid-
night of chill beach
dle East, where Best
music should be a
Harvard Law Coast last appeared in
welcome respite
Beantown, the space
from the cramped
will provide plenty of
Record? Langdell carrels.
concertgoers with the
When you leave
opportunity to hear a
Paradise, you will
line-up of solid bands,
be singing Best
purchase the band’s
Coast’s “When I’m
News, merchandise, and, of
With You” to your-
course, drink plenty.
book reviews, self and wishing the
Last September I was
concert never
one of the many fans
interviews, ended.
who got a chance to
points of view — hear the band perform
Who: No Joy,
its repertoire in Central
Best Coast, Wavves
all are welcome. Square, where it led a
When: Friday,
smaller tour. Cosentino
February 4, 2011
bantered about song ori-
Where: Paradise
gin and tour stories, just
Contact Rock Club, Boston,
enough to keep a fan en-
MA
thralled. The focus was the music, with the band perform-
harvardlawrecord Songs to YouTube before going: “When I’m With You,”
ing almost all of its 24 songs off of various EPs and its
“Boyfriend,” “Bratty B,” “Sun Was High (So Was I)”
@gmail.com to get Summer 2010 album, “Crazy for You.” With barely four
Additional Suggestion: Tell band member Bethany
months between tour visits, the band has only released one
involved! Cosentino it’s your birthday, and she just might invite you
new non-collaboration song, “When You Wake Up,” avail-
on stage with her (confirmed at the November Phoenix,
able on a split album with other bands on the tour. Ac-
Ariz. show).
cording to Pitchfork.com, fans can also pick up new
 FAST FOOD NIGHTMARE: THE SEARCH
January 31, 2011
FOR BOSTON’S QUINTESSENTIAL BURGER
BY EDMUND MOKHTARIAN
Few cities truly encapsulate America
quite like Boston. Home of the Free-
dom Trail, Paul Revere, and the Red
Sox, Boston serves as a constant re-
minder of both American history and
culture.
But what about American cuisine? A
a city as American as Boston has to
have a true all-American meal. You can
go to the North End for Italian. We have
Thai food galore. But where is the best
burger and fries?
Bartley’s Burger Cottage
Address: 1246 Massachusetts Ave,
Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138.
Burger Combo: Countless varieties.
Mine had Bacon, Grilled Onions, and
Mushrooms. About $9-$11.50.
I’ll start out with Harvard’s own sta-
ple, Bartley’s. Located near Harvard
Square, it is the students’ pick for best
burger in town. That’s no surprise, ei-
ther. As you enter Bartley’s, you’re
transported to a surreal little shack and
barraged by political caricatures, black
and white photos of the Beatles, and
old-school cigarette advertisements.
But once I bit into my burger, I real-
ized Bartley’s was all show. The
burger’s huge meat patty tasted under-
seasoned and under-flavored, despite its
massive size. Worse, the gargantuan
patty overshadowed all the other, tastier
ingredients. The crisp bacon, over-
salted to death, didn’t make matters bet-
ter.
Still, some of the ingredients stood
out. Best of all was the cheese, so gooey
that it amplified every single bite with
creaminess. The mushrooms and sweet
grilled onions, piled on like a miniature
mountain, helped to compensate for the
meat’s flavorlessness — just not
enough.
Middlesex Lounge
Address: 315 Massachusetts Avenue,
Cambridge, MA 02139.
Burger Combo: Ciabatta, Bacon,
American Cheese, Pickles, Lettuce,
Tomato, Onion. $7.25.
EDMUND MOKHTARIAN/PHOTO COURTESY
Radius serves a “massive burger, oozing all over with horseradish
mayo, topped with a mountain of fried onions.”
With the myth of Bartley’s greatness
busted, I roamed the rest of Cambridge,
looking for another burger to take Bart-
ley’s place. I finally arrived at Middle-
sex Lounge, one of the trendier
restaurants and clubs in town, which
serves its burger until the late hours of
the night.
Yet the loud, pulsing techno and the
throngs of wild dancers could not help
save this burger from the scrap list. The
burger’s key downfall lay in the very
factor that many diners have hailed as
its claim to fame, the monstrous cia-
batta buns. The ciabatta is more utili-
tarian than beneficial. It props up the
weight of the dense burger and sops the
juiciness of the meat, which could turn
even the hardest bun soggy. Still, the
buns dominated the flavor of the burger
and made every bite feel abrasive.
The other components didn’t help. As
with Bartley’s, the bacon was aggres-
sively salty. Moreover, the meat was
overcooked, with rough, nearly burnt
edges. The thin slice of cheese was a
no-show in the flavor department.
Finally, the biggest sin of all, the
burger came with a bag of potato chips,
no fries. Need I say more?
KO Prime
Address: 90 Tremont St., Boston, MA
01208.
Burger Combo: Foie Gras, Kobeyaki,
Secret Sauce. $19.
After Middlesex, I knew I had to kick
it up a notch if I wanted to find a true
quality burger in Boston. So I stepped
into one of Boston’s best steakhouses,
KO Prime, known for its ultra-gourmet
foie gras burger. Accompanying that
burger is an equally refined ambience,
full of moody lighting, plush couches,
colorful neon lights, and one of the
coolest bars in town.
This foie burger did a few things
well, not the least of which was that it
was served fresh off the grill, with a
patty that literally oozed savory oil as I
touched it. That same oiliness was, un-
fortunately, an Achilles’ heel, as the
bottom bun fell apart. Even so, the patty
tasted delicious, leaving just the right
EDMUND MOKHTARIAN/PHOTO COURTESY
K.O. Prime serves a foie gras burger, but only places a small, grilled
triangle of foie gras on top of a fatty beef patty.
amount of fat slathered all over the
mouth without ever feeling mushy or
soggy. It could have used more season-
ing, though.
I can’t say so much for the foie gras,
unfortunately. While I did get a slightly
bitter, subtle aftertaste, the foie gras was
simply relegated to a small, grilled tri-
angle placed neatly on top of the patty.
The taste was all but lost under the
patty’s relentless juiciness. The same
goes for the “secret sauce,” a zesty
lemon mayo, which had little noticeable
effect on the burger.
Sel de la Terre
Address: 255 State St., Boston, MA
02109.
Burger Combo: Grilled New England
Ground Beef, Vermont Cheddar,
Pancetta and Spicy Aioli. $14.
Disappointed with my last “gourmet”
experience, I decided to go for some-
thing more complex but less gimmicky.
I settled on Sel de la Terre, which at-
tempts to infuse the traditional burger
with some minor innovations. The end
result felt muddled, however, as though
the burger lacked a true identity or fla-
vor profile.
At first, I found the huge burger,
cooked to a beautiful red in the middle,
delicious, but I soon began to notice
larger and larger flaws. First was the ex-
treme saltiness of the overly generous
portion of pancetta. Second, the garlic
aioli simply did not come through — a
shame, since it had the potential to ele-
vate the burger with its herby richness,
which helped to bring all the disparate
elements together. Worst of all, though,
was the gigantic, overpowering bun, so
dry that it interfered with the burger’s
delicious savoriness.
Radius
Address: 8 High Street, Boston, MA
02110.
Burger Combo: Vermont Cheddar,
Horseradish Mayo, Fried Onion
Strings. $19.
By this point, I had virtually given up
on Boston’s burger scene — until I
reached Radius, one of the city’s best
restaurants. Upon entering, I found my-
Page 7
self drawn to the chic blend of modern
and classic, including a ring of blazing
red running across the domed ceiling.
If nothing else, I knew this burger
would have some style.
Style doesn’t begin to explain the
success. As the plate plopped down, I
saw a massive burger, oozing all over
with horseradish mayo, topped with a
mountain of fried onions. At first, I
feared the sight: I’d never liked horse-
radish, and I was almost certain it
would ruin this beauty. Yet, as I bit in, I
realized that this burger was not just the
best of Boston, but also the best I’d
eaten, ever. It even sold me on horse-
radish.
Everything came together in pure
harmony. The horseradish mayo was
surprisingly nuanced, with a subtle pep-
pery, spicy tanginess that I found irre-
sistible. The onions didn’t feel cloying,
instead adding just the right amount of
sweetness and oil to an already com-
plex dish. And the texture was superb.
The creamy, rich sauce acted as the es-
sential glue between the chunkier meat
and the crunchy onions.
The Final Verdict
In some ways, this mission could be
considered an absolute failure. Among
the five burgers I tried, most failed mis-
erably. They were over-seasoned, gim-
micky, confused, and at times even
cooked improperly.
However, Boston does have one gem
— not just a gem, but the Holy Grail of
burgers, the one that eluded me every-
where in my travels, from New York to
Los Angeles to Chicago. Radius is the
definitive burger experience.
Edmund Mokhtarian is a food critic
and blogger. At his blog, The Food
Buster (www.thefoodbuster.com), he re-
views restaurants, bakeries, wines, and
chocolates from around the nation and
the world.
Visit http://www.hlrecord.org for an
expanded verison of this article, in-
cluding reviews of the restaurants’
french fry offerings.
 Women’s Law Association Conference to
Page 8
Take Interdisciplinary Look at Equality
BY JOEY SEILER
Last year’s keynote speaker at the
Harvard Women’s Law Association
Conference, Valerie Jarrett, drew a
standing-room-only crowd to Ropes
Gray. Conference organizers hope for
a repeat this year on Feb. 11, 2011.
The theme for the fifth annual con-
ference is “This is What Equality
Looks Like: The World We Want for
Women & Girls,” and the conference
reflects the broad theme. Conference
organizers have reached out to other
parts of the Harvard community, in-
cluding the Kennedy School, Masters
of Public Health students, and under-
graduates.
“We’re really hoping for a diverse
audience,” said Conference Co-Chair
Poppy Alexander. “It was a priority for
us, making sure this was an event for
the entire campus. We bring in some
truly excellent speakers, and it’s a
unique opportunity to have that many
people from that many fields in one
room and we want to share that.”
The programming, which includes
panels on equality in health, econom-
ics, the judiciary, and for girls
stretches beyond traditional law school
fare. Although these are the major
ways lawyers tend to discuss equality,
said Alexander, the goal is to reach
women who don’t frequent Langdell,
including a group of local Girl Scouts
Harvard Law Record
who have already registered.
Those more interested in the legal
side of things won’t feel left out,
though. A panel on “Equality on Both
Sides of the Bench” brings together,
among others, the Honorable Deborah
Batts of the Southern District of New
York and Lisa Blatt, a partner at
Arnold & Porter who, with her thirti-
eth argument before the Supreme
Court, just set the record among
women litigators.
“It’s amazing to have someone of
that caliber in a friendly conversation
with the judge, who would normally
be on the other side of the bench,” said
Alexander.
Keynoting the event is Russlynn H.
Ali, the Assistant Secretary for Civil
Rights at the U.S. Department of Edu-
cation. A veteran education advocate,
Ali reports to Secretary of Education
Arne Duncan as his main adviser on
civil rights and education.
“Russlyn Ali is a truly inspirational
person who speaks her mind, lives her
beliefs, and makes the lives of women
and girls better every day,” Lecturer on
Law Diane Rosenfeld L.L.M. ‘96 told
the Record via email. Rosenfeld
counts Ali as both a colleague and
friend after the Secretary attended
Rosenfeld’s Title IX seminar in 2009
and the two collaborated to raise
awareness of schools’ roles in prevent-
January 31, 2011
“This is What Equality Looks
Like: The World We Want for
Women & Girls”
Conference Schedule of Events
8:30-9 Breakfast
9:00-9:15 Introduction
9:15-10:30 Health & Equality
10:35-11:50 Equality and Economics
12:00-12:10 Welcome from Dean Minow
12:10-1:00 Keynote
1:00-2:15 Roundtable Luncheon
2:20-3:35 Equality on Both Sides of the
Bench
3:40-4:55 Equality for Girls
5:00 Cocktail Reception
6:30 Dinner Banquet
ing sexual violence on campus. women's rights to equality in educa-
“Everyone should come hear her talk tion. We are honored to have her on
about the innovative leadership she campus.”
provides as the Assistant Secretary for
the Office of Civil Rights of the US For more information and to regis-
Department of Education,” said ter, visit the conference website:
Rosenfeld. “She has transformed the http://hlsorgs.com/wla/conference/
Office into a place that takes seriously