Wald to deliver Haas lecture today
Michael Wald
Michael Wald, the Jackson Eli Reynolds Professor of Law, Emeritus, will deliver the fifth annual Miriam and Peter E. Haas Centennial Professorship Lecture on Public Service and the University. Wald's talk will be held today from 4:30 to 6 p.m. in the Fisher Conference Center at the Arrillaga Alumni Center. It is free and open to the public.
In his lecture, titled "'Those Who Can, Do; Those Who Can't, Teach' … True? Lessons from Government Service," Wald will discuss his experiences working in local, state and federal government positions while on leave from Stanford. He will address issues such as the transition from academic culture into government culture, how an academic background helps—and doesn't—when working in the political world, and how government service can influence teaching.
Wald has spent the past 40 years providing leadership for the integration of a public service curriculum and direct experience into the training of Law School graduates. His principal subjects are children and public policy, law and social change, and family law. He also has served as a mentor, helping hundreds of students pursue careers in public interest law.
Wald established the Law School's first public interest legal clinic and its first externship program to serve the needs of the poor and at risk in the area: the East Palo Alto Community Law Project. The project assists needy clients from East Palo Alto, eastern Menlo Park, Redwood City and surrounding communities with legal problems related to housing, workers' rights and government benefits.
The National Center for Youth Law has honored Wald for outstanding contributions to the protection of children's rights. He has published extensively on public policies concerning children and families, and in 2006, he was selected by the Haas Center for Public Service to receive the Miriam Aaron Roland Volunteer Service Prize (shared with sociology Professor Donald Barr).
The Haas Center sponsors the annual lecture, which is held under the guidance of the Miriam and Peter Haas Centennial Professor in Public Service, Al Camarillo (history). Preceding the lecture will be a reception at 4 p.m., also in the Fisher Conference Center and open to the public.
