Harvard Law Launches Lecture Series on Role of Poker in the Legal World

For Immediate Release/Oct. 15, 2007
Contacts: Andrew Woods (310-254-5218)
Jon Cohen (203-722-1858)
www.gpsts.org

Harvard Law Launches Lecture Series on Role of Poker in the Legal World

Group of Scholars Will Debate Legal and Ethical Issues of Online Gaming For Broadcast Over Internet and Second Life

Boston (October 15, 2007) — Harvard Law School's new student-led Poker Strategic Thinking Society (GPSTS) and a leading Harvard professor have scheduled a series of lectures and conferences to examine the role of poker in the law and education.

The lectures, open to the media and to take place at 5 p.m. in Room 102 of Hauser Hall on the law school campus at 1563 Massachusetts Avenue, will begin on Monday (October 15) and continue for the remainder of the Fall Semester. They are being sponsored by Harvard's Global Poker Strategic Thinking Society, which is organizing student poker societies on university campuses nationwide, and Harvard Law Professor Charles Nesson, who is focusing on the study of poker as an academic exercise.

More information on the lecture series can be found at www.gpsts.org/events.

Events scheduled thus far include:

Poker: A Game of Truth In Life and Law (to take place at 5 p.m. on Oct. 15) features Crandell Addington, co-founder of the World Series of Poker and a member of the Poker Hall of Fame, and Howard Lederer, a professional poker player who has won millions of dollars in prize money. They are going to examine how the game of poker mirrors the challenges of life in terms of risk-taking, management skills, decision-making, and strategic thinking. Moderating the lecture and adding insights will be Harvard Law Professor Charles Nesson, the founder of the Berkman Center on Internet Law and Society, and Andrew Woods, a Harvard Law student and the director of Harvard's student poker club (called the Poker Strategic Thinking Society). This lecture will take place on Oct. 15 at 5 p.m. in Rm. 102 of Hauser Hall.

Law as Rhetorical Poker: Antigua v. USA in the WTO (to take place at 5 p.m. on Oct. 16 in the same location) focuses on the current international trade dispute over online gaming that pits the tiny island nation of Antigua against the U.S. at the World Trade Organization. The WTO recently ruled that the U.S. has violated its international treaty commitments by barring overseas online gaming operators from the U.S. market. The implications of this novel case will be discussed by Simon Lester, an expert in international trade law; Steven Donziger, a lawyer involved in aspects of the WTO matter who will discuss asymmetrical litigation strategies (when a seemingly weak litigant like Antigua is able to defeat a more powerful adversary, such as the U.S. government); and Jonathon Cohen, a lawyer and communications strategist.

The Educational Value of Poker, an academic conference in Austin Hall on Nov. 10 that will feature Jim McManus, Mike Sexton, and Dr. Alan Schoonmaker. McManus will present his new book "The History of Poker", analyzing past American luminaries, from senators to presidents to generals, for whom poker has been a significant aspect of their education. Poker celebrity Mike Sexton will discuss the explosion of the popularity of poker, the lessons that poker teaches, and the manner in which the intense popularity of poker makes it possible to reach students. Alan Schoonmaker will present his article, co-written with David Sklansky, "Poker is Good for You", analyzing the lessons of poker. The conference will be open, and anyone interested in the study of poker and in investigating the utility of poker is encouraged to attend.

The lecture series began on Oct. 9 with an examination of a Department of Justice policy to prosecute companies in the online gaming industry, which operates legally in most of the world except in the U.S. The lecture featured a debate between criminal defense lawyer Harvey Silvergate, trial and appellate lawyer Matt Feinberg, and Assistant Clinical Professor of Law Alex Whiting. The lecture was titled The Principle of Law and Prosecutorial Abuse of IT and examined prosecutorial power in eliciting guilty pleas.

In explaining the lecture series, Professor Nesson said: "The conflict between the U.S. government and the growing online gambling industry is a timely issue for law students interested in the impact of international treaties on domestic U.S. law, and Internet freedom and regulation."

"I am excited that this lecture series will examine the complex legal and ethical issues relating to online gambling and poker, and will extend the Harvard Law classroom beyond the conventional setting via the Internet and Second Life," added Nesson, who founded the Global Poker Strategic Thinking Society (GPSTS) and who has been a tenured faculty member at Harvard for more than three decades.

More about the lecture series

The lecture series forms part of a larger experiment in opening up legal education to a worldwide audience. Taking advantage of new technology, each lecture will be produced in successively more complex ways in order to engage with a cyber audience, culminating in a live webcast into Second Life. Second Life is a 3-D virtual world entirely built and owned by its residents. Since opening in 2003, it has grown explosively and today could accommodate small classrooms of students from around the world. Welcome to Poker University coming to you from Berkman Island.

About Charles Nesson

Charles Nesson is the William F. Weld Professor of Law, Harvard Law School and Founder and Co-Director of the Berkman Center for Internet & Society. He is joined on the GPSTS board by Stanford Law School Professor Lawrence Lessig, who is the author of Code and Other Laws of Cyberspace and a previous Berkman Professor of Law.

Additional contacts:

Douglas McMahon
dmcmahon@llm08.law.harvard.edu

Ben Brofman, The Weiser Group
(646) 254-6000 x15
bbrofman@weisergroup.com

Emily Dupraz, Harvard Law School
(617) 495-3118
edupraz@law.harvard.edu

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