Charles Rothwell Nesson (born February 11, 1939) is the
William F. Weld Professor of Law at
Harvard Law School
Harvard Law School (Harvard Law or HLS) is the law school of Harvard University, a private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1817, it is the oldest continuously operating law school in the United States.
Each class i ...
and the founder of the
Berkman Center for Internet & Society
The Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society is a research center at Harvard University that focuses on the study of cyberspace. Founded at Harvard Law School, the center traditionally focused on internet-related legal issues. On May 15, 2008, ...
and of the Global Poker Strategic Thinking Society.
He is author of ''Evidence'', with Murray and Green, and has participated in several cases before the
U.S. Supreme Court
The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all U.S. federal court cases, and over state court cases that involve a point o ...
, including the landmark case ''
Daubert v. Merrell Dow Pharmaceuticals''.
In 1971, Nesson defended
Daniel Ellsberg in the
Pentagon Papers
The ''Pentagon Papers'', officially titled ''Report of the Office of the Secretary of Defense Vietnam Task Force'', is a United States Department of Defense history of the United States' political and military involvement in Vietnam from 1945 ...
case.
He was co-counsel for the plaintiffs in the case against
W. R. Grace and Company
W. R. Grace and Co. is an American chemical business based in Columbia, Maryland. It produces specialty chemicals and specialty materials in two divisions: Grace Catalysts Technologies, which makes catalysts and related products and technologies ...
that was made into the book ''
A Civil Action
''A Civil Action'' is a 1995 non-fiction book by Jonathan Harr about a water contamination case in Woburn, Massachusetts, in the 1980s. The book became a best-seller. It won the National Book Critics Circle Award for nonfiction.
The case is ...
'', which was, in turn, made into the film of the same name. Nesson's nickname in the book, Billion-Dollar Charlie, was given to him by Mark Phillips, who worked with him on the W.R. Grace case.
Nesson is currently "interested in advancing justice in
Jamaica, the evolution of the
Internet, as well as
national drug policy."
Early life and education
Nesson attended
Harvard College as an undergraduate, studying mathematics. He took the law school boards junior year, earning a nearly perfect score, but he was initially rejected early admission from
Harvard Law School
Harvard Law School (Harvard Law or HLS) is the law school of Harvard University, a private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1817, it is the oldest continuously operating law school in the United States.
Each class i ...
for his grades.
[ After improving his grades, Nesson was accepted. Nesson surprised himself by achieving and retaining a ranking of first out of five hundred students.][ He is rumored to have achieved the highest grade point average since Felix Frankfurter graduated in 1907.][ In 1962 he received the Sears Prize ($750) for the highest grade average in the first and second years of law school.
Nesson was a ]law clerk
A law clerk or a judicial clerk is a person, generally someone who provides direct counsel and assistance to a lawyer or judge by researching issues and drafting legal opinions for cases before the court. Judicial clerks often play significant ...
to Justice John Marshall Harlan II
John Marshall Harlan (May 20, 1899 – December 29, 1971) was an American lawyer and jurist who served as an associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court from 1955 to 1971. Harlan is usually called John Marshall Harlan II to distinguish him ...
on the United States Supreme Court, 1965 term. He then worked as a special assistant in the Department of Justice
A justice ministry, ministry of justice, or department of justice is a ministry or other government agency in charge of the administration of justice. The ministry or department is often headed by a minister of justice (minister for justice in a ...
Civil Rights Division under John Doar
John Michael Doar (December 3, 1921 – November 11, 2014) was an American lawyer and senior counsel with the law firm Doar Rieck Kaley & Mack in New York City. During the administrations of presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson, he ...
.[ His first case, '' White v. Crook', made race-based and gender-based jury selection in ]Alabama
(We dare defend our rights)
, anthem = " Alabama"
, image_map = Alabama in United States.svg
, seat = Montgomery
, LargestCity = Huntsville
, LargestCounty = Baldwin County
, LargestMetro = Greater Birmingham
, area_total_km2 = 135,7 ...
unconstitutional. Nesson joined the Harvard Law School faculty in 1966, and was tenured three years later. In 1998, he co-founded Harvard's Berkman Center for Internet & Society
The Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society is a research center at Harvard University that focuses on the study of cyberspace. Founded at Harvard Law School, the center traditionally focused on internet-related legal issues. On May 15, 2008, ...
.
Current activities
He is currently leading a project to "reify university as a meta player in cyberspace", to advance restorative justice in Jamaica, and to legitimize and teach poker and the value of strategic poker thinking. For the last one, he made an appearance on '' The Colbert Report''. When Colbert joked that Nesson may have a gambling problem, he responded, "My gambling problem is that poker gets lumped in with gambling."
In May 2008, he represented the founder of National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws
The National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML ) is a social welfare organization based in Washington, D.C., that advocates for the reform of marijuana laws in the United States regarding both medical and non-medical use. Ac ...
(NORML) and the publisher of ''High Times Magazine
''High Times'' is an American monthly magazine (and cannabis brand) that advocates the legalization of cannabis as well as other counterculture ideas. The magazine was founded in 1974 by Tom Forcade.Danko, Danny"Norml Founder Retires – Exhale ...
'', who wished to challenge Massachusetts marijuana possession laws after they were arrested for smoking marijuana at the 2007 Boston Freedom Rally
The Boston Freedom Rally (often confused with Seattle's Hempfest) is an annual event in Boston, in the U.S. state of Massachusetts. Held on the third Saturday in September, it is traditionally the second largest annual gathering demanding mariju ...
. The defendants were found guilty and sentenced to a day in jail. Nesson planned, in the wake of the conviction, to appeal the verdict.
In 2006, he taught CyberOne: Law in the Court of Public Opinion with Rebecca Nesson and Gene Koo. He teaches courses in the law and practice of evidence, Trials in '' Second Life'', where he is represented by his avatar "Eon", and a reading group with Fern Nesson on Freedom. He also teaches a class on the American Jury.
Nesson continued to defend Joel Tenenbaum
''Sony BMG Music Entertainment v. Tenenbaum (1st Circuit Court)'' is the appeals lawsuit which followed the U.S. District Court case '' Sony BMG v. Tenenbaum'', No. 07cv11446-NG (D. Mass. Dec. 7, 2009).
The initial district court decision awarded ...
, who is accused of downloading and sharing 31 songs on Kazaa file-sharing network, after the jury came to a $675,000 verdict against Tenenbaum. Many of Nesson's less conventional actions, including an "almost obsessive desire for transparency and documentation", drew criticism. Nesson had encouraged his client to admit that he had downloaded and shared the 31 songs after he had denied it in depositions.
In Jamaica, Nesson is pro bono counsel to the Westmoreland Hemp & Ganja Farmers Association (WHGFA).
Publications
Selected publications:
* Green, Nesson & Murray, ''Evidence'' (3rd ed. Aspen)
* ''Constitutional Hearsay: Requiring Foundational Testing and Corroboration under the Confrontation Clause'', 81 Va. L. Rev. 149 (1995), with Yochai Benkler
Yochai Benkler (; born 1964) is an Israeli-American author and the Berkman Professor of Entrepreneurial Legal Studies at Harvard Law School. He is also a faculty co-director of the Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society at Harvard Univers ...
* ''Incentives to Spoliate Evidence in Civil Litigation: The Need for Vigorous Judicial Action'', 13 Cardozo L. Rev. 793 (1991)
* ''Agent Orange Meets the Blue Bus: Factfinding at the Frontier of Knowledge'', 66 B.U.L. Rev. 521 (1986)
* ''The Evidence or the Event? On Judicial Proof and the Acceptability of Verdicts'', 98 Harvard Law Review 1357 (1985)
* ''Reasonable Doubt and Permissive Inferences: The Value of Complexity'', 92 Harvard Law Review 1187 (1979)
Personal life
Following his tenure at Harvard, Nesson married Fern Leicher Nesson, one of his students, and bought a home in Cambridge, Massachusetts
Cambridge ( ) is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. As part of the Boston metropolitan area, the cities population of the 2020 U.S. census was 118,403, making it the fourth most populous city in the state, behind Boston, ...
, near the Harvard
Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher l ...
campus where he has since lived. The Nessons have two daughters, Rebecca and Leila, and four grandchildren, Nico and Charlie, Sasha and Max and a dog affectionately called "Sweet Pea".[
]
See also
* List of law clerks of the Supreme Court of the United States (Seat 9)
References
External links
Charles Nesson's blog
Charles Nesson's webpage at Harvard Law
Profile at Harvard Law
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Nesson, Charles
Law clerks of the Supreme Court of the United States
American legal scholars
Lawyers from Cambridge, Massachusetts
1939 births
Living people
Harvard Law School alumni
Harvard Law School faculty
Harvard College alumni