A memorial service for Louis Loss, Cromwell professor of law emeritus, will be held today at 2:30 p.m. in Ames Courtroom at Austin Hall, 1515 Mass. Ave.

Loss, who is widely considered "the intellectual father of securities law in the United States" according to a Law School press statement, died at 83 years old of congestive heart failure on Dec. 13.

"His central contribution was a treatise on securities regulation," said Professor Detlev F. Vagts, a colleague of Loss who will speak at today's service.

The treatise spanned 11 volumes and has been cited 50 times by the U.S. Supreme Court, according to the law school press statement.

"He did the first edition of that work in the '60s, when securities law wasn't really thought of as a field at all," Vagts said.

In addition to writing numerous books on securities law, Loss wrote a book describing his career, titled Anecdotes of a Security Lawyer, which was published in 1995.

He had a long and distinguished career as a Harvard professor, teaching at the law school from 1952 until he became emeritus in 1984, and serving as an honorary associate of Quincy House.

Professor Vagts recalled that Loss found it ironic that he held the William Nelson Cromwell chair, since the money for the chair was contributed by the partners of a law firm which had refused to hire Loss because he was Jewish.

The memorial service is open to the public and will be held rain or shine, according to Michael J. Chmura, the law school news director.