This summer, ACS has focused on setting up its national office and planning for more than 20 local chapters this fall—including the one at HLS.

Assistant Professor Heather K. Gerken will be the faculty adviser for the HLS chapter. She said she is excited to get the chapter up and running, and to “rejuvenate” moderate liberals and progressives.

“It’s not enough for liberals to pat themselves on the back, and to say they are good liberals,” Gerken said.

“We want to expose them to the arguments, to have them forge their own ideas in the political sphere,” Gerken said.

Gerken said she hopes to draw on the speaker bureau being created by the national society, and to organize other events to promote debate.

Previously, she said, the Federalist Society has been the only such forum for debate on the intersection of law and politics at HLS.

Key to the success of the ACS chapter at HLS will be encompassing the spectrum of left-center and left-wing philosophies, according to Gerken.