Toby’s blog

I’ve never understood the presumption that smaller law schools provide a better environment for studying law. That judgment seems arbitrary, especially considering that even the biggest law schools are not as big as many colleges.

But if that is true, then how do we define ’small enough’? Would a school be a better place to learn if it had 2 professors and 15 students sitting around a campfire thinking great thoughts?

I’d say no. I’d say there are a lot of things missing from that insular environment. Diversity of thought. Breadth of course options and areas of professional expertise. Opportunities to pursue research in any area of personal interest. Alumni network. And if you went to that 15-person school, the outside world would question whether you really got everything you could out of the experience.

A big school can offer big opportunity, and that’s a huge advantage of (you knew this was coming) Harvard Law School. HLS is the Metropolis of law schools. It is a vast m�lange of ideas and interests and academic pursuits. No matter what you want to study, you will have a number of classmates with a similar interest, world class professors, research opportunities, a student group devoted to your interest, speakers coming from the height of the profession to speak on the topic (probably someone new each week), programs, colloquia, cross-university opportunities to study the nexus of law and business or law and government or law and religion as it relates to your area of interest, student-run journals, clinical programs, and on and on and on.

But this Metropolis also offers more educational depth than the Campfire scenario. Let’s say, for example, that you are interested in international human rights work. Like just about anything else you can think of, you’re at the right place if you’re at HLS. You have not one, but half a dozen professors who are passionately devoted to human rights. You have access to the Human Rights Program—the first of its kind at a top law school—an organization that not only supports academic conferences and colloquia, but also student research efforts and papers, and more than 60 students each year doing policy & advocacy, or clinical or pro bono work in that arena. You also have an incredibly active student group comprised of not just JDs, but a talented pool of international LLMs bringing their native country’s perspective to the table.

What can this tangibly mean for a student? This Winter Term, in a class called “Making Rights Real,” a dozen or so HLS students will travel to Ghana with Professor Lucie White, where they will assist the Ghana Resource Center with a community-based Right to Health Project. They will actually have a real impact on the quality and reach of health care in that country.

This story could be told in hundreds of ways here at HLS. These are the stories of the “neighborhoods” where our students find a home. If you want small, we have that too: small first-year sections, small reading groups for 1Ls (with only a dozen students in each), and more than 80 courses with 25 or fewer students for 2Ls and 3Ls. There is also enough diversity here for everyone to have a small (but with critical mass) community of people who share the same academic interest. Or career goal. Or ethnic background. Or religion. Or even all four!

If opportunity matters, then size matters.