HLS in Focus

A student, Rory Van Loo, sent me an e-mail about an event we both attended a week or so ago—and apparently he got his money’s worth:

“In general, I find the Traphagen lunches to be a great way to hear about how some of HLS’s amazing alumni arrived where they did—and, of course, it’s always nice to have a quality meal on the law school. I was especially excited about Lori Wallach’s visit because she is the director of Public Citizen’s Global Trade Watch, and I came to HLS interested in using my law degree to bring resources to poor communities, such as through international trade (I had even mentioned that in my admissions essay).

“Prior to law school, I had written freelance articles for mainstream newspapers trying to raise awareness about the nongovernmental fairtrade logo, and I had also worked on a nonprofit project exporting art that had been created by homeless Brazilian youths, but had little idea how to use my law degree on a larger international trade scale, as Ms. Wallach does on a regular basis.

“It was exciting to hear her talk about advising the newly elected Bolivian president Evo Morales in order to help the country implement beneficial trade policies, lobbying U.S. politicians, and writing international-trade books. Even more helpful was hearing the career choices she made along the way, such as deciding to turn down lucrative law firm offers upon graduation to remain unemployed and temp while she looked for a job she really wanted.

“Then, after the hour-long sit-down meal discussion, and after most of the two-dozen or so students had left, I and a few others stayed to ask more personal questions. One graduating 3L asked what her chances were of working on trade policy in San Francisco or Denver, which prompted Ms. Wallach to give a list of organizations (and one pertinent job opening she happened to know about) in those cities, advice on how to go about it, and assurance that it could be done.

“A Chinese student, seemingly inspired by the lunchtime discussion, offered to help translate some of Ms. Wallach’s materials into Mandarin—an offer that was warmly received.

“And I got some valuable feedback for a book review I’m writing for the Harvard Law Review on Fair Trade for All (it turns out Ms. Wallach had recently been talking to co-author Joseph Stiglitz, a Nobel-prize winning economist, about the book’s ideas). I left about two hours after the “one-hour” lunch had started, and she was still energetically talking to students!”