HLS in Focus

Last week, one of my friends received a pretty random email from me. It had the subject “this place is insane” and consisted of the text “jedi mind tricks lawyer just gave a crash course on copyright law”. My friend probably didn’t realize it, but I was raving about the law school’s Recording Artist Project (RAP).

RAP is an organization that matches up musicians looking for legal advice with law students interested in entertainment law. The group also works with independent record labels and music websites. The work itself covers a broad range of legal issues including trademarks, copyrights, contracts, and transactions.

I had heard about RAP at a panel on student practice organizations that the law school held a couple weeks ago. I have always been fascinated by the way that the law regulates art and how that in turn affects both artists and content distributors. When I heard that not only did Harvard have an organization that catered to this interest but also that this organization took first year students, I jumped at the opportunity to join. 

Last weekend, RAP held their semesterly training session for new recruits. The group brought in a prominent entertainment lawyer (who has, among others, the hip-hop group Jedi Mind Tricks as a client). He talked with us about the copyright and trademark issues in music and then walked us through the basics of marking up a record contract. It was pretty exciting to have someone with practical knowledge in a field I am interested in talk candidly about what their job entailed.

Yesterday, I received my first assignment. I will be working with a team of three other law students to help a local electronica band review the record deal they were recently offered. It is my first semester of law school and I am already getting hands-on experience in a field of law that has always fascinated me. This is just another testament to the sheer number of opportunities that HLS provides its students.

- Anit

It’s getting to be mid-October, which is a fun time for 2Ls and 3Ls because everyone’s deciding what to do for this year’s  J-term.  J-term is the HLS word for January term, a month-long semester where you go to the same class from 9-5 everyday.  It’s really good for classes like the Trial Advocacy Workshop, where you need long chunks of time for mock trials, and it works for people who want to earn credits off-campus, too.  You can propose an independent writing project, you can sign on to do a clinical internship domestically or abroad, or if you’re like me, you can zone out in one of your fall classes last year and see a chalkboard announcement that said “Want to go to India for J-term?  Pound Hall 101, 7 p.m. tonight.”  It wasn’t a whole lot of information, but it was enough for me.  Um, yes I did want to go to India for J-term, thank you. 

Fast forward to the part where I got selected for the trip (paper proposal, then lottery) and then arrived in Bombay with nine other HLS students who would soon become friends.  It was hot and humid, and I had made the mistake of watching Slumdog Millionaire the night before I left, so I was paranoid about getting sick from “fake” bottled water and was thus hauling around about 15 jumbo bottles of Poland Spring from the Newark airport in my luggage.  My soon-to-be friend and roommate Neema taught me that there are certain brands of water that you can’t tamper with the seal, which was a much better solution to hydration than my brilliant—but backbreaking—plan.   

We worked in Indian law firms, which was an amazing opportunity to see a legal system that’s currently closed to foreign law firms.  A lot of people think India may open its legal practice in the near future, and I guess if that happens, the ten of us are going to have a few weeks’ head start on everyone else!  The work was both substantive and doable, which is a rare combination in short internships.  I did contract interpretation, corporate plans, litigation work, and met with clients (including Bollywood directors, how fun is that?), and the whole trip was expertly planned and really well thought out.   

I did think I was going to die a couple of times, but really, the cab driver only fell asleep for a few seconds, and we were only going like 60 km per hour.  And the only reason that wild monkey attacked me when we were hiking on Elephanta Island was because it was almost 100 degrees and he wanted my Limca (Indian version of Sprite, totally delicious and refreshing—or at least it was until a toddler-sized wild monkey ripped it out of my hands and drank it).  That monkey had his own hydration plan, and it was a lot better than my Poland Spring debacle.  Now I just have to choose what to do this year. . .

 - Erin

Clinicals were a favorite part of the time I spent at HLS.  This story caught my eye as a great example of the type of impact you can have by getting really involved in a clinic.  Here, an HLS student helped obtain asylum status for a parent and two children whose family members were singled out for torture and murder in El Salvador by a notoriously violent gang.  Apparently, the case was really on the cutting edge of the law, as courts typically don’t grant asylum in this type of situation. 

Read more here: http://www.law.harvard.edu/news/spotlight/clinical-practice/30_clinic.html

3L Emily Murphy shares her experience from the Health, Disability and Estate Planning Clinic: 

As a 2L, I enrolled in one of Harvard Law School’s clinics, the Health, Disability, and Estate Planning Clinic.  Each week the of fall semester, I would spend each Wednesday and Thursday at the Legal Services Center (LSC) in Jamaica Plain.  Jamaica Plain is a low income, ethnically diverse neighborhood in southwest Boston that few Harvard Law students visit regularly.  At LSC, I represented between fifteen and twenty clients who were applying for Social Security disability benefits.  Most of my clients had lived in Jamaica Plain their entire lives.  Because they had no car, several of my clients had to walk to LSC to meet with me.  Some walked several miles in the middle of winter, despite physical pain from their disabilities.

In my first few meetings with clients, I worked alongside an LSC attorney, Julie McCormack.  Julie has overseen the disability clinic at LSC for many years.  Using her expertise in Social Security law, she assisted me and the two other students working on Social Security cases that semester.  As the semester progressed, Julie left more responsibility to me and my classmates.  I met with clients independently, sent letters to the Social Security office, and initiated contact with my clients’ doctors.  I appreciated the trust that Julie placed in me, and I enjoyed serving as my clients’ primary advocate.

One of my clients, who I will call Marisa, is particularly memorable.  Marisa is from Cape Verde and lives in Jamaica Plain with her three-year-old daughter.  She experiences symptoms of fibromyalgia and severe back pain.  Her hands are deformed from many years of heavy manual labor.  She also possesses an IQ that qualifies her as mentally disabled.  She had applied for Social Security disability benefits three times and had been denied each time.  When she came to LSC, I explained to her through a translator the steps we would take to complete her Social Security appeal.  She gave me the names of her doctors—sometimes remembering only the doctors’ first names and the general location of their offices.  After some research, I tracked down her doctors and requested copies of her medical records.  I asked her doctors if they would write letters in support of Marisa’s application for Social Security.  The night before Marisa’s hearing, I stayed up until 2 AM revising her hearing memorandum and preparing documents for submission to the court.

On the chilly morning of the hearing, I met Marisa outside LSC.  She had arrived almost an hour before we had scheduled to meet, and the cold had caused the fibromyalgia to freeze the muscles in her arms and hands. I carried her shivering child and the court documents to the nearest taxi and ushered Marisa in the backseat.  For Marisa, this taxi ride was a rare luxury.  She spent the ride gazing out the back window at the Boston skyline.  By the time we arrived at the courthouse, we had only ten minutes to prepare ourselves before entering the courtroom.

I was so proud to see how well Marisa handled herself in front of the judge.  We had rehearsed the questions the judge would ask her and practiced her answers.  She remained strong as the judge challenged her claims of disability and did not flinch as the judge inquired into her mental aptitude.  After the hearing, Marisa felt relieved, confident, vindicated.  She was happy that a judge had heard her grievances.  She hugged me and repeated “God bless you” in my ear.  I warned her that the judge may not award her benefits, but she was unconcerned.  She had faith in God and wanted no more than to have her voice heard.

Happily, Marisa won her case.  She now receives over $1000 each month in Social Security disability benefits and received a substantial amount of back benefits for her previous months of disability.  These benefits more than doubled her monthly income. 

While I enjoy my hours in the classroom, classroom hours cannot provide the same gratification that I received from my work in the clinic.  Marisa and my other clients had fallen through the cracks of a Social Security system that is less receptive to unrepresented applicants.  With only a few hours per week and the support of Julie, I could help my disabled clients access funds that enabled them to avoid hunger and homelessness.  For the first time, I found real-world value in my legal training.

Transfer alumnus Matthew Perault graduated from HLS in June 2008.  A native of Chapel Hill, North Carolina, he received a BA from Brown University in 2002, and is now a law clerk for Judge Gladys Kessler in the US District Court for the District of Columbia. Admissions staffer Julia Foresman recently had the chance to catch up with Matthew about how his interests in international development and human rights drew him to HLS.

Matthew Perault: (10:44)

1L and Chair of La Alianza’s Conference on Law and Policy, Reuben Rodriguez, recently filled us in on this annual event.

Q: What is La Alianza and in particular what is the Law and Policy Conference all about?

A: La Alianza is the organization for Hispanic and Latino students here at Harvard Law School.  Our mission is to make HLS the nation’s premier center for Latino legal education by fostering a sense of community among Latino students and raising awareness of Latino legal issues.

One of the major events every year is the Latino Law and Policy Conference where we bring leaders from the world of law, business, and politics to talk about pressing issues of interest to the Latino community.  This year’s theme was “Building Bridges: Connecting the U.S. and Latin America.”  Our keynote speaker was Jose Miguel Insulza, Secretary General of the Organization of American States, and we had panels on the Obama Administration’s Latin America Policy, Drug Trafficking and Organized Crime, Domestic Policy Affecting Latinos, the Summit of the Americas, and the Obama Campaign’s Latino Vote Efforts.  Finally, we topped the whole thing off with a Salsa party with a live band on Saturday night.  Planned in conjunction with the Latino Caucus at the Harvard Kennedy School, the conference is currently in its twelfth year.

Q: What has gone into preparing for this conference and what have you gotten out of the experience as co-chair?

A: We started planning the conference back in October.  Going into it, I’d never planned anything larger than dinner reservations, so I was somewhat unprepared for the experience.  I mostly learned what to do next along the way.  Starting in November I met weekly with representatives from the Kennedy School to discuss conference themes, panels, guests, promotion, and logistics.  Apart from larger thematic challenges, I was responsible for the logistical intricacies involved in any conference such as booking hotel rooms, updating the conference website, ordering tote bags, and searching for speakers.  While stressful at times, the experience taught me a lot about all the little details that go into planning an event and I made some good friends at the Kennedy School in the process.  It’s not every day you get to hang out with a major world figure  like Secretary Insulza, although perhaps it happens more frequently here at Harvard than other places.

Q: What do you think are some pressing issues facing Latinos in the legal world right now?  What is the organization doing to address them?

A: The past few decades have seen a great influx of Latinos into positions throughout the legal world, from partners at law firms to general counsels at government agencies; however, it remains a pressing issue to make sure that Latinos are continually represented at all levels of the legal world and in rates proportional to the number of Latinos in the community.  La Alianza is working to provide a community at Harvard Law School that will enable students not just to have a positive experience at HLS, but to excel academicaly, socially, and professionally.  Even before they arrive on campus, La Alianza sends incoming Latino students helpful literature like Getting to Maybe.  Once the students arrive, La Alianza is a connection to successful alumni mentors across the country and the world.  We hope these and other programs will encourage the further growth and success of the Latino legal community.

Q: Why should admitted and prospective students seeking a strong Latino community choose Harvard?

A: Harvard Law School and the Cambridge and greater Boston community is rich with culture.  The Latinos at HLS have worked diligently to create and foster strong relationships both within the Law School and the greater community.  With a dedicated student community and Latino alumni association, the Latino community at HLS is filled with opportunity to express oneself and to get involved in a variety of facets at the Law School.  From organizing social events like our much beloved Salsa Party, to working on more substantive projects like the annual Latino Law and Public Policy Conference and the new Latino Symposium Speaker Series, the possibilities for a Latino student to engage his or her new peers and the broader Latino community are many.

As for me, the thing that jumped out at me about Harvard was the sense of dynamism around here.  There’s just this sense of excitement that everyone seems to share, whether it’s about their clinic, their journal, their reading group, or a group like Alianza.  I saw it when I went to the Admitted Applicant Program and I’ve seen it throughout this year.  Being in a place where so many people are excited about what they, you can’t help but want to be a part of it.

1L and Co-Chair of the Public Interest Auction Sarah Jelsema recently sat down for a Q & A with us after this yearly highlight of the HLS calendar.

What is the public interest auction?
The public interest auction is a fundraiser run entirely by the 1L class that raises money to support students who do public interest work over the summer. We solicit donations from faculty, staff, alumni, parents, students, firms, and local businesses. Some donate money and some donate things to auction off. We receive all sorts of donations – things like Red Sox tickets, gift certificates to restaurants and salons, lunches and fishing trips with professors, cookies and brownies made by the librarians, and a tour of the Northwest Corner Construction project. The auction is one of the biggest social events of the year. Every year the auction has a theme, and we decorate Austin Hall accordingly. This year the theme was “Bright Lights: Bid City” and so the different rooms were decorated as different big cities – London, Paris, and New York.

What has gone into preparing for this event and what have you gotten out of the experience as a co-chair?
Almost all of the 1L class helps out with the auction. We divide the students up by committees and committees mostly help out either by asking for donations, calling alumni and asking them to donate, emailing firms, going door to door in Cambridge, or by helping process the donations and get them ready to sell, or by helping out on the night of the auction. As one of the auction co-chairs, I had the opportunity to work with a group of amazing people to try to plan and coordinate this huge event – it was definitely a  challenging experience for all of us. From coordinating hundreds of student volunteers to keeping track of hundreds of donations, to making sure everything comes together on the night of the auction, being a co-chair was a lot of work, but it was extremely rewarding. It was also a good opportunity to meet new students.

The event is always a lot of fun for students, faculty and staff. What was your favorite part of the evening? Did anything surprise you?
The event was a huge success. My favorite part of the evening was the live auction. Our auctioneers – this year Professors Elizabeth Warren and Jonathan Zittrain – were auctioning off the “right to be – or not be – in the 2010 parody.” The first bidder was the Dean of Students because they gave her a hard time this year in the parody, but then Professor Mann, who bought this item last year, got in a bidding war with Professor Warren and everyone was laughing so hard!

Why should admitted and prospective students seeking a strong public interest community choose Harvard? Why did you?
I think that students looking for a strong public interest community should choose Harvard because they can go anywhere and do anything with a degree from Harvard Law. We are a bigger law school, but as a result, we have so many more options to pick from than other law schools. Good public interest law jobs are really competitive – and since I want one, I’m glad I chose Harvard. I know that the connections and friends that I will make here, with professors and fellow students, will be of benefit for the rest of my life.

Starting April 15, HLS will begin accepting transfer applications for the fall. Over the last couple of years, there have been increased opportunities for Harvard Law students to study off-campus through joint degree and foreign study programs which make it possible for us to admit more transfer students than ever before.

The question of whether to apply as a transfer student is the right move is up to you, but we think that a little research will show you the vast benefits of transferring to HLS. With 102 full-time professors and more than 300 courses, HLS is home to the most intellectually stimulating legal community in the world. Outside the classroom, there are 14 journals, over100 student organizations, clinical placements in approximately 30 areas of the law, and more than enough opportunities for you to experience the incredible diversity of the HLS community during your second- and third- year. For example, the Harvard Law Review encourages transfer applicants to apply for membership and several past transfer students have been successful in that endeavor.

Bottom line? Whether you are interested in constitutional law or environmental law or human rights advocacy or any number of other areas, the breadth and depth of our offerings is incredible. Whether you want to clerk at the circuit court level, follow the path to academia, or pursue a career in public service, the opportunities presented to our graduates are unsurpassed.

For more details on the transfer application process including eligibility guidelines, deadlines, and application requirements, please visit: http://www.law.harvard.edu/prospective/j…

Also, stay tuned in the coming days and weeks for blog entries of a few students talking about their experience transferring into Harvard Law School!

The Program on Negotiation is one of the most valuable and dynamic resources here at HLS. Dedicated to developing the manifold theories and practices of negotiation and dispute resolution, PON encourages an open dialogue for alternative theories. We recently caught up with one of the program’s featured guest speakers, Nancy Shippen, executive director of an organization called Our Prison Neighbors, a local organization committed to recruiting, supporting and expanding the role of volunteers in Massachusetts’ prisons.

What is ‘Our Prison Neighbors’ and how did you come to get involved?

Our Prison Neighbors is an organization dedicated to bringing enriching programming into the prisons and to being a voice for prison reform and the humanity of prisoners. When I moved to the suburbs, I couldn’t find a way to be of service in the affluent culture. One day, driving past MCI-Concord Prison, I was struck that there was surely something in my years of special education teaching and community work that could be useful.

We recruit, train and provide ongoing support for volunteers providing the internationally recognized programs Alternatives to Violence Project, Emotional Literacy and Toastmasters as well as book discussion groups, literacy tutors, writer’s groups, father’s groups and many other programs. When possible we make public presentations on the importance of this work and the need for change in our criminal justice system to encourage the growth and development of all.

How has the organization evolved over time?

Our central programs have grown in availability, we have gained appreciation by our incarcerated participants and respect from the Department of Corrections, and we have come to know much more about the needs of incarcerated people. We have designed new curricula, and identified a number of areas where we would hope to make Massachusetts prisons more proactive. Examples are working to make the Correctional Health program aware of the many prison hospice programs and the positive effects they have had on the prisons that have them.

Other programs we have been working on include bringing programs like the Inside-Out Prison Exchange Program, Facing History and Ourselves and Thomas Lickona’s character education framework to the education departments, and providing books for the prison libraries from donations and free books available at town library sales. Recently we have been working to encourage the DOC to develop a green jobs vocational program so that incarcerated people can learn valuable job skills and state prisons could gain solar and/or wind energy systems.

You’re currently working to get students involved. How do you envision them working in the prison setting?

Graduate and mature undergraduate students would be welcome as outside participants in all of our programs and in time they could become facilitators and/or help design new programs and curricula. A program on negotiation skills would be deeply appreciated by many imprisoned people.

What of value about the experience might an HLS student interested in alternative dispute resolution take away?

Work with people in prison is a powerful way to experience some of the impact of our current criminal justice system, education system, welfare system and social services system. Students volunteering in our programs would have the opportunity to be trained in several internationally recognized programs. The Alternatives to Violence Project provides an experiential introduction to the power of a community based on respect and caring. While building community, participants learn skills in listening, communication, cooperation and conflict resolution. AVP is active in over 25 countries so we hope that international students and those intending on doing international work might train with us and be able to take this excellent material to ever-wider applications. The Emotional Literacy program develops the ability to identify, manage, and express one’s emotions in a mature and conscientious manner. Also anyone who intends to work with the criminal justice system in any way can benefit enormously from some first hand experience through programs with a record of providing opportunities for real growth and development.

How do you see this collaboration with HLS and the Program on Negotiation moving forward?

Our Prison Neighbors would like to work with HLS and PON to develop opportunities for students to participate in programming for prisoners in Massachusetts and to become leaders of programs related to their studies. This could be done through internships, service learning programs, or independent volunteering. We provide mentoring for our volunteers and could provide evaluations, recommendations and powerful experiences for ongoing professional development.

Interested in working in India doing either public interest or private practice work? If so, a recent panel hosted by the South Asian Law Students Association (SALSA) would have been right up your alley.

2L Nitya Shekar, whose interests include public interest litigation and activism, got her internship last summer with the Alternative Law Forum (ALF) in Bangalore through the Human Rights Program here at HLS. “It was really a great experience in a great city,” she said. “Bangalore is on the rise with public interest movements.” While she was there, Shekar was involved with the city’s first GLBT pride parade and anti-road widening litigation.

3L Lauren Birchfield and SJD student Iain Frame were also involved in public interest with the Human Rights Law Network (HRLN) in New Delhi were. “The Human Rights Law Network provides pro bono legal services, conducts public interest litigation, participates in advocacy, and collaborates with social movements and human rights organizations. Maintaining both litigation and publishing departments, HRLN works on issues such as right to food, women’s justice, dalit rights, disability rights, and rights for persons living with HIV/AIDS,” explained Birchfield who worked specifically with the Right to Food Campaign. “I greatly appreciated how much HRLN invested in us and in our project, and how much freedom was given to us regarding the project’s construction and implementation. I found HRLN a fantastic organization to work for, and I was pleased to walk away from the internship having recognized that this – this kind of work, this kind of project – is what I want to pursue as a career.”

On the private-sector side was 2L Erin Walczewski, who spent Winter Term with Nishith Desai Associates in Mumbai. “I was interested in alternative dispute resolution and arbitration and got to do lots of research on the differences among arbitration tribunals,” she said. “I met with clients, and the attorneys walked me through how litigation worked in India. The attorneys were especially interested in how business practices differed between the U.S. and India.”

When asked how to approach the application process for public interest firms, the panel advocated being direct and having a project in mind. Respect for interns at HLRN? “It of course depends on the supervisor you get,” said Frame. “Because HRLN was so large it helps to have an idea about what you want to do when you get there… your experience will be more dynamic if you take charge.”

Concerned about needing experience in Indian or international law? “I dealt almost entirely with Indian law which was totally new to me,” said Shekar. “But since ALF is so small, the work they do is very focused and my relationship with them was more intimate… there was no hierarchy and everyone was happy to answer questions for me.” “I found my international law class from 1L year to be very helpful,” said Walczewski, “particularly in terms of understanding how international agreements work.”