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

Matthew Perault: (10:44)

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.

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!

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.”

Admissions staffer Julia Foresman recently sat down with HIP Co-President 2L Nikki Flores. After graduating from Northwestern, Nikki became involved with the Workers’ Rights Center in Madison, WI. Working with the issues facing migrant workers and immigrant communities there led her to HLS, where she’s now Co-President of the Harvard Immigration Project and is involved with the Civil Rights-Civil Liberties Law Review.

Have a listen: Nikki Flores (8:52)

Internews, a non-profit organization dedicated “to empower local media worldwide,” recently awarded Border Stories their Every Human Has Rights Media Award in a public ceremony.  Check out Border Stores here.

Please visit the link to HLS Speaks off the JD Admissions home page if you’re interested in these subjects.

“Before coming to HLS, I took a year off to work and travel, on a post-graduate fellowship program (the Insight Collaborative Fellowship). The fellowship took me to Cyprus, Cambodia, and The Netherlands to work with grassroots organizations, universities, an ad-hoc Tribunal, and the International Criminal Court. It was during that year that my interest in various forms of post-conflict reconciliation and reconstruction grew. When going into my summer job search after my 1L year at Harvard, I was looking to work abroad again, but this time in a situation that was still undergoing conflict. I had been following the situations in Darfur and Eastern Chad for some time, and so when I was put in touch with the International Rescue Committee’s Chad Country Program, I jumped at the chance. ‘

“The International Rescue Committee is a large, U.S.-based NGO that focuses its work on humanitarian relief in conflict and post-conflict situations. It is renowned for its refugee assistance programs throughout the world as well as in the United States. I knew a number of HLS students who had worked for the IRC in past summers, either in refugee resettlement programs or in emergency conflict response situations. Based on their impressions of the IRC’s work, and on my own conversations with the IRC Chad program, I decided that fieldwork with IRC Chad would allow me to contribute to the rule of law and to help address the situation in Darfur. ‘

“The IRC is UNHCR’s main implementing partner for a camp situated a few kilometers away from the Chad-Darfur border. As a result, IRC Chad is responsible for things ranging from providing for clean water, health care, and social services. I was specifically assigned to work with their Community Services team as a legal protection intern. One aspect of this work that I found to be a particularly beneficial was the variable nature of my daily activities. My designated projects fell generally into the category of legal research; however, in practice, this meant that I would spend time both at the small law library in the national capitol and in the refugee camp in Eastern Chad. The formal legal research component of my work was comprised of looking into the protections afforded Sudanese refugees under national Chadian law. And while stationed in the East, I would spend some days at the office drafting reports and others at the refugee camp, interviewing refugee leaders and incentive workers to get a better sense of traditional conflict resolution mechanisms historically employed by the ethnic tribes represented at the camp.’

“The challenges to this work were many—most profoundly the emotional impact levied by hearing many of the refugees’ stories about their flight from Darfur and their adjustment to camp life. Working on legal protection issues, in addition, was not easy in a country with what might be called a “dual-track” legal system (that is, the law on paper versus the law in practice) and generally very little regard for rule of law. ‘

“The physical distress of living in Eastern Chad placed additional challenges on my work there—I found almost everything to be more difficult with the extreme heat, water scarcity, and very basic living conditions. These conditions were not totally inhospitable, but it did take quite a bit of time even to begin to adjust to the circumstances. Yet working in such a challenging situation also served to give me a great sense of accomplishment. I was surprised to find that I could adjust to a situation so completely different from any other I had previously experienced, or ever expected to experience. I also came away with profound respect for my colleagues in Chad, many of whom were dedicating years of their life to work there.’

“Coming back to the U.S. from Chad was almost more of a culture shock than the reverse. Now, having readjusted and taken some time to reflect upon my time there, it is clear to me that my summer experiences will continue to impact my legal education and my professional aspirations in a number of ways. At a very basic level, work with IRC Chad has given me a more complete idea of what it means to work in the field, to work firsthand with beneficiaries. It has also confirmed for me my interest in international law – particularly humanitarian and criminal law. And, perhaps more importantly, my interactions with colleagues and with the refugees have served to inform so significantly my world view that I have no doubt about their value to any and all of my academic and professional pursuits.”

In our continued effort to track down recent alumni across the country, we got in touch with Charlotte Sanders ‘05. A Skadden Fellow and Legal Aid Bureau alumna, Charlotte now works in the Farmworker Division of Georgia Legal Services where she represents low-income migrant farmworkers.

Tell me a little bit about your career path since leaving HLS.

I graduated from HLS in 2005, after which I clerked for a year for the Honorable Nancy Gertner, U.S. District Court, District of Massachusetts. Following my clerkship, I was awarded a Skadden Fellowship to work for two years at the Farmworker Division of Georgia Legal Services, where I had interned during my 1L summer at HLS. The Farmworker Division provides legal representation to low income migrant farmworkers, most of whom migrate each year from Mexico to hand-harvest the many tons of fruits and vegetables grown on Georgia’s farms. Many of these workers are not paid the federal minimum wage or the wage guaranteed by their employment contracts, and the Farmworker Division brings lawsuits under the Fair Labor Standards Act and contract law to recover these workers’ lost wages.

In addition to these minimum wage lawsuits, through my Skadden Fellowship, I focus on the issue of retaliation. Many workers lose their jobs, are “blacklisted,” or are not invited to return to a farm in future seasons in retaliation for complaining about unlawful wages and working conditions. I represent these workers in retaliation suits, seeking their lost wages, liquidated damages, and injunctive relief such as rehire. I also work with my colleagues in the Farmworker Division to develop strategies for protecting workers’ identities earlier in the process, before retaliation can take place.

How did you become interested in employment law?

I first became interested in employment law as a result of my job between college and law school as a paralegal at the Washington Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights and Urban Affairs in the Equal Employment Opportunity Project. There, I became familiar with the laws that protect employees from harassment and discrimination in the workplace. During law school, through my coursework and my work at the Harvard Legal Aid Bureau, I became interested in other aspects of employment law, particularly the Fair Labor Standards Act. I saw the potential for FLSA lawsuits to be used as a tool by low income workers to vindicate their basic employment rights, and saw the disproportionate impact of wage violations on immigrant workers. These interests led me to intern at the Farmworker Division in Georgia during my 1L summer, to split my second summer between the Atlanta Regional Office of MALDEF and the Migrant Farmworker Justice Project in Florida and Mexico, and to apply for a Skadden Fellowship to continue to work on these issues after I graduated.

What activities were you involved in at HLS that honed your interests?

At HLS, my primary activity – - other than classes – - was the Harvard Legal Aid Bureau. As a member of the Bureau during my 2L and 3L years, I had the chance to represent clients under the supervision of a clinical instructor. I interviewed clients, performed legal research, conducted fact investigations, wrote motions and briefs, appeared in court, and participated in settlement negotiations. All of these experiences allowed me to begin “lawyering” while I was still in law school.

The Bureau, and particularly the supervision and seminars associated with my clinical work, also provided a chance for me to reflect on the difficulties inherent in legal services lawyering. What does it mean to represent “the whole client?” What happens when a public interest organization’s institutional goals conflict with the goals of a client? What is the best way to address a client’s complex tangle of problems with a lawyer’s tools? My exposure at the Bureau to questions such as these prepared me well for the tough, yet tremendously rewarding, job of a legal services lawyer.

Having been out in the world of public interest now for a few years, what would you tell someone interested in following a similar path?

For law students who have a sense of the area or type of law they’d like to practice, my recommendation is to use law school to get a “head start” on their career. Pursue clinical work and externships while in Cambridge, and get to know the professors on the faculty whose research agendas fit with their interests. Also, with OPIA’s help, use the 1L and 2L summers to explore policy jobs, legal services work, and organizations that specialize in impact litigation. Though all of these jobs might focus on the same issue-area, the work of a legal services lawyer is very different from a policy adviser, for example, and the summers are a chance to learn about and evaluate these differences.

For law students whose interests are not so honed, I suggest taking full advantage of the tremendous advising resources available at HLS. The OPIA staff are experts in helping students find their “dream job,” and the network of HLS alums are ready to provide advice, referrals, and even actual employment. In either scenario, HLS is an excellent place to prepare for a career in the public interest.

(Toby’s note: new HLS assistant professor Benjamin Sachs is someone to look up if you’re interested in employment law)