Harvard had arranged for a fleet of buses to take the grad students down to Yale. I woke up at six in the morning, met up with a group of friends, and caught a bus to New Haven. I was pretty sure that I had made a wise life choice when I saw that trailing our bus was a U-Haul filled with nothing but food and drinks for us to consume at the game.

One of the things I had heard about the Harvard-Yale game was that the majority of people that come out never even make it into the stadium. Students will come to the game and just end up tailgating all day. When I stepped foot in the parking lot at the Yale Bowl, it was easy to see why. The place was a sea of humanity. Students were packed far and wide. Everyone was listening to music, grilling up food, and getting pumped full of team spirit.

My friends and I could tell what areas of the parking lot were going to be friendly territory for us by sizing up the ratio of red shirts to blue shirts in any given pack of students. One of the guys I was with had actually gone to Harvard for undergrad. After we walked around the area for awhile, he suggested we head over to the row of tailgating spots staked out by the Harvard fraternities.

What I have failed to mention is that in between all this wandering around, the game had actually already started. By the time we made it to the fraternity spots, the first quarter was over and Harvard was down 10-0. This was not supposed to be happening. Harvard had been the heavy favorite going into the game. We decided that with the game underway, and our team down, it was probably a good time to head into the stadium and start supporting the Crimson.

The second quarter and third quarters were not much help to Harvard. Neither team scored, and there was both a botched fake field goal attempt and a botched fake punt (at 4^th and 24!). With about ten minutes left in the fourth quarter, things were looking bleak. A decent number of the people that I had been sitting with had decided to head back to the tailgate instead of watching the remainder of what was shaping up to be a very disappointing game.

With about seven minutes to go, a funny thing happened. We scored. The Harvard students section went nuts. We had been waiting all afternoon to put points on the board and now towards the end of the fourth quarter we had actually done it. At least we knew that this was not going to be a shut out. Then miraculously with about a minute left in the game, we scored again! Harvard was up 14-10. As the final seconds ticked off the clock, the students section went absolutely insane. After being down for almost the entire game, we had scored two touchdowns in the last seven minutes to win the game.

Up until this weekend I had taken part in many of the rites of passage of life at Harvard Law. I have taken the classes, spent long nights in Langdell Library, and gotten my fill of the bars and restaurants in Harvard Square. However, I think that on some level jumping up and down like a maniac with a several thousand other Harvard students, cheering on our football team as we defeated our century-old rivals, was the final requirement before I could feel like a full member of the Harvard community. In retrospect, I am pretty glad that my friends managed to convince me to come out.

- Anit

While the older Austin Hall may be more iconic, I think Langdell is the most beautiful part of campus. Walking into the bright, stately fourth-floor Reading was the most definitive “Wow, I’ve really made it” moment of my admissions visit to HLS—the pictures here and here may give you a sense of why.  

Even now that the Reading Room has become part of my daily life, I keep finding new things to appreciate about it. First it was the individual table lamps and power outlets, then the prize armchairs facing the front windows (perfect for looking out on the snowy grounds in winter, yet staying toasty as they’re right beside the heaters.) A room in the back keeps the noise from scanners contained; another offers coffee and hot chocolate late into the night around finals. And around the corner is always the Reference Room, with its desk staffed long hours by extremely kind and helpful librarians.  

Meanwhile, the third floor has study carrels and group meeting rooms like the one we took over for our subcite. Just outside the vast photocopy room is my personal favorite spot with orange plush armchairs and tiny chess tables overlooking the lobby. The second floor, which is actually ground-level, houses the Lemann Lounge where students can eat and socialize while they study, use public computers, and check out free movies from the respectable DVD collection.  

While it’s far from true that Harvard students live in the library, I do think some of us wind up there even more than necessary because it’s so beautiful and the facilities are so great. I think Langdell is a real selling point for HLS since—aside from being the world’s largest academic law library, of course—it really embodies the supportive, student-focused atmosphere our administration works hard to create. And the inspiring quotes inscribed around the walls don’t hurt one bit.

- Lea

It turned out that Judge Posner was one of the guest judges at the annual Ames Moot Court Competition that was taking place later that day. Ames is a competition in which 2Ls and 3Ls argue mock cases against each other. The competition is pretty grueling. The three rounds span two years and winning the competition is considered a big honor. For the final round, the law school usually gets a Supreme Court Justice or other legal heavyweight as the lead judge in a three judge panel. This year we were welcoming Judge Posner, Judge Diane Wood, and Judge Barrington Daniels Parker Jr.

I thought that observing the competition might be cool, but didn’t have the commitment to stand in line the 2ish hours that seemed to be required to view the oral arguments in person. About fifteen minutes before arguments were set to start, I walked over to Austin Hall, where the competition was being held. As expected, I was directed towards one of the overflow rooms where the arguments were going to be broadcast on large screens.

In retrospect I am glad that I didn’t get in to the actual competition. The overflow room is apparently where all the upperclassmen that know what’s happening camp out and talk about the goings on in the competition. The place felt more like a sporting event than a complex legal showcase. People were munching on snacks, cheering on classmates, and commenting aloud on the action in the courtroom.

The format for arguments in the case being tried was set up to mimic that of an actual Supreme Court case. The imitation was relatively accurate because no student was able to get more than a few seconds of argument in before they were interrupted by one of the judges. The judges were persistent in their interrogations. The oral arguments consisted mostly of a tug of war between the students and the judges as to the complexities of the topic at hand. It was actually pretty harrowing to watch fellow law students go toe to toe with a panel of incredibly tough federal judges on the particularities of a given legal issue.

The arguments also had their lively moments. The case being argued involved the constitutionality of allowing the slogan “Meat is Murder” to be emblazoned on a license plate. My room chuckled when Judge Wood suggested that maybe the phrase wasn’t actually meant to be inflammatory against meat eaters, but meant to signal the driver’s love for the band The Smiths. The room erupted when the student arguing at the time uncomfortably admitted that he did not understand the reference.* Also, I am relatively certain that by the end of the first set of arguments everyone in the room had tried their hand at imitating Judge Posner’s unique pronunciation of the word “vegan” (hard vowels such that it would rhyme with “we ran”).

All in all the event was pretty interesting. I watched fellow law students argue a case before some of the country’s greatest legal minds, and had a lot of fun while doing it.

* The Smiths put out an album in 1985 called “Meat is Murder”

- Anit

It was really nice to be part of a forum where we could discuss the relationships between the different groups. As affinity groups, we share a lot of the same experiences and challenges while in law school and in the working world. As a result, we often collaborate on events where our interests intersect. For example, just this week there was a screening of the documentary, “From Swastika to Jim Crow” sponsored by the Jewish Law Students Association and the Black Law Students Association. The film was followed by a discussion between members of the two groups. Representatives from these groups at the dinner said it was a huge success.

At the dinner we talked about the ways in which we can continue to sponsor events like that and how we can bring the various affinity groups together to create awareness of the need for diversity in both the faculty and the student body. One of our main concerns was being able to co-sponsor events that can be controversial in different arenas without making our memberships feel marginalized. Many of the affinity groups have agendas that are both social and political. Members are drawn to these groups for different reasons. Many of the student boards expressed a feeling of hesitation at taking on any sort of politically motivated event because they are afraid of scaring away members. This is especially true of the groups where the pool of potential members is so small that the general membership is often made up of the board.

Hearing all the students talk about how they feel about being members of a particular affinity group was beneficial. I think that every group feels frustrated at times with struggles over how to plan successful events that students will want to attend or how to make everyone in the student body feel welcome to attend. It was nice to hear that these problems were not limited to my group. Everyone offered up some examples of how they have dealt with obstacles in leadership and recruitment.

Our meeting was productive overall. We decided to put together an affinity group listserv to keep each other in the loop about events that the other groups are putting on so that we don’t hold events or conferences on conflicting dates. We also talked about the possibility of putting together a mixer for the different student groups to get together during admitted students weekend. The overall goal of this initiative is to create greater opportunities for networking among our members and to create awareness of the need for diversity on campus and in the legal profession.

- Elizabeth

For better or for worse, Harvard is a big dog in the development of legal education.  It was our guy Christopher Columbus Langdell who changed law school more than a hundred years ago to go from “Hello, students, here’s what the law is.  Listen up.” to “Miss Smith, what was the holding in Terry v. Ohio?”  Langdell changed law education at Harvard to switch to studying cases, and now just about every law school in the country uses the case study method.  Go, Langdell!  No wonder we named the HLS library after you. 

Then nothing happened for like a hundred and twenty years.  Law students everywhere continued to take the same required classes: criminal law (call it “crim” unless you want to sound like a newbie), contracts, property, torts, and civil procedure (“civ pro”).  Legal education really stayed pretty much the same from around 1890 to 2007, when I started as a 1L.  Ooh, then things got exciting.  HLS added two classes for 1Ls, one on international law and another on legislation and regulation.  The buzz was generally positive, since most people recognize how international our world has become, and how much of our law today is promulgated by statutes.  It did take a few weeks that year for the student body to agree on the nickname for legislation and regulation, whose title was clearly too long to be bothered with, but the universally accepted term is “leg reg.”  Ah, the important decisions made at Harvard Law School. . .

Well, bring on the excitement again, because this year’s batch of 1Ls will be the very first to all take the same class for winter term.  It’s called the Problem Solving Workshop, and it’s designed to teach students practical lawyering skills, including client interaction.  I’m a 3L so I won’t take the class, but a professor invited me to TA for his class, which will be great research fodder for my paper.  Maybe I’ll get to help pick the nickname.  I’m torn between “prob” and “PSW.”  Right now everyone is just calling it the new 1L class.  “The new 1L class”—obviously the creative spirit of Langdell is alive and well.

- Erin

Our 1L year, a group of my friends dressed up like the characters from the famous tort case Ploof v. Putnam, a case that asks whether you are allowed to tether your boat to a stranger’s dock in the middle of a storm even though it will damage the dock.  Most people’s intuition about this is yes, even without permission you should be able to dock your boat in an emergency.  Then you learn that the people on the boat are pirates.  This makes for a much more interesting legal discussion, and a much more fun Halloween costume—what calls for festivities more than an eye patch, a swashbuckler’s hat, and a question of legal trespass for private necessity?

I’ve also seen three guys dressed up like the fox and the two hunters from Pierson v. Post, which is the first property case almost every law student in the country learns. The legal question there is who owns the fox if you chase it around forever on a hunt and then another guy comes out of nowhere and shoots it, but for the purposes of Halloween parties it just means that whenever partygoers realize why the guy is dressed up like a fox, they chase him around for a minute. 

Last year at the HLS Halloween party I saw a guy who went as an eggshell plaintiff.  A funny costume, but as you might imagine, everyone kept kicking him in the shins.  Well, maybe you wouldn’t imagine that unless you know that the concept of an eggshell plaintiff is exemplified by Vosburg v. Putney, where one kid kicked another kid in the shin and the guy ended up losing his leg because the kick aggravated a previous injury.  Again, funny costume, but you’re kind of asking for it if you dress up as a guy who’s supposed to get kicked in the shin.  In normal world, it’s the bullies who go around kicking people.  In law school world, it’s the people who understand what you are if you come to a costume party dressed as an eggshell.

So if you do come to HLS and you get invited to a costume party, don’t worry, you are not getting Legally Blonded, there really is a big Halloween party every year and people really do dress up in costumes for it.  I say embrace your inner geek and look to your 1L casebooks for inspiration.  But if you’re thinking about going as Jonathan Vosburg, consider shin guards.          

- Erin

I met my “big sis,” a 2L from the Boston area, for lunch during the first week of school and a few more times each semester when events like exams, class registration, and summer job applications were approaching. From the very beginning, she was a wonderful source of frank advice about professors, classmates, and the ultimate 1L concern of how much a person should study.

She was also very geared toward public interest and happened to work with several activities that interested me, so it was terrific to have her perspective as I decided what to join. Her involvement on two journals allowed for comparisons that helped me choose mine, and her advice about different student practice groups was part of what led me to the Tenant Advocacy Project, a really defining part of my HLS experience. As time went on with that, she shared experiences from her work with the Legal Aid Bureau, helping me feel more confident and prepared as a student advocate.

It was great having so much in common with my “big sis,” but I think anyone who had made it through 1L year would have been a great resource as I found my niche here at Harvard. In a big school where connections beyond your assigned section can take effort, it was great to be paired with someone already eager to help out. That’s why I decided to pay the favor forward and take on a “little sis” of my own this year. It’s been easy to keep in touch so far through e- mails, a frozen yogurt date, a WLA wine and cupcakes party, and some chance encounters on campus. And it feels good to answer her questions about outlines, exams, and jobs, just trying to be the same helpful resource I had last year.

Meanwhile, WLA is not the only group with big siblings. I know the progressive American Constitution Society has mentors, for instance, and two friends of mine are big and little siblings with APALSA, the Asian Pacific American Law Students Association. So there are many opportunities for the same positive experience as mine.

- Lea

I rode the Amtrak up from Connecticut for my admitted student tour. Getting to campus from South Station with the “T” (Cambridge’s subway) couldn’t have been easier. After my tour and lunch with an admissions fellow, I found myself starved for something to do because my train didn’t leave for hours. Sadly, my first instinct was to take the T back to south station and wait. Instead, I decided to ask the people in admissions for some suggestions. The woman in the office pulled out tons of materials on all the things I could do with my free evening. She gave me simple directions and I left happy and determined to make the most of the couple hours I had left. I ended up taking the red line to the Park Street station. When I exited the station I got really excited. To my right was a huge park called the Boston Common and to my left was a very large movie theater. I walked up the street slowly and stopped occasionally to check out all the monuments that surround the park. I was so happy that such interesting things were easily accessible from the law school. I was also very impressed with the movie theater and I still don’t think I have ever seen a nicer one. They have classic movie posters and famous movie quotes all over the walls. They even offer funnel cake! Getting back home on the train was just as easy as the trip in. The ease with which I got around that day was a huge relief for me. I left very satisfied with my one-day Harvard experience.

As a current student, I am very happy with the choice that I made. I don’t have a car or a bike so if I need to get somewhere I’m probably going to walk. It is really nice not to have to worry about how I am going to carve out enough travel time to run errands when I am busy with schoolwork and activities. Fortunately, I don’t have to. There are two grocery stores within a ten-minute walk of my Harvard-Affiliated apartment. I can walk to Target in twenty minutes. And of course if I want to go out to eat instead of cooking, there are at least 5 restaurants within two minutes of my apartment. I can get to Harvard Square for many of the HLS social events in no time. If it is too late to walk home alone, I can hop into one of the many cabs that make Harvard Square their base.

I no longer feel like I’m confined to the area around my classes and home. It’s great to have so many affordable ways to get around quickly and easily. I’m glad I gave so much thought to how I would get around in my every day life when choosing a law school. I may even go to the Boston Common this weekend…

- Elizabeth

This past weekend was Fall Fest, a Harvard-wide day of service. Basically, the school organized a bunch of service projects and encouraged students to participate in them. I’m not going to pretend that my initial inkling towards getting involved was completely altruistic. The night of the deadline to sign-up, I got an excited email from a friend of mine saying that our section was four people away from being the section with the most people to participate. The prize for the most well-represented section was a free tab at the bar of their choosing. I figured that if I got to help the community, hang out with my friends, and get a shot at free drinks all at the same event, it probably made sense to give it a try.

I threw my name down on the last activity that still had spots available, Project No One Leaves. I woke up the next morning, bright and early, and headed over to campus to figure out what I would be doing that day. As it turns out, No One Leaves is a group that educates foreclosed homeowners and renters about their options and provides them with free legal advice. I was going to spend the day with a small group of law students, going door to door to homes that had recently been foreclosed on and talking with the residents about their rights. After a training session, we were broken up into small groups and assigned a member of No One Leaves to canvass with.

On the drive over to the neighborhood that we would be canvassing, I started to ask our group leader more about the rights of foreclosed people. She told me a number of things that I had not known about the foreclosure crisis. For one, the banks usually try to undergo “no fault” evictions. They will try to kick renters off the foreclosed property despite the fact that the renters have paid, and would like to continue to pay, their rent. If this doesn’t work they will offer people small, one-time cash sums to get people out of their homes. What is most incredible is that in most instances the tenant has the right to stay in their home, if the eviction is of no fault of their own. The whole situation was something I had read about in the paper and seen on the news, but not something I had been given a chance to interact with firsthand.

As we began canvassing I was surprised by a number of things. At first, I was shocked at how welcoming people were to us. I am not sure why, but I had just assumed that people would be highly suspicious of the random ivy league twenty-somethings that had showed up on their doorstep on a Saturday morning, with fliers in hand ready to lecture them about the law. In actuality, people were just excited to have some reasonable person speak with them about their situations.

The other thing that surprised me, was how I was able to apply what I had been learning in class to what I was seeing that day. In civil procedure, we had learned that before taking away someone’s property you must give them “service of process” or fair notice. But if this were true, why were so many of the people we were speaking with learning of their foreclosure for the first time? In contracts, we learned that in order for a contract to be formed there must be a “meeting of the minds”. But how could the tenants and the banks be on the same page when the tenants were so woefully misinformed about their rights?

I know that the rudimentary grasp of these complex issues I have as a first semester law student probably didn’t allow me to fully understand what I was seeing. However, it wouldn’t take a legal expert to realize that on some level the situations we were confronting were fundamentally unjust. When we were driving back home after our day spent canvassing, I was pretty glad that my friends had managed to convince me to come out. I had spent the day learning about a truly meaningful application of my coursework, placed in a setting that, up until that point, I had only really known from newspaper headlines and talking head segments. I’m not sure if this is a fair barometer of how successful the day was, but I had actually forgotten about the free bar tab that had driven me to help out in the first place, until I wrote about it for this post.

- Anit

To be fair, the hype is not baseless.  The leaves do seem to be brighter-prettier-longer here.  I don’t know why, and my extensive research on the subject (read: two minutes on Wikipedia and another two on Google) has not revealed any answers.  I once talked to a random guy at a retirement party for my former boss who claimed it has something to do with an enzyme found only in New England soil that causes all the leaves here to change at the same time.  Again, thirty seconds on Google didn’t provide any info one way or the other on this possibly fictitious enzyme, which clearly indicates that the answer cannot be known by humankind. 

I’ve had three autumns here now, and to celebrate peeping season we have gone apple picking, driving through western Mass, hiking in New Hampshire, and free food sample chasing in Vermont.  As I write this, I’m realizing that this whole leaf peeping thing might sound lame, but it’s really quite charming.  I guess you just have to see it to get why people like it so much.  Okay, I can’t resist—you just have to peep it.  Okay, I’m done.  I’m not going to say another thing.  Not another. . .peep. 

I can’t help it.  Peep.    

- Erin