HLS in Focus

I recently sat down with Marissa Vahlsing to talk about her experience this summer at La Asociacion Civil por la Igualdad y la Justica in Buenos Aires:

Marissa Vahlsing podcast

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)

In a recent phone interview with staffer Julia Foresman, HLS alumnus Ethan Levisohn ‘06 talked about his career path in criminal justice including the DOJ application process and considerations for those interested in pursuing a career in government.  After graduation, Ethan clerked for Judge Charles Sifton in the Eastern District of New York and now serves in the Criminal Division of the Public Integrity Section in the US Department of Justice.

Ethan Levisohn: (18:40)

While at HLS, alumnus Lam Ho was a public interest dynamo. As president of the Harvard Legal Aid Bureau, a supervising member of Reaching Out About Depression (R.O.A.D.), and Founder & Coordinator of the Giving Tree, which raises holiday gifts for children of the HLS clinical and student practice organization clients, Lam never shied away from going above and beyond the call of duty… including 60-90 hours a week dedicated to his clinicals.

Lam is currently on a Skadden Fellowship starting a community legal clinic for low income youths and their families in Chicago. Admissions staffer Julia Foresman recently caught up with Lam in the wake of a victory he scored with the Legal Assistance Foundation of Metropolitan Chicago. Lam had been trying to get Chicago Public Schools to follow through with the Individualized Educational Plan that CPS and his client Mary Greenlee had put in place for her 6 year old grandson, Rayvaughn.  “It’s been extremely rewarding to educate and empower my clients,” he said.  “… this is what gets me up in the morning.”

Podcast: Lam Ho (13:09)

One of the newest and fastest growing programs at HLS is the Harvard Immigration Project. Designed to advocate for positive changes in U.S. immigration law with an emphasis on protecting immigrant’s rights, HIP provides a forum for HLS students interested in immigration law and policy, and to raise the profile on campus of immigration policy issues.

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)

If you weren’t fully aware of the scope of opportunities available to you here at HLS, 3L Michelle Galdos’ winter term project gives a glimpse. In a brief interview with staffer Julia Foresman recently, Michelle discussed her project writing on reproductive rights and emergency contraception in Chile.

Check it out: Michelle Galdos (6:07)

Her interest in reproductive rights began at a young age by watching her father, a Peruvian OB-GYN, participate in medical missions to South America. She joined HLS Advocates for Human Rights during her 1L year and interned at the South African Human Rights Commission at the end of the proceeding summer. Following coursework in Women’s Human Rights, she enrolled in the Harvard International Law Clinic during her 3L year to work on women’s health issues. Michelle will be traveling to Santiago, Chile during Harvard’s 2009 Winter Term to research the recent banning of emergency contraception distribution in Chilean public health centers.

We hope to track Michelle’s story, as well as that of other students abroad for winter term, through January… so check back!

… and the season of winter clinicals is well underway!

Admissions staffer Julia Foresman recently sat down with 2L Leslie Lang who is participating in a winter clinical at UNCITRAL in Vienna, Austria. She is working with the insolvency law working group, which is producing a legislative guide that contributes to the harmonization of insolvency laws to facilitate international trade and commerce. Her responsibilities include conducting research to prepare for two experts conferences on corporate groups in insolvency and treatment of intellectual property in insolvency. Prior to attending law school, Leslie worked at the World Bank. Her other international work experience include the African Development Bank, the Special Court for Sierra Leone, and an NGO in Beijing.

Have a listen: Leslie Lang (5:40)

Stay tuned for a follow-up with Leslie!

Last spring, we did an interview with now 3L Tony Borich about an organization he jump-started here at HLS called Boston Coalition to Stop Bank Evictions. As the year went on the number of foreclosures and predatory-lending cases nationwide skyrocketed. Consequently, many of the country’s legal aid bureaus are being overrun with more cases than they have attorneys. Just ask Sarah Bolling ’07, a Skadden fellow and staff attorney with the Atlanta Legal Aid Society who was just featured on NPR for her work on behalf of foreclosed tenants and former homeowners. Admissions staffer Julia Foresman recently caught up with Sarah to find out more.

Have a listen: Sarah Bolling (6:27)

While the situation on the ground here in Boston is still bleak, the work of Tony Borich, now a student attorney with the Legal Services Center and the Harvard Legal Aid Bureau has burgeoned into a broader effort called the Foreclosure Task Force within the law school and universities around town. “There’s usually a delay between that time when the bank takes over the property and when they bring eviction action in court, which is when lawyers can effect change,” he said. Intimidated or offered small amounts of money from banks, many tenants vacate without being fully aware of their legal rights guaranteed under Massachusetts’ landlord tenant law. “We recognized that we needed to focus on the period immediately around the foreclosure sale if we wanted to increase the number of people staying in homes as opposed to abandoning them and leaving them vacant or boarding them up,” he said.

True, there are many more potential clients than there are students attorneys to help them, but this is where the door-to-door outreach campaign ‘No One Leaves’ comes into play. “We’re helping renters who are experiencing the most egregious behavior by banks, such as illegal evictions … we’re hoping to drive up the costs of evicting tenants for banks and dissuade them in future from continuing their current policies. It’s sort of a triaged approach,” he said. “We take the winnable cases, those that most directly serve our broader goal of changing the economics of what banks are doing.”

And they have had success. Take HLAB member Dave Haller, for instance, who recently scored a $54,000 verdict against the Bank of New York for cutting off the water and heat of a Dorchester man it was trying to force out of the home he rented, which had been foreclosed on after the owner failed to make mortgage payments. The verdict may yet be doubled or tripled under the state’s consumer protection law. Short of securing representation for every client, the Foreclosure Task Force is canvassing as many homes as possible and informing people about their rights and persuading them to stay in their homes and fight. “The important part about getting to people early,” explained Borich, “is that by educating tenants and introducing them to attorneys who can help them, they start to learn through how to represent themselves. We’re doing more with less if we reach people earlier.”

It’s no secret that the Program on Negotiation at HLS has inspired a lot of buzz within academic circles over the last few years. At the heart of this exciting (& relatively new) area is 2L Stephanie Singer, the online executive editor for the Harvard Negotiation Law Review and vice chair of Harvard Negotiators.

Under Stephanie’s direction, The Harvard Negotiation Law Review recently launched HNLR Online, an online companion to the journal that publishes short, up-to-date articles on cutting-edge negotiation and ADR topics. Check it out at www.hnlr.org

Admissions staffer Julia Foresman sat down with Stephanie earlier this semester to discuss a myriad of resources available to students interested in alternative dispute resolution and negotiation. Take a listen: Stephanie Singer (7:07)

Since it’s a beautiful sunny day in Cambridge today, I thought I’d  post another summer story…

I ran across 2L Matt Carpenter-Dennis, a current Chayes Fellow and a Columbia grad with a degree in Economics and Philosophy. Driven by his interest in international commercial law, human rights and development studies, Matt spent his summer in the legal department of the African Development Bank in Tunisia.  Here’s what he had to say about the experience both in person with us and during the Chayes International Public Service Fellowship debriefing dinner a few weeks ago:Matt Carpenter-Dennis

How did you choose your internship at the African Development Bank
I have had an interest in economic development and emerging market economies since college. However, I never had an opportunity to expand that curiosity outside of the classroom in any substantive way. Coming to Harvard, I was dead-set on going abroad and doing public interest work during my 1L summer. The only question was: where? As I thumbed through the OPIA summer job guide they disseminated at the beginning of 1L year, I found that students in the past had gone to work in the legal department of the African Development Bank. This looked to be a perfect way to combine my interest in development studies with substantive legal work abroad. I spoke with several people in OPIA, OCS and former interns at the Bank about the application process and to get a sense of what this internship entailed. After some further independent research, I concluded that this was the right path for me to take. Looking back, working at the Bank gave me everything that I initially wanted out of my 1L summer.

What is one thing about HLS that you think everyone should know about?
One thing I think stands out most for me about Harvard Law School is the amount of academic freedom it provides its student body. There are so many resources on this campus; from various student organizations to the diversity of professors to easy access to the university at large. Law students, like me, who walk into this institution without a perfect grasp of which areas of law to pursue are able to cast a wide net of academic interests.
In my opinion, this is largely a function of encouragement from the administration as well as the sheer size of the law school. Allowing 1Ls to join journals and offering two electives in the first year curriculum are just two examples of the school’s willingness to respond to student requests to have flexibility and autonomy in shaping their legal education. Meanwhile, the size of the student body and the faculty help facilitate discussion a wide array of interests and make it more likely that students will be able to find a community of people at HLS who share similar interests.

How have you taken advantage of the resources and opportunities offered at HLS?
The most notable opportunity I have taken advantage of at HLS was landing my internship at the African Development Bank. The intern program there has only been in existence for 5 years and traditionally only takes HLS students for the summer. My experience in Tunisia was phenomenal and would likely not have happened were I not at Harvard. Further, SPIF funding and my Chayes Fellowship made it economically feasible for me to take this opportunity. OPIA and the ILS encouraged me and guided me during the entire job search process and at the end of the day helped me realize an unforgettable summer.