HLS in Focus

One of the greatest perks of being at Harvard is getting to know the people. I am always amazed when I talk to my classmates about their interests and hobbies. As a 2L it has been especially interesting to talk to other students about what they did with their 1L summer. I recently sat down with a friend and asked him to tell me all about his summer in New York City. During last year’s spring on-campus interview season, he met with recruiters from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York. A week after his short interview he got a phone call with an offer. He immediately accepted. As a native of New York, he was excited to be home for the summer and because the internship was unpaid, he was eligible for a Summer Public Interest Fund stipend.

The summer turned out to be a great success. His placement in the civil division involved a lot of legal research and writing. Throughout the course of the summer, he was able to research several different topics including inmates’ rights to counsel and federal tort claims under the Medical Care Recovery Act. His first big lesson of the summer was that, “1L Civil Procedure does matter.” He realized this when his very first research assignment was all about international service of process and personal jurisdiction under New York’s long arm statute. I know all of this is gibberish unless you have taken civil procedure but after a semester in law school, you will understand how frightening those words can be and how great it is to see that you didn’t spend a week studying them for nothing. In addition to writing informal internal memos, he had the opportunity to write first drafts of motions for his supervising attorneys including a motion for summary judgment on employment discrimination under Title Seven.

The summer wasn’t restricted to just research and writing, the internship also came with trips to the courthouse to observe trials in the district court and oral arguments in the 2nd circuit. The office also offered a trial advocacy workshop for its small group of fifteen summer interns. The interns were able to participate in a mock trial at the end of the program and prepare segments of the oral arguments. Last summer there was even the opportunity to have a picture taken with U.S. Attorney General, Eric Holder.

In the end, the internship was exactly what he expected. One of the greatest benefits of working in government is that they are often short on resources and really need help from interns. This means that you get real work that the attorneys often incorporate into their final briefs and presentations. There are so many different legal opportunities to take advantage of your 1L summer and I never get tired of hearing about them.

- Elizabeth

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!

HLS has commemorated a number of historical milestones in recent months including the 40^th anniversary of Terry v. Ohio, a case which held that ‘stop and frisks’ were not a violation of Fourth Amendment rights where an officer has a reasonable suspicion that the person has committed, is committing, or is about to commit a crime. Some believed this case to have been wrongly decided, including the man who argued the case before the Court, Louis Stokes. Later in 1968 Stokes was elected to the United States Congress and served 15 consecutive terms in the U.S. House of Representatives. Stokes was honored at a recent event by the Charles Hamilton Houston Institute for Race and Justice.

The case itself involved two men who were stopped, searched, and found to possess guns in broad day on the streets of Cleveland in 1963 by a police officer who claimed the two to be exhibiting suspicious behavior. “I had no idea that Terry would become a landmark case,” said Stokes. “The more I talked to [the suspects, John Terry and Richard Chilton], the more it seemed to me that we might have a possibility of excluding the guns based on the testimony that this event had happened on the streets.” In the wake of such landmark cases as Miranda and Escobedo that succeeded in expanding the rights of the accused, Stokes filed a motion to suppress the evidence. “The officer had no probable cause accosting them,” he said, “They weren’t brandishing guns, running, or doing anything related to a crime.

In spite of the violence and turmoil of American cities in the sixties, Stokes was confident his case would prevail before the Court. “As a black man I understood how black males were stopped in urban settings and if they didn’t have contraband as a result of stopping subjecting them to the indignity of being stopped…they were just told to move on down the street. That’s why I took this case.” Yet in the final analysis the Supreme Court based their decision upon the safety of the police officer and failed to extend Fourth Amendment protections.

“What I say to you as law students is that it pays to think outside of the box as a lawyer,” advised Stokes. “It would have been easy for me to plead them guilty and work out some light sentence. It took more to go against the custom and utilize the Constitution to try to uphold what it means in light of what people are subjected to on the streets in our country.”

Stokes presence moved the audience to emotion. As one student asked, “Did you or your brother Carl, the first black mayor of a major U.S. city ever envision this day [the election of President-Elect Obama]? You must have because surely you paved the way.” Stokes remarked that Obama’s whole campaign reminded him of 1967 when his brother became the mayor of Cleveland. “Carl built coalition in Cleveland of blacks and white. That’s how he won. For many reasons related to what Carl did and my victory as the first black congressman in Ohio the following year, Barack Obama’s meant so much. It reminded me how far we’ve come.”

Itching to escape winter in Cambridge? How about vicariously? Recently, 2L Ethan Schiffres wrote to us about his Winter Term project with Music Industry Piracy Investigations, a joint venture between the Australian Recording Industry Association and the Australian composers/publishers’ organization. He had been working on several projects for them, including research about ISP liability for users’ copyright infringement, in which he has focused mainly on a comparison between Australian and U.S. approaches.

“My decision to spend my Winter Term in Sydney was a relatively easy one. Obviously, weather was a huge factor, but I was also interested in furthering my pre-law school interest in the music business, gaining a new international perspective on the main issues facing the industry. HLS provides the unique opportunity of allowing students to set up a legal internship anywhere in the world with basically any organization, and as appealing as spending my post New Year’s days trudging through the snow from my apartment to Austin Hall sounded, I decided to take advantage.’

“Back in October, I contacted the head of SoundExchange, the performance rights organization where I had interned back in college, and they offered to put me in touch with the Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA), which is the Australian analogue to the RIAA. After exchanging several emails, I clenched a three-week internship at Music Industry Piracy Investigations (MIPI), which is the anti-piracy arm of the Australian music industry.’

“MIPI is a small, albeit extremely well-run, organization that coordinates the anti-piracy investigative, policy, and educational activities of ARIA and the Australian music publishers society. My main project has involved researching the liability of Internet Service Providers for their subscribers’ file-sharing and illegal downloading. ARIA has been involved in negotiations with ISPs about the possibility of a three strikes / graduated response / “notice and disconnect” scheme, whereby ISPs would provide file-sharers a series of warnings before cutting off internet service if they were engaged in repeated copyright infringement. The world’s first “three strikes” law will go into effect in New Zealand in February, and France is very close to passing a similar law. Most of my research has been a comparative analysis between Australian and U.S. copyright law regarding ISP liability. The timing is particularly apt, as a couple weeks before I headed down under, the RIAA announced that it would cease suing file-sharers and would instead pursue a “notice and disconnect” scheme with U.S. ISPs.’

“In addition to the ISP research, I have been involved in a handful of other smaller tasks for MIPI. I have responded to inquiries regarding the legality of certain behaviors related to music online, assisted with the organization’s educational efforts by updating consumer facts sheets (e.g. legal issues involving using music on your website), and have also participated in investigative efforts by monitoring eBay Australia for pirated music.’

“Outside of the office, I have spent a lot of time exploring Sydney and will be venturing out to other parts of Australia as the month goes on. I’m living at the University of Sydney in Newtown, which is a cool little neighborhood with a grungy/hipster vibe to it, not unlike the East Village or Central Square. Sydney is a great city with amazing beaches (which I’ve been to approximately every other day, despite the 40 minute bus ride after work), friendly people, and a great music scene. I have tried dearly not to be a tourist and have made an effort to experience the city as the people who live here do.’

“I’ve also tried to immerse myself in the Sydney music scene. Back when I was scouting bands for Everfine Records / Red Light management during my two years off before law school, I came across an Australian singer/songwriter named Andy Bull. Andy has an incredible voice and a great live performance, and although we never ended up signing him, I stayed in touch with his manager and producer. I found out that he was opening for American jam icon Donovan Frankenreiter in Sydney during my first weekend, so I got the opportunity to see him play in front of nearly 1,000 people in his home town. The last time I had seen him play was back in 2006 at a showcase at Piano’s on the Lower East Side – there had been maybe 40 people in the crowd.’

“I can’t really say what my typical day in Sydney is like, but today is a pretty good example. I woke up at around 7 (i.e. 3pm EST) to grab breakfast at the local café and check my email. After realizing that my weekly bus pass expired, I ran to the nearest 7-11 (they are ubiquitous here), bought a new pass, and rushed to the bus stop so I could make it to work on time. After taking two buses and walking about 500 meters, by 9 I arrived at my office in Pyrmont, which is a quiet, predominantly residential neighborhood with some great pubs. I spent the morning working on my ISP research. Usually I grab lunch at one of the local pubs or Thai restaurants with my coworkers, but today everyone brought their own lunch.  I have found that no one here eats lunch at their desk, unlike everywhere I have worked in the U.S . After a productive afternoon continuing my research and working on an educational campaign aimed to inform schoolchildren about copyright law, I headed home and changed into my gym clothes. I took the bus from Newtown to Bondi Beach, where I disembarked and began my 5 kilometer run along the Pacific Coast to Coogee Beach. The run is absolutely stunning, passing along the cliffs and through an incredible (and eerie) seaside cemetery. After arriving at Coogee, I ordered some locally caught fish, had it grilled in front of me, and brought it to the beach, where I ate facing the ocean, as the sun set behind me. I took the bus back to Newtown, where I drank a couple James Squires with my roommates and watched the Australian Open. Not a bad life, right?”

We should say not…

As a former Chicagoan, I’ve been paying close attention to the sad display of corruption and greed coming out of the state of Illinois in recent days (er, years).  It appears the good citizens of that state will see a second governor in a row–first Republican governor George Ryan and now Democratic governor Rod Blagojevich–end up behind bars.  (One wonders whether voters will choose more wisely next time)  But there’s a hero in this mess: U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald, a 1985 graduate of Harvard Law School.  I recommend reading about him in this Chicago Tribune profile.  Maybe the new president (’91) will keep him on for a few more years…

We did a bunch more interviews of students and faculty members to add to the HLS Speaks page off the JD Admissions home page.  New categories of interview clips include: (1) Clinical & Pro Bono Programs; (2) Criminal Law & Justice; (3) Law, Business & Economics; (4) Negotiation & Conflict Resolution; (5) Constitutional Law & Policy; (6) Why Law School; (7) Law, Science & Technology; (8) Reading Groups & Small Seminars; (9) National Security & Terrorism; (10) Social & Gender Justice, Civil Rights; (11) Career Plans; and (12) Joint Degrees.

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

A professor who perhaps needs no introduction, Philip Heymann leads efforts at HLS to encourage national and international public service by lawyers. He was appointed by President Carter to lead the Criminal Division of the Department of Justice, and by President Clinton to serve as Deputy Attorney General of the United States. Heymann authored numerous books and articles. His most recent book Terrorism, Freedom and Security was described in the New York Times as a persuasive argument for just the kind of multilateral approach to fighting terrorism for which the Bush administration has shown utter disdain. His earlier book, Terrorism and America, was described by Ariel Merari, the founder and former commander of Israel’s Hostage Negotiation and Crisis Management Team, as by far the best treatise on coping with terrorism. He has appeared frequently on national television and radio.

Admissions staffer Julia Foresman recently sat down with Professor Heymann to talk about teaching law and terrorism and to get his thoughts on the national security issues we stand to face in the coming years. Take a listen: Professor Phil Heymann

I just heard from a student, David Kessler, that an article he wrote under the supervision of Professors Warren and Stuntz was just accepted for publication by the Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology. Though students regularly publish “Notes” in law reviews and journals, it is more unusual for them to get articles published. It’s a credit to David and his advisers.

The article is titled “Free to Leave? An Empirical Look at the Fourth Amendment’s Seizure Standard.” Here is the abstract:

“Whether a person has been ’seized’ often determines if he or she receives Fourth Amendment protection. The Supreme Court has established a standard for identifying seizures: a person is seized when a reasonable person in his situation would not have felt free to leave or otherwise terminate the encounter with law enforcement. In applying that standard, today’s courts conduct crucial seizure inquiries relying only on their own beliefs about when a reasonable person would feel free to leave. But both the Court and scholars have noted that, though empirical evidence about whether people actually feel free to leave would help guide the seizure inquiry, no such evidence presently exists. This paper presents the first empirical study of whether people actually would feel free to leave in two situations in which the Court has held that people would: on public sidewalks and on buses. Drawing on a survey of 406 randomly selected Boston residents, this paper concludes that people would not feel free to end their encounters with the police. By the Court’s standard, respondents would be seized in both scenarios. The data also show that knowledge of one’s legal right to end the encounter with the police would not make people feel free to leave, and that women and people under twenty-five would feel less free to leave than would men and people over twenty-five. This initial empirical evidence suggests the need to rethink the current seizure standard.”

Keep an eye out in January 2009 for Mr. Kessler’s article!

Q: How many years of experience do you have in advising students on public interest careers and what is the advantage of that length of experience?

A: I have been doing public interest advising for 14 years (not including the semester I spent as a Wasserstein Fellow-in Residence at HLS) before joining the office. My longevity offers HLS students a lot of benefits that advisers who haven’t been doing public interest advising as long just can’t match even if they have a lot of public interest work experience.

First, doing this work for a long time has allowed me to build up expertise in a wide range of practice settings and types of work beyond my own expertise. I was a poverty lawyer before joining HLS but because I have learned so much from our student and alumni experiences, I now have expertise in such divergent areas as the hiring practices of the Department of Justice and how to break into the competitive world of civil rights and civil liberties advocacy.

Perhaps even more importantly, I have a network of lawyers that I can call upon to give students insider advice about their areas of practice and sometimes an extra leg up in the application process. One service we provide to many students is to give them personal referrals to alums or other lawyers working in their area of interest from my own “mental rolodex” or from more formal databases. That network has been built through 14 years of meeting panelists and visiting Wasserstein Fellows (some of whom aren’t HLS grads but with whom I have a connection), through working with employers around the world and through knowing graduates who have cycled through OPIA. The many graduates who used our services while in law school and have personal connections to our staff are especially loyal.