HLS in Focus

Welcome to the first in our series of Friday postings about the application and admissions process.  Each Friday, I’ll be posting updates on our process, interesting stories from this admissions cycle, and the occasional application pointer. 

Recently, I was asked to put together a “Top Ten” list of application tips for a student conference on the law school application process.  Since the tips are applicable to all of you as well, I figured I’d share some:

1. Start early and plan ahead

Take time to put together a well-crafted, thoughtful application.  Create a calendar of deadlines and all the application steps and work backwards to build a schedule. At HLS, and many other schools with rolling admissions, your chances will be better if you apply early.

2. Put your best foot forward

The most compelling applicants have a good sense of why they want to come to law school and can often cite specific experiences that they’ve had that make this move a logical next step.  Spend some time thinking about what you want to convey and how you can use all of your application materials together to get this message across.  It is OK if you are not really sure exactly what type of law you want to practice, but you should have a sensible reason for pursuing a law degree.

3. Use addenda wisely

Many students have something on their application that might raise a question for the reader.  Examples include large gaps of unaccounted for time, a “withdrawn” grade on a transcript, or multiple, widely varying LSAT scores.  The best way to handle any issue that might raise a red flag is to address it: simply, directly, and honestly.  A short addendum can go a long way in alleviating a reader’s concerns.  Keep in mind that while addenda are useful, you should focus your efforts on making your case within the contours of the required application. 

4. Choose the right recommenders

When choosing recommenders, be sure to pick people who know you well, not just who gave you an “A” in their course or a good performance review at work.  The key to a good recommendation is a recommender who can offer deep insight into who you are and what you can contribute, often by referencing specific examples.  Finding someone who knows you well, and reminding them of your interactions, often results in the most effective endorsement of your candidacy. 

5. Proofread, Proofread, Proofread

Your application is your best shot to make a good impression on the admissions office.  Given that, readers will assume that your application is your best work.  Any typos or spelling or grammatical errors suggest that either you’re not capable of producing error-free work or that you didn’t care enough to do it in this instance.  Neither impression is helpful to your chances for admission.  

Have a great weekend!  See you next Friday…

Just got back from the student activities fair.  Have to say I was completely blown away by the level of student-driven activity going on at HLS.  All told, over 90 organizations had booths at the fair.  The Ropes-Gray room in Pound Hall was absolutely packed with students. 

While I can’t say I had a chance to speak to every student group, I would be willing to guess that every HLS student must be able to find at least one organization that appeals to their interests.  In fact, I learned that while the process for starting a student organization is quite straightforward, the biggest challenge is actually trying to come up with something that isn’t already being done! 

For a sense of what student organizations are doing at HLS, check out this page: http://www.law.harvard.edu/current/orgs/index.html

I recently asked 2L Nate Hamilton to track a typical day.  Here’s his thoughts: 

Friday 7:30am

Up early to do my reading for First Amendment Law.  Finish reading around 9; cook some eggs for breakfast and kiss my wife goodbye as she leaves for work.  We live in Holden Green, Harvard-affiliated apartments about a ten minute walk away from campus.  Shower, get dressed, then grab my laptop on the way out the door (the Professor doesn’t let us use them in class, but I need it for later).

10:00am

First Amendment Law begins, taught by Noah Feldman.  He’s one of the best Socratic method instructors I’ve seen – strikes the right balance between class discussion and lecture.  Today we’re discussing whether the First Amendment allows religious groups to be exempt from laws infringing on their core beliefs, and if so, how far that right extends.  I raise my hand, ask a question; I guess it must have been a decent response because Prof. Feldman keeps coming back to me throughout the discussion.  Good thing I did the reading…

12:00pm

Go to a lunch discussion panel hosted by the Federalist Society.  The topic of discussion is “Should We Legislate Morality?” featuring Prof. Feldman along with Prof. Charles Fried (former Solicitor General) and Prof. Bradley of Notre Dame law school.  Looking around the room, I’m impressed by the mix of FedSoc members and visitors in the room; while conservatives like myself are an, albeit sizeable, minority at HLS, I’ve always found the students and professors here to be open-minded and accepting of viewpoints that don’t match their own.

1:30pm

Over to Gannett House, where the Harvard Law Review offices are located.  As a new Editor on the Review, I’ve been very busy since the start of the term, working hard to ensure that the November issue is published on time.  Today my assignment is to read a piece written by a fellow student and write up a detailed memo evaluating the strengths and weaknesses of the piece’s arguments.  Reading these sorts of pieces, I’m always struck by the intellectual depth and writing abilities of the students here at HLS.

3:30pm

Now finished with the Law Review assignment, I turn to researching some of the law firms which I am interviewing with next week.  Though it might seem crazy, 2L fall is when firms hire for next year’s summer associates – which usually ends up leading to a job after graduation!  So it’s important to go into the interviews with some knowledge about the firms I will be meeting with.

5:00pm

Drop my stuff off at home, then head over to the Harvard Square T station.  I’m heading into downtown Boston to meet up with my wife and some friends of ours for dinner and margaritas at the Cactus Club.  I love how easy it is to get around the Boston area – it’s a compact city, yet it has everything that a major metropolitan center has to offer.  Best of all, the city is highly “walkable,” so you don’t need a car to get around – you can walk from one side of the city (Fenway Park) to the other (the very Italian North End) in under an hour.

10:00pm

The evening ends with hanging out on my friend’s roofdeck.  The leaves haven’t yet started to turn, but the crisp night air portends the coming autumn.  I take a deep breath, look out over the city, and feel blessed to live in such a place.

Highly recommend checking out this article from the main HLS page:

http://www.law.harvard.edu/news/spotlight/student-pursuits/10_students.html

For those of you trying to sort out what law school might be right for you, this article provides a great perspective on the type of people you might meet at HLS, the opportunities that are available here, and the interesting things that graduates go on to do.  Check it out.

When applying to law school, I had lots of questions.  How to apply?  Who should write my recommendations?  What would life be like at the school?  How would I pay for it?  While we’ll try to address many of your questions here on this blog, I want to highlight a few other opportunities to interact with members of the HLS admissions team. 

Throughout the fall, we host information sessions here on-campus.  The sessions typically last an hour with a brief presentation and time for Q&A.  Immediately following, you can join us on a tour of our campus.  Info sessions are held on most Fridays throughout the fall.  For a full schedule and more information click here:

http://www.law.harvard.edu/prospective/jd/visit/infosessions.html

The admissions team spends much of the fall traveling to undergraduate campuses around the country.   We also participate in several law school forums put on the by the Law School Admission Council (LSAC).  Both are great opportunities to learn more about HLS and ask a question or two.  For a full schedule of where we’ll be and when check out this link:

http://www.law.harvard.edu/prospective/jd/visit/recruiting.html

We hope to see you sometime soon!

Applications for the fall semester of 2010 are now available online:

http://www.law.harvard.edu/prospective/jd/apply/jdapp.html

One of my favorite parts of attending HLS was being part of a big class of incredibly talented individuals from a wide array of backgrounds.  This community greatly enhanced my learning experience while at the law school and guaranteed a vast network of friends and colleagues that spanned geographies, industries and career paths post-graduation. 

Dean Minow recently highlighted the extraordinary backgrounds of this year’s entering class in her first address of the school year. 

It’s worth a quick read/watch:

http://www.law.harvard.edu/news/spotlight/classroom/3_minow.html

I was always told that my HLS degree would open doors for me.  Little did I suspect that the door would be to the Admissions Office in Austin Hall, at the southern end of campus.  While I assumed my graduation a few years back would mean the end of my time in Cambridge, I’ve recently been given the exciting opportunity to serve as the new Dean of Admissions for HLS.  I’m thrilled to play a role in introducing you to the wonderful opportunities that exist at Harvard Law School, through this site and through other channels. 

The goal of this blog has been to increase the transparency of the HLS admissions process and to paint a vivid picture of the student experience and of what your life might look like here in Cambridge.  Over the coming months we’ll continue that mission, retaining much of what you’ve seen here while adding a few twists along the way. 

Most importantly – this blog is for you.  Let us know what you’d like to hear about and we’ll do our best to shed some light. 

I look forward to getting to know many of you over the coming months. 

– Josh Rubenstein

Q: What will you be doing this summer?

This summer I will be working in Kinshasa, DRC with Development Alternatives, Inc. (DAI) as a legal intern for their Building Recovery and Reform through Democratic Governance (BRDG-DRC) project which is funded by USAID. The new Congolese Constitution of 2006 has mandated a reform of the judicial sector, in order to ensure a more robust, independent and fair judicial system. To that end I will be working with the Judicial Reform Advisor to plan and execute trainings and project activities in the both national and provincial judicial sectors.

Moreover, I will be monitoring Parliamentary committee sessions and providing DAI with written analyses of the committees’ goals and performances in order to guide the BRDG-DRC project on potential legislative strengthening workshops.

Q: How did you come to select your internship and why?

I was interested in DAI in general and its BRDG project in particular for several reasons. First, I strongly believe in DAI’s mission, which is to affect positive change by providing societies with tools to help them achieve stability and become more just and better governed. I came to law school to learn how I could use the law to continue my desire and commitment to affect positive change in people’s lives. More specifically, I view the law as a way to expand my commitment to human rights by exploring the ways in which existing legal structures make room for human rights law.

Second, the BRDG project’s location is very appealing to me for academic and personal reasons. My mother is from the DRC, and although I have yet to travel there, it holds a compelling interest for me because my origins are there and because I have traveled to and engaged in research in Senegal and Ghana. My research has signaled to me the importance of human rights and law, and I believe that DRC, because of its history and political climate, is ripe for transformation. I strongly feel the need to be part of this transformation because there is so much work to be done, and I see the law as an extremely important facet in Congo’s transition to a democratic society.

Q: What is one thing about HLS that you think everyone should know?

One of the most unique aspects of HLS is that no opportunity is closed to you as long as you take the preliminary steps. There are so many resources, including professors, other students, and OPIA that will help you fulfill your professional and/or academic goals, whatever they may be. Moreover, the SPIF program along with the Chayes and Human Rights fellowships make it possible to pursue international opportunities almost anywhere in the world.

Chayes Fellow, 2L Emily Inouye, reflects on her internship this summer with the International Justice Mission (IJM) in Bolivia and her preliminary thoughts on post-grad work in development.

Q:  What are you doing this summer?

A: This summer I will be working with International Justice Mission (IJM) in their Bolivia office. Though IJM works around the world on a variety of different cases, the focus of the Bolivian office’s casework is sexual abuse and assault against minors. They combat such crimes both by working to bring more cases into the courts as well as by working with officials and others in the community who have the power to influence the public justice system in order to strengthen the rule of law as a whole. I will be working under a Bolivian lawyer to support her in her work and conducting research for a variety of other programs targeting churches and community groups that are meant to help bring to light the severity of the problem of sexual abuse as well as the need and various means to begin to address it.

Q: Why did you choose to work at IJM?

A: I heard about IJM when I was much younger and I have always been inspired as well as encouraged by their work. The extent of the problems of injustice in our world are huge – whether sexual abuse, sex trafficking, slavery, etc., and I wanted to be at least a small part of the work. Even though the problems seem monstrous, each case that we win and, on a larger scale, the more people we are able to help inform and train to be aware of and to fight against these various forms of injustice, each of these serve to cut down the problems bit by bit. I especially appreciate that even as IJM sends people to foreign countries, one of their goals is always to enable, to support and to empower nationals there to do the work themselves.

Q:  What are your preliminary thoughts on what you might want to do after graduation?

A:  In general, upon graduation, I would like to be able to work in international development, either specifically in the rule of law or more generally with regards to other types of human capital development – whether in education, health care, etc. Though I don’t know exactly what this means, I am interested in legal system design and the manner in which procedure and governance can have both incredibly beneficial as well as severe effects on the effective functioning of a system and delivery of justice. In Bolivia, I have already seen the manners in which people are able to delay cases such that justice is obstructed, at times temporarily and at others, indefinitely. Such systemic problems not only hinder the ability of courts to function, but the ability of countries to suppress corruption and to develop economically and politically.