When I wore my cap and gown back in 2007, I knew that my HLS degree would open up a world of possibilities for my career.  My friends and classmates were headed off in a variety of directions – some headed to law firms, others to judicial clerkships, some to public interest jobs and others to business. Personally, I was headed to Bain & Company.  Over the past five years at Bain, I worked with Fortune 500 companies on growth strategy, helped family-owned businesses improve their operations and advised leading Private Equity firms on investment decisions.  I also managed recruiting, retention and staffing efforts within Bain itself.  What I couldn’t have imagined at graduation was that my career path would end up leading me back to the HLS campus.

But next week, I’ll be doing exactly that—starting a new and exciting step in my career as the Assistant Dean of Admissions at HLS. 

The opportunity to return to an institution that has meant so much to me is amazing.  As I’m sure you know, HLS students have a lot of options.  For me, that meant volunteering with TaxHelp, an organization which provides low-income individuals in Boston and Cambridge with free, confidential tax assistance.  I also devoted time to La Alianza, a student organization composed of Latino law students and students interested in issues affecting the Latino community at HLS.  This was all in addition to my great classroom experiences learning Constitutional Law with Martha Minow, Bankruptcy with Elizabeth Warren, and Criminal Law with Alan Dershowitz, just to name a few.

I’m looking forward to starting my position as the Assistant Dean of Admissions for Harvard Law School next week and beginning to get to know the students applying for the Class of 2015. I plan to dive right into reading applications and will start interviewing candidates very soon.  I look forward to being back on campus and seeing all of the changes since I graduated.  But most of all, I look forward to helping applicants learn about Harvard Law School and all the possibilities that come with it—both during the three years on campus, and after!

~ Jessica Soban
Assistant Dean and Chief Admissions Officer

The basic idea is that students working at a law firm or other private employer their 2L summer donate one day’s pay (approximately $600) to a fellowship, which will be awarded to a fellow student entering the public sector upon graduation in 2013. Do the math: over 80% of our class will enter the private sector this summer. If each of those students donates one day’s worth of their pay we can raise nearly $300,000, enough to fund 10 graduates’ salaries for their post-graduation year!

One Day’s Work has already had a solid measure of success: we have raised more than $20,000! Students, professors, and law firms have graciously donated their money, time, and effort to the initiative. However, much work is to be done, and we look forward to continuing our efforts on campus this spring! Please visit our website, www.onedayswork.org, for more information. And, look out for our upcoming events this spring, showcasing Dean Minow and Professors Rubenstein, Steiker and Wilkins.

Should you have any questions about One Day’s Work, feel free to email the program’s co-chairs Shelley Rosenberg and Samantha Goldstein at onedayswork@gmail.com.

Essentially, the “hold” status is our way of saying that although we’ve reviewed your application, we are not quite ready to make a final decision.  Because we have a rolling admission process and your application has been complete for at least two months, we want let you know that we need some more time to re-examine it in the context of the broader applicant pool.

Please know this is normal: we’re not evaluating candidates in a vacuum but rather trying to select a class from the entire applicant pool. Once a larger portion of the applicant pool has been reviewed, you will receive a decision to admit, deny or wait-list your application. The timing of these decisions will be any time between now and late spring.

Many applicants ask us if there is something they can do during this “hold period” and the answer is yes. If you have new information that we should have to evaluate your candidacy, definitely send it in.

*  Updated transcripts should be sent to LSAC

*  Other updates such as honors or awards you’ve recently won, a new job, or anything else that you think could materially impact our evaluation of you should be sent to our office. (Keep in mind that we do not open email attachments, so most updates should be sent to our office via postal mail.)

*  Please note that your application was complete with the letters of recommendation that you already submitted.  Additional letters of recommendation, therefore, are unnecessary at this time.

In the mean time, sit tight and try not to stress too much. We’ll try and get you a decision as soon as we can.

~JD Admissions

These are some lessons I’ve learned from HLS and my legal career thus far.

As I write this, I am still reeling from having received my Army JAG duty assignment a few hours ago.  With advice from several extremely gracious HLS alumni (“Dear General X.”), I crafted my preference list a few weeks ago.  Despite the fact that my voice reverberated off the tile walls and porcelain of that bathroom during the first bit of my assignments phone interview, I got my first choice! Hint: Knock on wood (or thin air), I may find myself jumping out of a perfectly good aircraft this summer.

At least this time I did not exclaim “For real?!” as I did when my field screening officer informed me that I was offered a slot in JAG.  She calmly – so calmly – replied that she would not joke about the matter. I received that phone call in Pound Hall which (thank goodness!) was not full of students at that moment to catch me in my Valley Girl-esque lapse.  A dream came true and composure, just this once, took a back seat.

All of which brings me back to the first in this series of glad-tidings phone calls.  Way back when I was a paralegal at lunch with my attorneys, I did the Emily Post thing and ignored a phone call so as not to interrupt our meal. But Caller ID had already told me what I wanted to know…. that phone call turned out to be my HLS’s offer of admission.

Maybe I’ll get things right the fourth time I hear a ring.

-Alex, Class of 2011
Pensacola, FL
National Service / Education

But, ironically, HLS taught me that it’s okay to take risks – and it’s even okay to fail. My rejection letters for summer jobs after 1L year were some of the first employment rejections I had ever experienced. Despite those so-called failures, I ended up with the perfect job for me at DC Public Schools.

Harvard was also the place where I decided to re-enter the world of Student Government. More than a decade after my last-place election, I ran for VP again – this time of HLS. I shook hands and asked for votes from friends and strangers alike. After I won, I decided I would risk failure once again by running for President the following year.

I eventually did win Student Government President, but it still scared me to put myself out there. There’s something special about HLS though. It’s big enough to feel like an exciting adventure, while small and friendly enough to make students feel comfortable taking risks. Whatever risks you want to take at HLS, it helps to remember that here, even if you fail, you’re failing among the best.

Jennifer
Class of 2011
currently an associate at a DC law firm

Take a look at HLStudents to learn more about Harvard Law School from our students.

Veterans share their experiences in the military and at HLS

This is a slow process, and I know you are waiting to hear from us, but rest assured that it is a good thing that we take our time to evaluate your application. We have a fantastic team of admissions professionals and faculty who take the time to do a very careful review of every file before we begin making decisions.

After a file has undergone this thorough review, some candidates will be offered a phone interview. HLS is somewhat unique in that our admissions process involves this short, evaluative phone interview. It is an incredibly valuable part of the admissions process. This is our one opportunity to actually speak with you and learn more about your passions, interests, and aspirations. Just this week, I’ve begun conducting phone interviews with a few candidates. Interviews are offered by invitation. If you haven’t been offered an interview yet, please don’t worry – just remember all those stacks of applications I mentioned that are around the Admissions Office – we are reading applications every day and are making our way through the piles.

Also, no decisions have been made yet. Generally, we begin making admission decisions around the end of November and continue on a rolling basis until we have a full class. . Our practice is to allow the admissions committee to evaluate a large portion of the applicant pool before we start selecting the class.

So if you’ve sent your application in already, sit back and relax. Once you receive your “application complete” email notification, don’t spend too much time worrying about when you will hear from us again. Over the next couple of weeks, you will be seeing new posts from current students and alumni on our blog and we will also be launching a great new section of our website called HLStudents where you can learn about the experiences of current HLS students. Take this time to research Harvard, and if you are in New England, enjoy the sights of fall out your window. Meanwhile, I’ll be in my office – reading applications.

~Karen
Director of Admissions

-Melanie, 2L

1. The temperature can be 77 one day and 57 two days later.
2. You can sustain yourself on the free swag/food provided during on campus fairs/events/meetings.
3. The HLS tunnels begin to resemble a busy city street on rainy days.
4. U.S. Supreme Court Associate Justice Elena Kagan ’86 visits campus for a conversation with Dean Martha Minow that is open to the HLS community.
5. The public transportation/sidewalks/city in general feels busier with the influx of tens of thousands of students.
6. You are still surprised when you see the free coffee stations around campus.
7. The application for entrance in Fall 2012 is live.

Fall has arrived in Cambridge! If you are not with us here in Cambridge and are hoping to join the Class of 2015, we encourage you to get your application in early.

The 559 new residents of Cambridge come with an impressive array of backgrounds, experiences, and hold a diverse set of legal aspirations. Our 1Ls include nine professors, 27 Teach for America alumni, and eight veterans of military service. These students speak 47 foreign languages, with over a quarter of our incoming class speaking Spanish. More than 53% of our class has been out of undergraduate for 2 or more years and they have done some interesting things with their time including working as a Patrol Officer in the Baltimore City Police Department, as Personal Secretary to the President of the United States, a Ranch Hand/Horse Wrangler/Sheep Herder, a Senior Program Assistant at UN World Food Program in Uganda, a Professional Poker Player, and as Research Assistant for Human Rights Watch in Senegal. When they weren’t busy with their day jobs, our students competed in ballroom dancing, as a nationally-ranked tennis player, on the Canadian National Rifle team, as well as completed multiple Ironman triathlons. They also share their talents musically including the fifth place winner of the Youth Slam Poetry World Championships and a symphony violinist.

Without a doubt, these new students, just completing their first week of classes, bring a wide array of experiences to their legal education at Harvard Law School. We welcome them to campus!

Best of luck!

Over the last couple of weeks, there’s been lots of fanfare as some schools have announced new LRAP programs. Here’s where it’s important to start thinking like a lawyer before you even get to law school. LRAP programs differ tremendously across schools and no one program is right for every person or situation. It’s critically important that you read the fine print and understand the differences between the programs before making a decision – there’s nothing worse than choosing a school and then finding out later on that its LRAP won’t work for the career you’re trying to build.

Ken Lafler, our Assistant Dean for Student Financial Services, has built a really helpful webpage with some key questions to ask in thinking about LRAP’s (he also built a page which details some of the benefits of Harvard’s LIPP program). At the risk of plagiarizing Ken, I’ll share some of the highlights here.

To start, it’s critical to understand whether the LRAP that you’re considering requires participation in the Federal Public Service Loan Forgiveness Program (FPSLFP). This is important for two reasons. First, FPSLFP is an all-or-nothing program that requires a minimum of 10 years in public service jobs in order for you to qualify for any forgiveness benefit – so if you work in public service for 9 years, 11 months, and 29 days, no loan forgiveness for you. That may work fine for some people, but others might value the flexibility of being able to try different types of jobs in order to find the right fit. Additionally, in order to benefit from the FPSLFP, you must repay your loans on the Income Based Repayment plan – this plan provides for a very low monthly payment, so low that it doesn’t even cover the interest accruing on your loans. Thus, you run into what’s called negative amortization; even though payments are being made on your loans (by you, or in some cases by your school), your overall level of debt is still increasing! Combining the 10-year all-or-nothing requirement with the potential for negative amortization means that in some cases, if you were to leave the public sector before 10 years, you could actually end up owing more on your loans than when you graduated! See why it’s important to read the fine print?

Additionally, it’s really important to understand which repayment term will be used by the LRAP. Schools vary widely here with some using the standard repayment term of 10 years and others using longer periods of 15 years. This is important as longer repayment terms mean lower payments each month, which equates to less debt being covered by the LRAP. This can make a huge difference if you’re only in an eligible job for a few years – much better to have 3/10 of your debt repaid than 3/15, for example.

Again, there’s a lot more information on this page – important facts like what type of work is covered (public sector only? private & public sector? law-related only?) and what type of loans are covered (federal only or all loans?).

No one LRAP is right for every person in every situation – so check out the website, ask the right questions and find the program that’s the best fit for you and your career plans. Now off to write my loan repayment check…

I thought that I’d post in a bit more detail how the 1L job search works here at HLS. In November, you can select an advisor in both OPIA, the office that covers public interest advising, and OCS, the office that covers private sector employment and clerkships. This advisor is your go-to person for your job search. Other advisors hold office hours daily for any quick questions you have, but I found it incredibly helpful to have one person who knew me and my entire job search “story.” He or she will edit cover letters and resumes and offer advice on interviews and evaluating offers. Both OPIA and OCS also suggested employers that might be a good fit for me. I know that I reached out to employers that I might not have even known about without OPIA and OCS’s input. Another great resource that I enjoyed was “HLS Connect.” It’s an alumni database that lists alumni who are willing to be contacted about their work and interests. I found these conversations really valuable in thinking about where I might want to practice and how I might be able to get there. If you’re curious about my own HLS Connect story and how it affected my summer job search, you can read about it here. One of the best things about Harvard Law School is the breadth and enthusiasm of alumni. I really enjoyed speaking with them. You gain some perspective in real world practice that casebooks cannot always provide.

Back to the timeline and process. Beginning December 1, you are allowed to apply for positions. For most 1L positions, this application process involves emailing your resume and cover letter to a contact that you found either on the NALP Directory or through one of Harvard’s internal job postings. Some employers wait to interview until fall grades are out, while others seemed willing to interview before grades. Less were willing to extend offers before grades were available, though some did. Unlike the 2L process, most of the firms and government agencies that I dealt with did not require an initial on-campus screening interview. There were a number of employers who visited campus in February who did such screening interviews, but my experience was that most employers used your resume, cover letter, and grades for screening and then invited you to their offices. Interviews generally asked about motivations for attending law school, geographic and practice area interest, thoughts on law school, and for more background on past experience.

I finished interviewing in mid February and accepted my offer last week, but my perception is that it is common for the process to extend into March or later. Some of my friends have finalized their plans, but many others are still looking. 1L employment ranges from government agencies to non profits to law firms to investment banks, both domestic and internationally: you can imagine the range of timelines. OPIA and OCS emphasize that everyone in the 1L class will enjoy working in a legal setting this summer if they so choose. The Summer Public Interest Funding and other supplemental funding means that students can afford to do what most interests them, even if the positions themselves are unpaid.

I know that many of you are deciding where to attend law school. OPIA, OCS, and the amazing array of employment opportunities at HLS are a really significant plus for the law school. I am very excited for my summer position, and so are my friends excited for their own. I hope that you choose to join us for this reason or the many others. Perhaps I’ll see you at the upcoming April Admitted Student Weekend!

Personally, if you give me any type of ball, I will keep myself busy for hours; but if you put me on a treadmill or an elliptical, I’ll tap out within minutes.

Lucky for me, the intramural offerings at HLS are truly incredible. Participating in intramural sports is a great opportunity to make and spend time with friends, take a quick study break, have fun, and get that heart rate up! HLS offers A and B leagues for most if not all of our intramural sports, and some sports run in both the fall and spring. Many teams are outgrowths of the 1L sections, while others are groups of friends from various extracurricular activities. So far, I have taken advantage of HLS football, volleyball, and basketball leagues. Look out for those team shirts when you check out Hemenway this weekend!

While of course we’re flattered, I’d caution students against reading too much into this, or any other, law school ranking. Choosing a law school is an intensely personal decision – one which requires careful consideration of what you’re looking to get out of your legal education and how well a school is positioned to deliver that. Rankings can provide you with some general guidance on what options you might have upon graduation, but they certainly aren’t a substitute for campus visits or conversations with current students, faculty, and alumni.

Good luck as you wrestle with making your decision!

So I got to thinking about what has changed over the last three years and what I might miss about this place. First, I’ve learned a lot since 1L. Of course, that one is kind of obvious. It is school after all. What I’m most surprised by is how it all seems to be coming together. In undergrad my classes were all over the place. Sure I learned a lot then too but it was more of a survey of many subjects than any real in depth analysis. In a way, I’ve learned a great deal on a wide variety of subjects in law school too but there are several themes that seem to be common to every course. I find myself drawing comparisons between federal criminal law and administrative law and talking about constitutional law in my employment law class. It’s nice to have a lot of material to draw on when I’m cold-called in class. That definitely wasn’t the case in 1L when I had nothing to go on but my gut. I also find that when I’m reading for class, I know what I’m looking for and I can often anticipate where the court will go with its analysis. Knowing that makes me feel like it’s been worth it..

Second, I’ve met a lot of extraordinary people. I don’t think I’ll ever be surrounded by such an interesting group of people again. I still love hearing about what people did before they got to HLS. I’ve never heard two stories that were alike. Just the other night I learned that a friend of mine spent three years in Germany before coming here, others have PhDs, a guy in my class actions class was even a judge in his country before coming to HLS. I also know that people don’t all go on to do the same thing after graduation. Sure a lot of people end up at law firms but others go on to do things like getting an LLM at Oxford or serving a term as Miss Jamaica before starting their legal careers. Sure I’ll meet interesting people for the rest of my life but I doubt there will be so many in one place.

Third, I will actually miss the east coast. When I got here, almost seven years ago now, I couldn’t wait to go back home. I didn’t understand why prime time started at eight o’clock instead of seven, what a nor’easter was or why there was never any wind stronger than a breeze. Now that I think about going back home for the last time in just a few months I feel like I should have a bucket list or something. There are a lot of things I will miss about this part of the country and most of them are the things I thought were strange when I got here. I’m going to enjoy the next three months as much as I can. Maybe I’ll finally walk the freedom trail and take in a few museums but most of all hang out with friends before we scatter all across the country.

I knew when I was at HLS that I was surrounded by a bunch of people much more talented than I am, but I was genuinely impressed at the range of things people are doing these days. For example, Section 2 alums now have roles such as:

• Vice President at Teach for America
• Strategy Consultant at McKinsey & Company
• Policy Analyst at the US Department of Treasury
• Analyst at Calpine, a renewable energy firm
• Investment Professional at Citadel Asset Management
• Judicial Clerks at the US Supreme Court for Chief Justice Roberts and Justice Breyer (albeit during the 2008-2009 term)
• Associate General Counsel at Planned Parenthood
• Principal at Centerbridge Partners, a major private equity firm
• Chief of Staff at the Chicago Police Department
• Senior Director of Strategy & Business Development at Colorado’s Technology Company of the Year
• Attorney at the Appellate Section of the Department of Justice’s Environment & Natural Resources Division

And this doesn’t even include the three members of my section who founded their own law firms, the one who won and lost campaigns for elective office, or the one who started his own frozen yogurt shop.

While it’s easy this time of year to get caught up in the stress of the law school admissions process, it’s fun to take a step back and think about where you (and your soon to be classmates) might be in eight years time. And to remember that law school’s not only about what you learn, but who you meet. For example, maybe I should have spent some time 1L year getting to know this guy.

Back to reading applications…

That being said, we’re not evil people. We understand that things come up, that people decide to apply late in the cycle, or that people had some unforeseeable circumstance that necessitates their taking the LSAT in February. So, while it’s strongly recommended that you get your application in as early as possible, we will continue to accept applications for as long as we feel that we can offer them full consideration.

I look forward to reading your application!

Over the last several decades, HLS has built up a reputation for providing an overly theoretical legal education to its students. Now in its second year, the Problem Solving Workshop is a small but meaningful step toward eliminating this perceived barrier to everyday practice. My section (yay section 6!) was fortunate enough to have a distinguished local attorney teach our course for the last three weeks, and I think I can safely speak for everyone when I say that we’ve learned quite a lot about working with clients. The Problem Solving Workshop has brought a welcome third dimension to the black and white pages that tend to dominate a traditional legal education.

Basically, each 1L section is led through a practical workshop that engages critical thinking skills through real-world problems. Each morning, monday through friday, my 80-student section meets to discuss a given legal problem. Then, for the rest of the day, we meet in pre-assigned groups of 4 or 5 team members to draft an assignment that’s usually due by 6 p.m. It looks and feels like real legal practice, but it’s all neatly packed into a compelling and relatively stress-free, pass/fail course. So far, we have covered everything from drafting a child labor policy for a multi-national corporation to helping to resolve a landlord-tenant dispute. OK, back to class for me!

Usually I shy away from classes that involve a lot of student participation but I decided to give it another chance. The best part of the participation requirement is that every student is required to participate in a debate. Topics and positions were assigned and I was “fortunate” enough to be the first in the class to present. Topics ranged from whether the FDA’s authority should extend to purely intrastate activity to whether oral contraceptives should be available over the counter. After the presentations, the class asks questions of the debaters, who have to maintain their assigned positions. Because it is now so easy to cross-register across the university we have people from several schools at Harvard, which makes for exciting conversation. We get to hear the perspective of many non-law students. We have medical school students, public health students, business school students, PhD candidates and even auditors from the Ghanaian equivalent of the FDA participating in the class.

Students are also kept engaged in the class because Professor Hutt incorporates students’ past experience in the class every day. For example, three students in the class have had experience in food processing plants of some kind. He calls on psychology majors for advice on the effects of food and drug labeling in decision-making and political science majors for advice on how proposed policy changes would work out or the reasons why they would fail. Finally, every day he wears a different university tie and points out the students that hold degrees from those schools.

The combination of academic backgrounds and engagement in class is probably responsible for the fact that so many of the final papers written for the class have been published in journals across the country and won prizes every year Professor Hutt has taught the class. It may also be because Professor Hutt makes himself available to students all the time. During winter term his stated office hours are from 2 p.m. to 11p.m. every day. He says the only time he won’t be there is when he is out having dinner with students. I’ve talked about how nice it is to be able to dine with professors in past posts but it’s worth stating again. Students should take opportunities like this whenever they can. His expertise in the field is tremendously helpful when doing research in the field of food and drug law. I’ve decided to write my third year paper on the subject so you’ll read more about that in the future.

I think all of us bloggers took a bit of a blogging break during finals. The 8-hr long take home finals were a new type of exam for me, and I’d like to thank the bagel, the cookie, and the chocolate for getting me through them. Add on friends and family to that. Finals were tough, but there was a solidarity in knowing that your section was all studying at the same time and perhaps the exact same thing. As my mom put it, “Think of it as little lights dotted all over Cambridge glowing from your classmates’ rooms.” English major, my mother.

Now after exams and a wonderful 2-week break, we’ve been back during J-Term (J is for January) at our Problem Solving Workshop. It meets from 9-12 in the morning, and then in groups, we work on projects that are due around 5pm. We’ve interviewed clients, presented to commissioners, and negotiated. We’ve produced a good number of memos and even a press release. We even tried our hand at contract drafting. The practical experience has been good, but certainly the best part for me has been getting to know my classmates better. Groups were assigned before we arrived for class on January 3, and I couldn’t be happier with mine. It really has been a ton of fun working with them every day. (Team O love.)

The 1L class is also working on their summer job search. Resumes have been sent (or are being sent). Interviews are ongoing, and some even already have offers which they are considering. The Summer Public Interest Funding (SPIF) means that many can choose to work in public interest positions for the summer, including unpaid positions, and receive funding from HLS for it. I’ve found OCS (Office of Career Services) and OPIA (Office of Public Interest Advising) to be very helpful. We all get to select a adviser, and the personal attention has been wonderful.

I hear Shaq came to a Sports Law class on campus yesterday. I’m sorry that I missed that one.

I have been a sports fan as long as I can remember – an oddity in my family, given that no one else knows or cares about sports. One of the biggest reasons I came to HLS was the opportunity to take classes in sports law. I knew that as soon as I hit 2L year, I was going to sign up for the available sports law courses, including eschewing clinical opportunities in warmer climes to stay in Cambridge to take Representing the Professional Athlete over J-Term. Although this seems fairly innocuous, it was a rather substantial concession for someone who grew up in California and thinks it’s “freezing” when the temperature is below 60 degrees!

Imagine my excitement when today, on our second to last day of class during J-Term, we had a special visitor from the Boston Celtics:

Shaq seems to really enjoy coming to Harvard (or at least, near Harvard). Back during fall semester, he visited Harvard Square where he sat on a bench like a statue for an hour and let people take pictures with him. What Shaq talked about in class is confidential (what happens in Sports Law stays in Sports Law!), but I will say that he was quite funny, engaging, and charming. He was very open about the topics he discussed: endorsement contracts, his moves to different teams, his interest in being both a humanitarian and a basketball player, and yes, even his acting career (including “Kazaam”).

The Sports Law professor Peter Carfagna has such fantastic connections that we are often able to have great guest speakers in our classes. I can’t promise that Shaq will show up to your Sports Law class too, but this is yet another example of the incredible opportunities available to HLS students and exemplifies why I continue to be thankful that I made the choice to come to HLS.

This week we sent out our first batch of “hold” e-mails and already the questions are flying in. The “hold” status is essentially our way of saying that we’re not quite ready to make a decision on your application yet and need some more time to re-examine it in the context of the broader applicant pool. This is normal as we’re not evaluating candidates in a vacuum but rather trying to select a class from the entire applicant pool.

If you have new information that we should have to evaluate your candidacy, definitely send it in. Updated transcripts should be sent to LSAC, but feel free to send us other updates such as honors or awards you’ve recently won, a new job, or anything else that you think could materially impact our evaluation of you. (Keep in mind that we do not open email attachments, so most updates should be sent to our office via postal mail.) Otherwise, sit tight and try not to stress too much. We’ll try and get you a decision as soon as we can.

- Josh

Described as a legal Peace Corps by the Los Angeles Times, the Skadden Fellowship program was established by the law firm Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom in 1988 in recognition of the need for greater funding for graduating law students who wish to devote their professional lives to providing legal services to the poor. Fellowships are awarded for two years. Skadden provides each fellow with a salary and pays all fringe benefits to which an employee of the sponsoring organization would be entitled. To apply, students must create their own projects at public interest organizations with the help of at least two lawyers.

To read more about what each new Skadden Fellow will be doing next year, see here.

Right now, my office is pretty much filled with files for review. Our team of admissions professionals and faculty are reading, nearly round-the-clock, to get all of you decisions as quickly as possible. I’m also continuing phone interviews, with about 40 scheduled for this week.

The good news is that, to date, we’re on track to get virtually every applicant a decision within the 2-3 month time frame that we shoot for. So if you haven’t heard anything yet, rest assured that we’re working as fast as we can and we’ll be getting back to you soon. And we’ll definitely be doing at least one more round of admit calls before we shut down for the holidays, so keep your phone handy (or at least your blackberry, as I’ll send you an e-mail if I can’t get you on the phone)!

Happy Holidays!
Josh

We are proud to recognize Marilia as just one of many many outstanding HLS alumni who dedicate their careers to public service.

One of the judges this year happened to be Chief Justice John Roberts, a ’79 HLS alum. We thought it would be fun to take a peek at his HLS yearbook photo:

He looks pretty much the same, no? Slightly different hairstyle, but hey, it was the 70s.

Chief Justice Roberts stated on Tuesday night, “I decided very early on in my first semester that I wanted to participate in an Ames final, and I decided the easier way would be to get appointed chief justice.” (See here.) Guess it doesn’t hurt to be ambitious!

A perfect reminder of how special HLS is.

Now I must admit, when I received an email encouraging us 1Ls to sign up for extracurricular “reading groups,” the idea of reading more than what was already being assigned by our classes seemed daunting. Yet the opportunity to meet with a faculty member and a small group of my peers to discuss fascinating topics having nothing to do with our everyday classes was too intriguing to pass up!

One group in particular caught my attention. Noah Feldman was hosting a reading group on “Shakespeare’s Constitution.” I am certainly not a Shakespeare buff – in fact, I didn’t take a single English class in college. However, I figured reading the Henriad would be a welcome break from reading casebooks. Not to mention hanging out with Noah Feldman. In fact, I’d be lying if I said that wasn’t the real reason I signed up for his reading group.

Noah Feldman is, without question, one of the stars of the HLS faculty and is widely considered one of the brightest minds in the legal world. A former Rhodes Scholar and Supreme Court clerk, Professor Feldman become a professor at NYU law when he was barely 30. And just a couple years later, he was helping to write the new Iraqi constitution following the U.S. invasion. Like I said, all-star.

So every other Tuesday I would walk to Professor Feldman’s house and a group of 12 of us would talk about one of the Henriad plays over dinner. It was fascinating to relate philosophical notions of popular consent, constitutional succession, the emotional needs (and narcissism) of state leaders, the interplay of law, monarchy and religion, etc. to the writings of Shakespeare. If nothing else, I witnessed the pure genius of Shakespeare’s work. The depth of thought and themes involved in every act of every play was mind-blowing.

Above all else, discussing these plays with Professor Feldman, while hanging out at his house with 10 new friends, will certainly be one of those experiences I will look back on years from now as emblematic of why HLS is so special.

OK, that’s not true, but it is a beautiful day in what has been a bit of a chilly and quite busy month. 1Ls are not allowed to contact our Career Services until November 1, but since the first of the month, we have been offered an enormous wealth of career offerings. From general overviews of the public and private sector job search to smaller panels on specific areas of the legal industries to a master class on the art of mingling (with yes, free food and drink), the job opportunities for the summer seem almost too myriad. We are also less than a month away from our first exams, so review sessions and outlining has (sort of) begun.

My section had an amazing brunch at one of our professor’s houses near campus this morning. Perfect food, decor, company, and weather. I also personally cannot wait for the Harvard-Yale football game next weekend. If the weather is half as lovely as today, then we will be all set. In just about a week and a half, many of us will head home for the Thanksgiving holiday to delight our relatives with our new legal knowledge over the dinner table. Next Wednesday, the student government is offering a charity Thanksgiving Dinner for Pakistan flood relief: $10 for all you can eat and drink will be welcome to us all and for a good cause.

Have a wonderful November, blessed Thanksgiving, and beat Yale.

Last night I joined about 300 students and guests in the Ames Courtroom for “An Evening with the Cast of the Wire.” (Read more about it here.) This event, put on by the Charles Hamilton Houston Institute for Race & Justice, served as a preview for Professor Charles Ogletree’s spring semester seminar focusing on the show. While many in the audience were focused on the discussion of “The Wire” as a pedagogical tool, I have to admit that I was more excited by the guest panelists: Michael K. Williams (Omar Little), Jaime Hector (Marlo Stanfield), and Donnie Andrews (real-life inspiration for Omar character). Williams and Hector highlighted a great discussion of the show and offered several unique insights into key moments.

Today, at lunch, I’m headed to a lecture entitled “Lawyering in the Executive Branch: The First 18 Months of the Obama Administration.” This lecture will be delivered jointly by Professor David Barron, who served as Acting Assistant Attorney General for the Office of Legal Counsel and Professor Daniel Meltzer, who served as Principal Deputy White House Counsel. Given their roles in the administration, I’m expecting a pretty interesting discussion.

While these were two of the events that seemed most interesting to me, there are dozens of others each day at the law school and across the university. You can check out upcoming law school events here.

Look forward to seeing you at a panel sometime soon!

Last week, my sectionmates and I were lucky enough to have a 2-hour meeting with Jim Comey. For those who aren’t familiar with Mr. Comey, he is the former U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of NY (probably the most prestigious U.S. Attorney appointment in the country) and the former Deputy Attorney General (second-in-command after John Ashcroft). Mr. Comey inspired all of us with his 5-point list of what, in his experience, makes for a “star” performer. Since this advice regarding the qualities shared by all of his best hires was coming from a man who has worked with many of the most impressive legal professionals on the planet, everyone in attendance knew it was in their interest to pay attention! Mr. Comey also provided us with anecdotes from each step of his career progression. HLS has already provided me with a number of special moments, but getting tips on how to achieve your vocational goals from one who has lived a dream career is certainly up there.

Just two days ago, our civil procedure class received an email from our professor, Bill Rubenstein. After our class, Professor Rubenstein said, Ken Feinberg would be coming to speak to us. Mr. Feinberg has become the nation’s expert in massive, government-organized, alternative dispute resolutions. After 9/11, the Bush Administration asked Mr. Feinberg to manage the September 11th Victim Compensation Fund. He designed and implemented a program which, in exchange for a promise not to sue the airlines, distributed $7 billion to the families of 9/11 victims. More recently, he was appointed the “pay czar” and monitored the compensation of the highest paid executives at financial firms which received bailout funds from the Treasury. And just a few months ago, President Obama asked Mr. Feinberg to run the $20 billion BP Oil Spill Fund. He was a dynamic and engaging speaker, and spent much more time than he needed to fielding questions from my classmates. To hear Mr. Feinberg, a man regarded as one of the most important legal figures in the country, discuss the merits of such historic forms of dispute resolution in the intimate setting of a classroom was a one-of-a-kind experience. And yet, this is precisely the type of experience HLS students are privileged to have on a daily basis!

“I’m required to check my Blackberry every six hours, 24 hours a day.” VERDICT: I’m not, but maybe my firm just hasn’t gotten around to telling me about that part yet.

“Law students are an awesome bunch—it’s like a distilled bunch of the biggest a-holes you knew in college.” VERDICT: Decidedly not true. A-holes are in surprisingly short supply—the only one I met turned out to not even go to HLS, he was visiting a friend. I found law school to be a distilled bunch of the smartest and most interesting people I knew in college. There’s an occasional oddball, too, but really, what place on Earth can you escape that?

“Listen, there are like three lawyers in America who argue Constitutional issues. They all went to Harvard and graduated in the 1970s.” VERDICT: Sort of true. So not that many lawyers argue constitutional issues the way you’re probably envisioning it (which would be you, standing in front of the Supreme Court, channeling your inner Atticus Finch). But lots of lawyers do argue Constitutional issues every day, particularly in criminal cases in which there are almost always search-and-seizure issues (4th Amendment), jury selection issues (6th and other Amendments), and free speech issues (1st Amendment) and punishment issues (8th Amendment). And the idea that you have to go to Harvard and graduate in the 1970s? Well, that’s one more reason to go to Harvard (hooray!) and now that Hot Tub Time Machines are a possibility, you may just have a shot at the 70s too.

“[Law firm work involves] two giant software companies arguing over the name of an obscure font no one uses.” VERDICT: Sometimes true. Most of the work at law firms is indeed for large corporations. But firms also help entrepreneurs get new technology on the market, defend companies against lawsuits that will hurt shareholders, and do pro bono work for people who can’t afford legal services. So you just have to decide if it’s worth it to you to put in a lot of hours doing firm work in exchange for the high compensation they usually offer. If so, great. If not, you can practice law in many other settings not involving large law firms.

“All criminal defendants are guilty.” VERDICT: It’s not only about guilt or innocence. First, if all of them were guilty, what would be the point of trials? Second, it’s just as much about the integrity of the judicial system. Having said that, the guy is right about the purpose of probable cause. Lesson—as with all things, think about your system of personal validation and then decide if criminal law (on defense or prosecution) is a good fit for you. It may not be, but there are lots of other areas of practice!

“Sometimes the other side will request a mediation just so that a process server can trap your client in the bathroom of a Wendy’s.” VERDICT: Funny, but false in my experience to date. As far as I know, none of my firm’s clients have ever been trapped in the bathroom of a Wendy’s, but then again, maybe they just haven’t gotten around to telling me about it yet. I’m still new.

So you still want to go to law school? If this video scares you away from applying, then maybe law school isn’t the right thing for you. But if you think the video is pretty darn funny and can laugh about it, then you’ll fit in just fine with all us lawyers out there that are laughing at it too!

A couple weeks ago, I went apple picking for the very first time. The purpose of the trip was to bond with other members of La Alianza, the Latino student group on campus. I have to say the trip was more of a success than I expected.

As part of our group package we were each allowed to pick a peck of apples. I’m not kidding; the bag was labeled that way. Apparently, that is about ten pounds of apples. The Honey Pot Hill Orchard is pretty big and has almost thirty different kinds of apples. Since we all had varied tastes we ended up checking out almost all the apples. I was a little disappointed at first when I found out they were picked out of my all-time favorite Pink Lady apples. On the bright side, I was “forced” to try other apples and discovered that I really, really like Jonagold apples. Needless to say, I brought home a peck of Jonagold.

So what else do you do at an apple orchard? Well, you eat caramel apples, apple donuts, hot dogs, and chili and, of course, you drink cider. Then, if you’re really lucky, you find a hedge maze. The child in every one of us just had to go through the hedge maze. So how many HLS students does it take to find the flagpole in the middle? Seven. I’m almost ashamed to say that we were in there for a while before we actually got to the middle. We tried splitting up in teams, asking children which routes were dead ends, and retracing our steps after wrong moves until we finally found the flagpole. A lot of work, but totally worth it.

When we were all appled out, we headed home, though not before stopping for lunch at Tacos Lupita in Porter Square. There, the Cubans and the Mexicans had a healthy debate about what really constitutes a “torta.” We laughed at the outdated music playing in the restaurant and joked about what we were going to do with ten pounds of apples before they all went bad. Personally, I’ve been happy just eating three a day.

Last year, HLS clinical students, with the help of Clinical Professor and Harvard Legal Aid Bureau Director David Grossman, started up Project No One Leaves, which provides legal aid to tenants and homeowners facing eviction in Boston. They were recently chronicled on the PBS NewsHour for their innovative work advising tenants about their legal rights and remedies to help stave off impending foreclosures.

“We get the listings, because it’s public record, of every upcoming foreclosure auction. And we head out and knock on doors”, said Grossman. “We’re building a real movement.” A follow-up installment in the NewsHour’s ongoing series on the mortgage crisis focused on an innovative program created by the students and a community group, City Life Vida Urbana, which helps tenants and homeowners buy back their foreclosed-on homes at affordable prices. Because of these efforts by HLS students, Boston leads the nation in keeping tenants and owners in their homes despite foreclosures.

Read more about Project No One Leaves here and here.

Enter Jim Chalat. My torts professor first introduced him to us by having us watch a Faces of Lawsuit Abuse video depicting an older man suing a ten year old for an allegedly minor skiing collision. Jim Chalat was the plaintiff’s lawyer in this case. After watching the video, we were all slightly confused. Why would a grown man sue a ten year old, and why would a lawyer take his case? Last Friday, Jim Chalat visited our class, and we were eager to ask him these questions ourselves.

After hearing his side of the story, however, the questions we had seemed less relevant. He explained to us the Colorado law that governed ski accidents, under which a 10 year old is responsible for his actions on the slopes. He also pointed out that the plaintiff in the case suffered a torn rotator cuff and had tens of thousands of dollars in medical bills after the accident. The accident likely wasn’t as minor as the Faces of Lawsuit Abuse video would have had us believe. Right there in front of us was in fact a reasonable human being, not one of the caricatures of the plaintiffs’ lawyers we were familiar with from television ads and billboards.

I can’t speak for everyone in my class, but I found my attitude towards tort law significantly improved after Chalat’s talk. Rather than frivolous, plaintiffs’ lawyers seem necessary and useful. All it took was a little perspective and a bit of persuasive lawyering by Jim Chalat.

Just last week, the Human Rights Clinic submitted an amicus curiae brief to the Second Circuit in support of a petition for rehearing en banc in a major corporate Alien Tort Statute (“ATS”) case, Kiobel, et al. v. Royal Dutch Petroleum Co., et al. Tyler Giannini, Clinical Director of the International Human Rights Clinic, and Susan Farbstein, Clinical Instructor with the Human Rights Clinic, served as counsel and supervised the writing of the brief. Harvard Law School students Stephen Cha-Kim ’11, Amelia Evans ’11, Elizabeth Forsyth ’11, Ben Hoffman ’11, Sandra Ray ’12, and Marissa Vahlsing ’11 contributed to the drafting of the brief. You can read the brief here. Also, check out this article.

This is the third amicus brief in a year that the Human Rights Clinic has submitted in various ATS cases. During the 2009-2010 term, the Clinic served as counsel on Supreme Court amicus briefs in Samantar v. Yousuf, on behalf of major human rights organizations, and Presbyterian Church of Sudan v. Talisman Energy, Inc., on behalf of leading international law scholars.

Students are integral to the research and writing for each of these briefs. So not only can you travel to prisons in Panama and communities in South Africa for human rights work, you can write Supreme Court briefs as well!

I began researching for my two professors during the summer and have continued during the fall. As I suggested in my first post, I have been most shocked about the quality of the professors here, both their dedication to their teaching and research. My RA tasks vary from looking up and interpreting statutes, finding supporting case law or law review articles on Lexis/Westlaw, looking through other academic journals, proofreading, finding general research online and putting it into an Excel or Word format, to simply brainstorming ideas about the professor’s most recent project. It can be hard to find time for much besides staying up on your coursework 1L year, but I have found my professors very flexible in terms of deadlines if I have a heavy week in either my reading or Legal Research and Writing assignments. In fact, this week I was suffering from a cold, and I went to one of my professors to discuss a project that I was working on for him, and before beginning discussion of the work, he immediately instructed me to take zinc and vitamin C, drink lots of fluids, get lots of sleep, and finally, to not work on any project for him until I was feeling better. That is just one example (a bit more literal than usual) of how professors care for you here at HLS. They understand your academic commitments (my other professor is teaching one of my courses this fall and at the beginning of the semester insisted that I remember that my reading for his class takes precedence over my RA work for him) and need for general well being.

There are many, many things to do here at HLS as a 1L: countless student practice organizations, student organizations and journals to join, professors for whom to research, IM sports to play, and more. There is no need to force yourself to bite off more than you can chew or to do anything that does not genuinely fascinate you. But if you are easily or even occasionally fascinated, you will find much to do when you are not reading your case books.

Four-year-long story short, I dealt with moving 1,000+ miles away from home and relying on my cell phone and instant messaging to keep in touch with my now long-distance boyfriend. I would count down the days before I could go home for break during my freshman year. I missed so many of my nieces’ and nephews’ birthdays that I have lost count. After a few years I was able to deal with the distance a lot better than that first year. I kept telling myself that it would only be four years and that in the end it would all be worth it. Then I made things complicated by applying to law school far away from home. My plan was to make the decision easy by targeting schools in Chicago so I could finally be back home. When I got into Harvard I realized that it wouldn’t be that easy. Again I had to choose between home/family and opportunity. We all know what I chose. I definitely don’t regret it but it is far from easy to be apart from my family and now my fiancé.

There are several things that make away from home easier. For one thing, I can talk to my mother and siblings for as long as I want with my phone plan. I can see everyone via webcam. One of the greatest things is that it’s really easy to get to the airport from here. Instead of having to take an hour-long $50 shuttle to the airport like I did in undergrad, I can take the T for $2 and get there in 40 minutes and now that Southwest flies into Logan, it’s much less expensive to go home. Then of course there is the fact that classes are interesting, and there are tons of things to do and see in Cambridge/Boston that can distract me. The last thing that makes it easier for me to stay away for so long is that when I graduate I’ll be completely done with school and I’ll have my Harvard degree.

For those of you that aren’t familiar with joint/concurrent degrees, these offer an opportunity to get two Harvard graduate degrees in less time than it would take to earn them separately. So, for example, you can earn a JD and an MBA in just 4 years, or a JD and a Masters in Public Health in just 3 years and one academic summer. You can also take advantage of programs such as the Cambridge University program for a JD/LLM degree which involves spending a year at Cambridge University in the UK. If you have a specific interest in the intersection between two areas of study, this can be a great way to get a top-notch educational experience covering both areas and do it in a way that can save you lots of time and money.

The joint/concurrent degree application process is relatively straightforward. In virtually all cases you’ll apply separately to both programs and, upon admission to both, be enrolled in the joint degree program. For most programs you can apply to both schools either before you start at either or during your first year at the other school – for more details on this, please consult the Special Programs section of our website. As great as the joint/concurrent degree programs are, the good news is that you don’t have to undertake a joint or concurrent degree to take advantage of great resources at both Harvard or other universities. Each year many students choose to cross-register for courses at other schools – in fact, you can cross-register for up to 10 credits during your time at HLS. In practice, this can mean taking courses at the Harvard Business School, the Harvard Kennedy School, the Harvard School of Public Health, or many others!

So, while your law school experience at HLS will be centered in the HLS campus and community, it’s definitely worth checking out all the other opportunities you can take advantage of during your three (or more) years on campus. Feel free to call or e-mail our office with any questions on our joint degree programs.

Josh

A typical Wednesday:

10:20am – 11:40am: Contracts with George Triantis.
Note: my section has no class starting earlier than 9:50am during the week. There are a few sections that begin some of their days at 8:20am.

11:40am – 12:30(ish)pm: Lunch at the Hark with sectionmates (HLS’ cafeteria – really good sandwiches for $5). Or, once or twice a week (it’s possible to find a lunch all five days of the week though), attend a lunch talk by an HLS professor or visiting guest speaker. Generally, free lunch is provided. This week, for instance, I attended a terrific talk on the state of indigent defense in the US by HLS Professor Ron Sullivan while enjoying some tasty Pinocchio’s pizza.

12:30pm – 1:15pm: Last minute reading before Property at the library or in our classroom located in Pound Hall.

1:20pm – 2:40pm: Property with Mary Ann Glendon.

2:40pm – 3:15pm: Decompress! (Usually with some ESPN.com or Politico reading.)

3:20pm – 4:40pm: Civil Procedure with William Rubenstein.

4:40pm – 5:15pm: Decompression Round 2.

5:15pm – 7:45(ish)pm: Do all the reading for either Property or Torts, the two classes we have on Thursdays.

8pm – 9pm: Walk home (15 minutes) for dinner and some TV procrastination.

9pm – 11pm: Finish the reading for whichever class I didn’t read for before dinner.

11pm – 1am: Relax at home with a DVD (West Wing or The Wire, usually). The day is over!

(Obviously this schedule comes with the disclaimer that everyone organizes their days differently, especially when including extracurricular activities and interesting speaker events. 1L year also tends to be much more regimented than the two years that follow.)

Over the course of nine weeks, I got to work on several different kinds of projects. For example, I did research for a tax opinion, researched foreign healthcare regulations, prepared U.C.C. filings and worked on a pro bono wrongful conviction case. Overall, I think I got a pretty good feel for what it is like to be a first year associate.

One of the great benefits of being at a mid-size firm is the work-life balance. I got to my office at 8:30 a.m. and was out by 5:30p.m. on a pretty regular basis. There was of course the occasional assignment that kept me an hour later or a couple cases I took home to read if things were really busy. The workload wasn’t too burdensome and it was always interesting enough to keep me motivated. Another great thing about being a summer associate is the events that are structured to let the summers meet people in the firm. My firm held an event every week. They ranged from cosmic bowling with the litigation department to an amazing race style scavenger hunt around the city with the transactional department. My team won by the way…. My favorite event was actually a series called “Dive of the Week.” Every Friday, a different associate in the firm volunteered to take the summers and a small group of other associates to lunch at a hole-in-the-wall type restaurant. These events were great because they gave me a chance to meet lots of people in the firm and talk about their career paths and practice areas and of course the food was great.

Spending the summer at a law firm was a very important experience for me. I am fortunate because I came out of it knowing that it’s definitely what I want to do for a living. For some other students I have spoken too the opposite is true and they learned that they want to pursue other options. Being a summer associate is a great learning experience even if it doesn’t end up being what you choose to do. Just in case any of you are wondering whether the head of litigation kept his promise, he did. I’ve accepted my offer to return to the firm and join the litigation department. I guess that’s what I get for blogging…

The beautiful thing about the Northeast is that there are tons of major cities all so close to each other. In the time it used to take me to get to Chicago or Detroit, I can be in New York or Washington D.C.. This weekend, I hopped on a shuttle flight to D.C. and spent a wonderful, relaxing weekend with my boyfriend. I got to visit some friends and check out some awesome bookstores, but by far the highlight was the National Zoo. The weather was beautiful and the animals seemed to really be enjoying it, especially the pandas. Apparently the zookeepers coat milk crates with honey as a special treat for Mei Xiang and Tian Tian, and it made for a great photo op.

Break was wonderful and much needed—now I’m ready to get back to the books!

While nearly everyone in the class had accomplished much before coming to HLS, we have some particularly interesting folks to call out, including:

• An NYPD officer
• Two White House staffers
• Professional hockey and baseball players
• A Preacher
• A US Aid worker in Iraq
• A World Champion Baton Twirler, and
• A consultant to NASA

If you’d like to learn more about this year’s class, take a look at our online fact sheet.

As a board member for the Public Service Venture Fund, Rebecca recognizes that the MacArthur grant’s effect on Project HEALTH is much like the effect HLS hopes to achieve with the Public Service Venture Fund, which provides seed money to launch nonprofit ventures proposed by HLS students. Read more about the Public Service Venture Fund here and more about Rebecca here.