Dan’s experience at Harvard Law has been comprehensively focused on human rights. Dan works with the Human Rights Journal and Human Rights Advocates. He even admits that, in previous years, his life revolved around Human Rights Clinic. His transcript also reflects this as he has scoured the course listings for anything human rights related. While in these experiences he worked most often on international issues, he decided that he wanted to give domestic impact litigation at the ACLU a shot. Fortunately he found an opportunity with the Center for Democracy at the ACLU to work on issues both domestic and international, and at one point even ventured into intricacies of Spanish civil law. In his summer work he did, however, miss the close human interaction that comes with working with the clients that his work affects.

As the national legal office, the ACLU office in downtown Manhattan is huge. Dan creatively classified the office as a mix between “a large professional firm and a funky NGO.” Dan recounted that the group of exciting interns from law schools all over the country are placed together in the “intern den” which makes for a comfortable work and social space. Priding themselves on the principle of freedom of expression, the staff imposes no dress code.

From his depiction it is clear that the passionate interns worked for a pool of attorneys who have incredibly diverse litigation experience from corporate law firms to government, and other public interest work. Since Dan worked with the Center for Democracy, which is one of the larger projects at the ACLU, he was able to have close contact with a greater number of attorneys. He does advise, however, that it takes much personal initiative to get meaningful interaction with the attorneys in light of how thinly spread and busy they are. The more outgoing you are, the more fulfilling summer you’ll have.

Dan recommends the national headquarters of the ACLU as the best place to be for anyone interested in impact litigation. He strongly believes that, “Every single case is important, complex and presents interesting legal questions.”

Written by OPIA 1L Section Representative Daniel Balmori

Her 1L summer Ieshaah worked at the Southern Center for Human Rights and, among other experiences, advocated for an inmate before the Alabama Board of Pardons and Paroles. The parole hearing and other assignments at the Southern Center showed her just how important it was for everyone facing the loss of liberty to have a strong and committed advocate by his/her side. After that summer, Ieshaah wanted to become a public defender and sought out every opportunity to learn more about the work. During her 2L year, she participated on the Criminal Justice Institute Trial Advocacy Team and represented Harvard at two trial advocacy competitions. For her second summer Ieshaah worked with the Bronx Defenders. The office appealed to her because of its “holistic representation” approach. Once she began working there she really liked how the office tried to be a part of the community, open for drop-ins who have legal questions.

Much of Ieshaah’s work involved legal research, but over the course of the summer she was able to second chair a trial, assisting in overall strategy and prepping the client to take the stand. She also worked in the community intake branch of the office, meeting people with legal questions and referring or helping them according to their needs. The highlight of the summer was helping to draft a letter to a judge asking that she give youthful offender treatment to a young client who had several past offenses. She got to go to court and discuss the letter with the judge who ultimately allowed the client to go home to his family.

Ieshaah loved the job. Working with clients everyday and seeing the results of her work play out in front of her strengthened her desire to become a public defender. She learned a lot of about working within the framework you’re given and making creative arguments – skills that are more difficult to gain in the classroom. Most importantly, Ieshaah felt like she was being of service to people who were often taken advantage of and ignored because of their economic status.

For anyone interested in similar work, she recommends getting experience working with clients through clinics and practice organizations as well as the Criminal Justice Institute and Trial Advocacy Skills workshop. She also noted that public defenders come in all shapes and sizes – not everyone was a loud, flamboyant personality and many of the quieter less assuming PDs were just as effective. If the summer had any downside it was the expense, congestion, and noise of NYC – the Bronx Defenders however, made it all worthwhile.

Written by OPIA 1L Section Representative Adelaide Pagano.

After a year traveling and working at a coffee shop, Leslie arrived at HLS in the fall of 2010. She knew she wanted to try environmental law during her 1L summer, and she scheduled a career advising meeting with Alexa Shabecoff of OPIA to make a plan. “Alexa was great,” Leslie told me. “She really helped me understand what kinds of options were available to me, how I should approach those options, and what I could expect in terms of the application process.” On top of the helpful advice, Alexa put Leslie in touch with a 3L who had worked at EPA in Seattle the previous summer. That student, in turn, gave Leslie information about the office’s hiring process. Leslie applied for a summer internship position in January and, after a phone interview, they offered her the position in February.

Leslie really hit the ground running at EPA Seattle. She did many of the things you’d expect a legal intern to do—primarily legal writing and research—but her supervisors also helped her see how everything came together. Leslie attended strategy planning meetings and settlement negotiations and visited sites where EPA enforced wetlands violations. Leslie loved getting a chance to see how the national and regional EPA offices worked together and how they collaborated with the DOJ to undertake litigation. She even drafted referrals to the DOJ to launch some enforcement cases.

Leslie’s favorite thing about the position? “The incredible learning opportunity,” she responds. Leslie appreciated getting valuable insight into the environmental issues affecting the Pacific Northwest and Alaska—offshore oil drilling, mining, and salmon conservation, to name a few. Considering Leslie didn’t get a chance to take Environmental Law her 1L year, this was quite the primer!

When I asked Leslie if she had any advice for job-hunting 1Ls, she replied, “Don’t freak out!” Talk to older students, she encouraged, and make sure to come up with a game plan with OPIA. Leslie also suggested that students should consider geographical regions where they have built-in networks or where they ultimately want to live.

I prodded her for any last minute advice. “Go to Seattle!” she laughed. Leslie Griffith is a great example of what happens when you keep your cool, seek out advice and guidance, and pursue the opportunities you know will make you happiest.

Next summer Leslie will intern with Earthjustice in Washington, D.C.

Written by OPIA 1L Section Representative Sean Hamidi

During the summer, Nina spent eight weeks with CCI and got to work on a variety projects. The type of work included research, programming, and serving as a consultant for judges. Nina was able to focus on the areas that interest her, so her projects involved looking into possible responses to child abuse and setting up a pilot project to do observations in juvenile delinquent hearings. Within her consultant position, Nina attended court regularly and was able to meet with several judges. Nina found her coworkers to be very open to students’ interests, but those who did not speak up about what experience they hoped to get often got stuck with the projects no one else claimed. This included two months’ of Lexis research, so Nina definitely feels that anyone who works there in the future should express his or her interests from the beginning.

Nina described CCI’s office culture as “awesome.” The staff was very observant of others’ successes and celebrations, and birthdays and weddings were frequent causes for office festivities. The office culture was very open and communal. The midtown office has about 50 people, so it is small enough to get to know most of the other employees; however, they have projects all over the city, so there are plenty of opportunities to get out and interact with others. CCI is open to 1L interns, and six out of the eight 2011 interns were 1Ls. The New York location made it very easy to get around, and CCI included a free subway pass for the months of the internship. Since the office is in New York, however, the cost of living is naturally very high.

CCI usually posts their positions for the next summer around December. Nina submitted a cover letter, resume, and writing sample, and she had a phone interview. She also stopped by in person to introduce herself when she was in New York. She spoke with a friend of a friend who had worked there the previous summer before applying, so she had a contact who had experience with the organization.

Written by OPIA 1L Section Representative Kimberly Newberry

Written by OPIA 1L Section Representative Becky Wolozin

Although the ACLU’s work is broken down into specific centers, projects, and practice areas, the social aspect of Matthew’s intern experience was somewhat more integrated. Eschewing the cubicle model, the ACLU put all of its summer interns, regardless of their project area, in one room that was affectionately dubbed the intern bed. While this provided a sense of solidarity and facilitated a positive social dynamic among the interns, it also meant that all of their stress was concentrated in one confined area, so Matthew eventually moved to an empty private office as an alternative working space.

Matthew described the interaction between interns and their attorneys as limited, but not lacking. Although he did not receive much oversight or guidance from his supervising attorneys, he never felt unsupported. He recommends this position for people who are independent workers that do not require much feedback. The ACLU did organize a mentorship program that paired summer interns with fellows who were available as resources for work or career advice.

To prepare for any job at the ACLU, Matthew recommends that an applicant learn about federal courts and constitutional law, as well as hone their research and writing skills. For Matthew, this position at the ACLU was the latest step in his efforts to launch a career in civil liberties high impact litigation. Following graduation, he intends to clerk and then hopefully return to the ACLU or a similar organization.

Written by 1L OPIA Section Representative Jessica Frisina.

Nicolette Boehland, ’13, came to law school with an interest in human rights and experience working in conflict zones. During her 1L year, she pursued this interest by working with the Human Rights Clinic as a research assistant and taking public international law during her spring term. It all came together when she landed her 1L summer internship with the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission.

Not sure what the summer would be like, Nicolette assumed she would do a lot of research and writing. When she arrived, Nicolette was assigned to the special investigations team and plunged into documentation of human rights violations right away. She was given wide latitude to work independently. She took advantage of it by working with two local colleagues to create a work plan that would allow them to investigate incidents of torture and mistreatment at facilities run by the National Directorate of Security, Afghanistan’s domestic intelligence agency.

Nicolette and her colleagues flew to different detention sites throughout the country. Nicolette interviewed prisoners, guards, relatives, and other community stakeholders about conditions in the prisons. In Kabul, she also worked to build relationships between her office and offices at the UN and the ICRC, holding workshops on monitoring and interviewing techniques.

The summer was a fantastic opportunity to put all she’d learned in school to use in the field. She stayed in communication with faculty at the Human Rights Clinic, who helped her work through interviewing problems as she came across them, and she even remembers pulling out her 1L public international law outline from time to time. She developed her human rights interviewing and documentation skills and built on her community engagement, program planning and networking skills.

This summer experience helped to cement Nicolette’s interest in international humanitarian law, which she continues to pursue through her work with the Human Rights Clinic back on campus. She plans on a career in human rights field work, and this summer experience was an amazing chance to get a taste of that and strengthen the skills she’ll need.

Written by OPIA 1L Section Representative Sarah Wheaton

Rachel’s supervisor did an excellent job of controlling her work flow, checking in regularly, and ensuring that Rachel always had interesting projects to work on. In general the projects Rachel worked on took from several days to a week to complete. After completing a draft of a memo or brief, Rachel had the opportunity to discuss her work with the attorneys at DOJ. Instead of editing her work directly, the attorneys would talk with Rachel about how to improve her work and let her make any necessary changes. The experience helped her to strengthen her legal research and writing skills. Rachel also enjoyed working with the other intern at the Appellate Section. They were able to bounce ideas off one another and help each other to organize their thoughts despite the fact that they worked on separate projects.

One of the highlights of Rachel’s experience was getting to observe moots. Rachel is doing an oral argument for the Environmental Law and Policy Clinic this term and found her internship experience helpful in preparing for her current work with the clinic. She particularly enjoyed watching how the attorneys responded to questions and learning what arguments were most persuasive.

The attorneys at the office were mild mannered and flexible about her work hours. In general she worked from 9:30 AM to 6:00 PM each day and she only occasionally did work on the weekends. She was treated like new attorney at the office and given a great deal of responsibility right away. She would recommend taking Administrative Law, Environmental Law, or a course that covers the National Environmental Policy Act before pursuing the internship. In short, Rachel loved her experience and would recommend working at DOJ in general to anyone.

Written by OPIA 1L Section Representative Genevieve Parshalle

2L Hunter Landerholm spent the summer after his 1L year doing legal services work at Neighborhood Legal Services of Los Angeles County. While there, he worked for the housing and consumer unit and his work included evictions, Section 8 hearings, foreclosures, rent control work, habitability issues and Fair Housing Act cases, and his office was more than happy to let him pursue work in areas he was interested in.

Hunter found this work to be incredible and was happy to find that while his office was full of dedicated advocates, it was also a fun place to work. As with any legal services office, however, Hunter found the work to be challenging and emotionally draining at times. He acknowledged that it could be difficult to separate the anger or grief he felt over his clients’ problems from the professional perspective necessary for effective lawyering. While empathizing with his clients kept him passionate and his work interesting, these emotions did spill into other parts of his life.

Overall, Hunter had a great time last summer and he is hoping to pursue a career as a legal services lawyer. Along with these ambitions, Hunter’s summer experience strengthened his writing and research skills. Perhaps the best skill he honed over the summer was the art of negotiation, as he was able to convince a couple of landlords that generous settlements were in their interest.

For current 1Ls hoping to work in legal services this summer, Hunter also offers some insight into which of his 1L classes proved to be most useful. LRW helped with his writing and researching, but principles he learned in Contracts and Property also popped up. Leg Reg also helped a great deal, as did the Goldberg line of cases he covered in Civ Pro.

Written by OPIA 1L Section Representative Zack Hill

The ARPA-E is a division of the DOE that works on commercializing small, innovative start-ups in the U.S. energy sector. It is a unique organization as its grants operate more within a venture capital framework than most government agencies. Instead of just disbursing funding, the agency enters into collaborative arrangements with its grantees and builds innovative funding structures into its contracts. This mission creates complicated contracts; there are three to four lawyers in a team of only 60 people. In addition to contracts, the legal scope also includes policy work in energy regulation. Since the U.S. energy industry is heavily regulated, innovative start-ups face significant regulatory barriers to commercial success. The second mission of ARPA-E is to work with other government agencies that are responsible for these regulations and draft memoranda of understanding (MOUs) surrounding ARPA-E’s projects. Since the agency is so small, legal interns have opportunities to work closely with the staff attorneys, even the General Counsel, and contribute extensively to the agency’s goals. Sachin’s assignments included legal research and writing white papers and MOUs. In addition, his presence in D.C. allowed him to meet other interesting people working in the energy field, and he stresses the importance of actively participating in events and networking.

Sachin knew that he wanted to work in energy before he came to law school, and once he arrived at HLS he took steps to integrate himself into the wider energy community. His advice to 1Ls is to follow their interests, even if it takes them outside of the HLS campus. In fact, he first heard about ARPA-E at the annual MIT Energy Conference, and additional resources can be found at MIT, the Kennedy School, or Harvard Business School. Sachin also stresses the importance of being pro-active in the job search. Though ARPA-E did not post a legal intern position, he applied anyway. One tip for students seeking to create their own positions: email the second-in-command, who actually reads his or her emails, and not the General Counsel.

The internship with ARPA-E was a logical step in Sachin’s overall career path. ARPA-E has significant name recognition in the field and helped him land his 2L summer job with Wilson Sonsini in California, where his work will focus on supporting venture capitalist firms interested in energy innovation. He is also writing a student note under the supervision of Professor Roin that examines innovative funding structures, building on his experience at ARPA-E. Overall, Sachin speaks highly of his experience with the agency and recommends it for students interested in energy who want a slightly different summer government experience.

Written by OPIA 1L Section Representative Geng Chen