OPIA Blog

Last summer, Dan Saver worked with the ACLU Center for Democracy in New York City. Dan was mostly responsible for memoranda and brief write-ups in anticipation for litigation. He concedes that while the legal research and writing may be tedious at times, the material is incredibly interesting and these crafts are the substance of impact litigation. Dan described the ACLU as “an amazing litigation shop” and advised that for anyone debating between international and domestic work the Center for Democracy, in particular, provides a great platform to work on both.

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

The summer before coming to HLS, 3L Ieshaah Murphy was an intern investigator at the Public Defender Service in Washington, DC. The experience of working closely with indigent clients convinced her that she wanted to work within the criminal justice system for the benefit of poor communities of color. Attracted to criminal justice issues, Ieshaah joined several student organizations that aligned with her interests. In PLAP Ieshaah took on her first administrative hearing, defending a prisoner in a disciplinary proceeding. Ieshaah worked hard to prepare and present a thorough argument for her client, who the hearing officer ultimately found not guilty of all charges. During her 1L year, Ieshaah also participated in several trial advocacy competitions through the Black Law Students Association and started to meet some older students who were able to recommend good clinics and professors with interests in criminal justice.

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.

Leslie Griffith, 2L, grew up in Spokane, WA before heading east to attend Duke University. Leslie graduated from Duke in 2009 with a degree in political science. Although she took a couple classes on environmental issues at Duke, she didn’t seriously consider environmental law as a career until late in college when she began thinking about law school.

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

Jason Gelbort, a 2L and dual degree student with Fletcher, spent his summer working with lawyers in Sierra Leone. He found the placement through the U.S. NGO International Professional Partnership for Sierra Leone, who then arranged a placement in the Sierra Leonean government for him with the Law Reform Commission (LRC). Working primarily in Freetown, Jason said that he loved his summer and enjoyed the laid back atmosphere combined with important work related to Sierra Leone’s constitution and legislation.
The only expat at his organization, he spent his time in a room with three local lawyers doing comparative research looking at other African countries, doing legal and policy analysis, and making recommendations to Sierra Leone’s Department of Justice that would ultimately go to the cabinet and parliament. Committees at the LRC were headed by a mix of LRC staff, commissioners, or judges and included chiefs, private lawyers, UN mission representatives, government representatives, and members of civil society groups. With a background of banter in Sierra Leonean Krio, Jason helped his committee host meetings, recommend new legislation and recommend amendments to existing legislation to the rest of the government. Substantively, he was working on electoral legal reform, an issue of particular importance to the country whose elections are coming up in 2012. Jason worked with the local lawyers in his office to try and fix the provisions related to the elections at least 12 months before the elections took place. He worked on issues related to petitions challenging the elections, electoral offenses like violence and fraud, qualifications for candidates to run for elected office, access to the media, and electoral monitoring and observing. Recently, there has been a major rise in economic development in the country. The UN presence in the country is also very high, having increased as a result of the war. There will be heightened scrutiny of the 2012 election because now the country is 10 years out of the war, and the election is their chance to prove an acceptable level of stability both for the UN to begin pulling out of the country and for foreign investors to safely engage in business in Sierra Leone. In light of these pressures, the work Jason was doing was incredibly important and exciting.
Jason also made good use of his Harvard connections and worked with a reference librarian here to prepare and give a training workshop for his office on computer skills and legal research, focusing on free resources. He also got to dabble in ADR, updating the 150 year old criminal code, and administrative law. And of course, Jason took advantage of his placement to do some traveling in West Africa and to relax with the expat community in the region.

Written by OPIA 1L Section Representative Becky Wolozin

Matthew Spurlock, ’12, spent his 2L summer working at the American Civil Liberties Union’s Center for Democracy in New York City. The Center for Democracy is a branch of the ACLU that works to “strengthen democratic values, promote human rights and ensure government accountability.” It includes the National Security Project, the Human Rights Program and the Speech, Privacy and Technology Project. The work that summer interns received was largely confined to a few specific, minute issues within the department to which they were assigned. Matthew described the work as 20% case briefs, and 80% legal research and writing.

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

Sachin Desai, 2L, is passionate about energy and committed to innovation. Last summer, he combined these interests with his internship at the Advanced Research Projects Agency – Energy (ARPA-E) within the Department of Energy in Washington, D.C.

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

For her 1L summer, Jessica Levin, 2L worked as a legal intern in the General Practice Unit of the Office of the General Counsel of the New York City Department of Education (NYCDOE).

In an office environment that she describes as “high energy and bustling,” Jessica dived into projects on various topics in education law which spanned the local, state, and federal levels. Jessica’s assignments included drafting decisions in student suspension appeals; writing memos on various education law issues including free speech and student discipline; and attending administrative hearings for teachers as well as oral arguments for high profile cases involving the DOE.

During her summer, Jessica learned how to review a record and craft an appeal decision, practiced interpreting statutes and regulations, and honed her legal research and memo writing skills. “I was amazed at how education law touches on so many other aspects of law and policy, such as labor law, contracts, and due process issues,” she says. She notes that her involvement in student groups such as Advocates for Education, along with the knowledge and skills gained from HLS in courses such as Legal Research and Writing, Legislation and Regulation, and Professor Bartholet’s “Child, Family, State,” were particularly applicable to her job.

Jessica was first surprised by the vast size of the DOE and its legal office, which is located in the historic Tweed Courthouse building. However, a collaborative organizational culture, facilitated by an open floor plan, helped make it much less overwhelming. On a regular basis, the General Counsel (an HLS alum) came to speak to lawyers in the unit and made time to have lunch with all the interns and answer their questions.

Jessica’s time at the NYCDOE confirmed her desire to work in education law and provided her a strong foundation for working in other education law settings. Her summer experience prompted her to take classes as a 2L this year, such as Evidence and Fourteenth Amendment, which she says will be useful for related work down the road. Her advice to other HLS students interested in pursuing a similar path in education law: “I think an experience at the local level is very valuable for anyone who wants to work in education law, since so much of education — both law and policy — happens at the district level.”

Written by 1L OPIA Section Representative Connie Sung

A recent Harvard study found that it matters less what you say during an interview then how you say it.

The study (click here for an interview with the authors and to purchase a copy of the study), showed a video of a political debate where the subject answered questions in a series of videos. In the first video, the individual answered the question directly and well; by the third video, he answered the question directly, but inarticulately.

The response from the study showed that people liked the individual answering the question less when he did so inarticulately. Perhaps a good tip for your next job interview is not necessarily to know all the answers, but know how to answer the questions.

The statistics are pretty stark: “In one decade, in part because of the Internet and housing bubbles, salaries for associates at big firms shot to the moon. From 1997 to 2007, the median starting salary at the nation’s largest firms doubled, to $160,000 a year plus bonus, from $80,000, according to the Association for Legal Career Professionals.”

Is the hay-day of associate pay over? It could be changing says a recent article from the New York Times. This article presents a fascinating look at the business model of large law firms and how that could be changing, including looking at tiered systems of payment as well as pay cuts or wage freezes. The bottom line appears to be that firms are revisiting the way they do business and young associates appear to be the focus.