OPIA Blog

Last year, as a 1L, Emily Freeman looked for organizations in New York where she could pursue her interest in special education law. When she found out about New York Legal Assistance Group, an organization that provides free legal services to low-income New Yorkers, she reached out to the director of its special education unit. After her interview, Emily decided to work there.

Emily interned for ten weeks in the special education unit, which provides representation to families of disabled students. Her responsibilities ranged from client meetings to engaging in advocacy groups to research and writing memos. She visited schools, met with parents, filed a complaint, edited a motion for summary judgment, and created an impartial hearing for a client. She described the experience as hands-on and said that it allowed her to go through “each step in the special education litigation process.”

Last summer, Emily was one of about fifty interns and ninety full time attorneys. She described the office as “young and fun with high morale.” NYLAG has a variety of units including domestic violence and housing law. The group often pairs up with major law firms to work on pro-bono cases. Its work includes direct representation, impact litigation, and community education.

The skills Emily gained were not confined to special education law. She was able to improve her legal research and writing skills and interact with clients on a regular basis. Her summer gave her both a practical understanding of special education law as well as the tools necessary to spearhead special education pro bono cases at a firm.

Emily recommends working at the NYLAG and encourages those interested to reach out to find out more information.

Written by OPIA 1L Section Representative Deena Greenberg.

Lara Berlin, originally from California, is in her third year of a four-year joint-degree program with Harvard Law School and the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts. She spent last summer working with the Center for Civilians in Conflict located in Washington DC. The organization “works to make warring parties more responsible to civilians before, during, and after armed conflict.” The Center accomplishes this through trainings with the military, field research documenting the experiences of civilians, advocating for mechanisms to address civilian harm, and pushing forward international norms of “making amends” through the UN system. Lara was mostly responsible for monitoring the news and creative projects such as: analyzing pending civilian assistance legislation, recommending advocacy strategies in the UN, and other research-oriented projects.

Lara heard about the Center for Civilians in Conflict through a friend at Fletcher who had previously worked at the Center. She was drawn to the way they used various legal tools, and “thought strategically about going beyond the law to push forward substantive change.” One of her top priorities in her job search was having good mentorship. She found a great balance between substance that she was interested in and mentors that she could learn from at the Center.

Lara explains that her favorite parts of the experience were the people she worked with and the multi-year multi-national study on the line between fighters and civilians in modern conflicts that she spearheaded. She said that the vast part of her work was computer-based research, but that she would have enjoyed a field research component. Lara describes the Center as having “a friendly atmosphere, but very professional.” She and her colleagues worked hard during the day, but enjoyed a nice work-life balance with everyone leaving the office by 5pm.

After graduating from undergrad, Lara spent a year in Sierra Leone where she worked with Search for Common Ground, a conflict resolution NGO. This sparked her interest in the legal and political solutions to conflict issues and led her to law school. Her interests have expanded here at HLS and the Fletcher School to the intersection of conflict resolution, human rights, and international development. She has taken the negotiation workshop and has been involved in the Harvard Mediation Program and the Human Rights Clinic. She is also on the board of the Law and International Development Society and is a fellow for the Law and Social Change Program of Study. While she has been primarily focused on international law, she is also interested in looking at how domestic systems deal with mass atrocities.

From Sierra Leone to Washington D.C. to Cambridge, Massachusetts, Lara has dedicated her studies and professional experiences to conflict resolution. Her summer at the Center for Civilians in Conflict was extremely beneficial and Lara would recommend it to any 1L interested in similar issues.

Written by OPIA 1L Section Representative Kaycie Rupp

The United States Department of Justice, Civil Rights Division – Special Litigation Section: long name, great summer experience. Jeremy Feigenbaum worked for Special Lit in Washington, D.C. his 1L summer, and he would highly recommend the opportunity to anyone thinking about working in civil rights litigation.
Like most interns at the DOJ, Jeremy’s work involved researching legal issues and writing memos. He researched broad treatment of legal issues among the Circuit Courts, specific application of laws in particular jurisdictions, and even did some social science research. He had the chance to sit in on litigation strategy sessions and assist in a deposition. He feels he gained not only research and writing skills through his work at Special Lit, but also learned how to navigate the particular challenges of collaborating in a large office.
He describes the environment there as “the ideal workplace. Everyone works hard and is passionate and efficient, but the lawyers are friends in addition to being colleagues.” The Intern Coordinator assigned him two mentors, one which helped him feel at home in D.C., and another that helped him manage his work tasks. He worked closely with about a dozen lawyers, but had relationships with some ten-to-fifteen more. “Everyone was so accessible and friendly!”
Jeremy was originally most interested in the office’s work on Freedom of Access to Clinical Entrances, but also enjoyed the opportunity to learn about how Special Lit enforces laws regarding civil rights in prisons, police brutality, and other issues.
Like all summer positions in the DOJ, Special Lit is competitive. Jeremy landed the job after applying in early December and interviewing in early January (though that interview was a little early compared to the office’s typical schedule). He describes his phone interview with the three intern coordinators as “casual and friendly.”
In short, Jeremy whole-heartedly recommends this particular arm of the world’s largest litigator to anyone with even a passing interest in the civil rights field.

Written by 1L OPIA Section Representative Chad Baker

Last summer, Amanda Ravich worked at the New York City Department of Mental Health and Hygiene, General Counsel Office. She described it as an incredibly interesting and rewarding experience. At the time, the Department was focused on devising the much-publicized regulations on the sizes of sugary drinks. Amanda enjoyed being on the inside of such a high profile issue because it allowed to her to observe just how badly the news media can distort and mischaracterize an issue. She prepared memos anticipating the litigation that would arise from the regulations. Through this work, she realized the importance of Legislation and Regulation. As she explained, “I don’t know that I would have understood all of the differences between regulatory rulemaking and legislative policymaking if I had not taken Leg Reg.” Indeed, for her memos, she had to research New York City’s and the State of New York’s counterparts to the Administrative Procedure Act. Still, Amanda’s work was not confined to this project. Instead, much to her satisfaction, she had the opportunity to work on a wide-range of projects including a school health policy initiative and a mobile food vending initiative.

Amanda credits her exposure to a wide range of issue areas to the diversity within the Department of Health coupled with the small size of the internship program; there was only one other intern. So, between the two of them they had to cover the major initiatives being pursued by the Department. She thereby worked closely with the Head General Counsel. She was not, however, subjected to the disadvantages of a small internship program. Instead, since the New York City Law Department (which represents the City’s agencies, including the Department of Health) has a large internship program, Amanda was able to connect with that network of interns and attend their events and gatherings. It was the best of both worlds.

Amanda advises 1Ls to be proactive in their internship search and not be scared to “think outside of the box” as it can lead to phenomenal experiences like her own. To get her internship, Amanda had to reach out to the Department of Mental Health and Hygiene because it does not have a formal internship program. She encourages 1Ls to do the same. She also believes that 1Ls should pursue opportunities that they are passionate about, even if they are considered “less prestigious” than traditional alternatives.

Written by OPIA 1L Section Representative Tharuni Jayaraman

Lerae Kroon spent last summer working at Catholic Charities Archdiocese of New York in the Immigration Office. This department provides legal consultations and direct representation to immigrants living in New York City. When she started her job search, Lerae knew that she wanted to spend her summer directly representing clients. As she already had experience in housing issues, she also wanted to use her summer to diversify her practice area experience. OPIA directed her to the Catholic Charities internship, which gave her the opportunity to work in legal services and learn about the field of immigration law from on-the-ground practitioners.

At the start of her internship, Lerae was assigned her own load of immigration cases ranging from asylum to applications for adjustment of status. Throughout the summer, she worked one-on-one with the clients she was assigned, helping them prepare and organize applications, working with them on detailed affidavits of their immigration experiences, and accompanying them to immigration interviews. She also took part in the office’s intake, screening potential clients who were seeking representation. While Lerae noted that those interviews were initially difficult due to her relatively recent exposure to immigration law and the communication barriers she faced with some of the prospective clients, the process taught her how to better spot legal issues and be a more effective interviewer.

In addition to her client work, Lerae was assigned substantive writing projects, including an appellate brief in support of an asylum case that was being appealed to the Second Circuit. These assignments gave Lerae the opportunity to further hone the writing skills she had learned during her 1L year and to tailor them to briefs and motions that were being submitted to the courts. More importantly, working on these assignments showed Lerae how engaging the legal research and writing process can be when it involves a real issue that impacts someone’s life.

Lerae was able to develop a great mentoring relationship with her supervising attorney who was a constant source of helpful information, feedback, and support throughout their time working together. Her internship with Catholic Charities confirmed that she wanted to work directly with clients as much as possible. Lerae recommends this internship for students looking for experience with legal services and direct client contact combined with substantive written assignments.

Written by OPIA 1L Section Representative Kellie McDonald.

Read about two recent HLS alums, Ariane Tschumi and Neha Sheth, and the exciting work they’re involved in within the federal government. Tschumi and Sheth are both Heyman Fellows, a program at HLS that seeks to encourage HLS graduates to pursue careers in federal government.

Neha Sheth’s profile

Ariane Tschumi’s profile

You can learn more about the Heyman Fellowship Program here.

Sam Birnbaum left home far behind when he went to Thailand to spend the summer working for the United Nations Inter-Agency Project on Human Trafficking. Landing in Thailand, Sam got acquainted with the office, which is small and diverse—with only 15-20 people in the UN compound in Thailand and only about 50 across Southeast Asia, every member of the community can quickly feel at home.

While there, Sam developed legal skills like policy research despite many of his co-workers not being members of the legal profession. In fact, he reports, he developed a lot of confidence in his ability to explain the law to those unacquainted with it, which Sam foresees being useful for the rest of his career. Specifically, Sam got the chance to write reports detailing the impact of corporate disclosure laws on human trafficking in the United States as well as memos regarding human trafficking law in Southeast Asia.

Even if he doesn’t end up in the UN, Sam values the internal knowledge of that organization that he gained while in Thailand. He intends to work in the field of human rights, and he anticipates that his acquaintance with the UN system will prove helpful to him in seeking and succeeding in future work.

Sam always suspected that his long-term interest would be in human rights work, and his research over the summer confirmed that goal. In his upcoming summer (and after graduation), he hopes to pursue some of these interests in more depth.

Despite all of the valuable experience he gained, Sam reports that the greatest part of his summer in Thailand remains the people with whom he worked: the office is small and with low turnover, which means that the group working there develops close bonds and represents an exciting and nurturing environment.

To all of the public-interest hopefuls considering their summer plans, Sam advises thinking about skills and substantive knowledge. Summer jobs are some of the only chances law students have to focus single-mindedly on a project, goal, or organization, and those experiences should be more than just fun: they should add actively to a law student’s arsenal of skills. For Sam—who has appropriate language skills and prior human rights experience—the summer in Thailand fits in neatly with the expected arc of his career, which he emphasizes as significant in engaging in summer work. Sam wanted a “story that makes sense” for his summers—a story that fits with his past and his future in a coherent, useful way.

Written by 1L Section Representative Corinne Smith

Eva Bitran, 2L, spent her summer at the American Civil Liberties Union national headquarters in New York City working for the Immigrants’ Rights Project. Most of her day-to-day work involved research and writing in support of the organization’s impact litigation efforts. Eva’s assignments included general research on legal concepts as well as specific tasks for current cases. These diverse projects allowed her to gain “perspective on the higher-up practice of impact litigation,” including elaborating general legal theories, deciding whether to bring a specific suit, developing strategies for challenging a discriminatory law, and collaborating with allied organizations. Although Eva had not studied constitutional law before her internship, she was challenged to write a memo on a 14th Amendment issue and found that “you can just teach yourself anything.” “The cool thing about working for the ACLU,” she said, “is that you develop skills to actually advocate for changes in the law, beyond the predictive writing that you learn in LRW.”

Eva described her supervisors, a mix of junior and senior attorneys, as responsive to her interests and happy to assign projects relating to specific areas she requested. They were also willing to informally “engage with career advice.” Eva enjoyed the collegial environment of the office, even the large “laptop sweatshop” where interns from across the office’s various projects worked and socialized elbow-to-elbow. The office also held regular programming for interns, including inviting former ACLU attorneys to speak about their current work and career paths, as well as brown bag lunches with current senior staff.

Eva explained that this internship would not be ideal for a student hoping to gain extensive experience with client interaction, direct legal services, or court appearances. Interns at this large office did have to be proactive to seek out feedback and advice from busy attorneys.
Eva’s interest in immigration law stems from her family’s history. An immigrant herself, Eva grew up in Mexico and the United States and became a naturalized U.S. citizen in 2008. Her family, Sephardic Jews expelled from Spain, made their way to Turkey and Chile before settling in Mexico in the 1970s. At HLS, Eva is on the board of the Harvard Immigration Project and leads its Community Training Team. She also participates in the Immigration and Refugee Clinic, conducts research on immigration law with Professor Deborah Anker, and serves as a member of the Board of Student Advisers. Eva is pursuing a joint doctoral degree in History, and plans to focus her dissertation on migration in North Africa. Eva will continue her work on immigrants’ rights at the Department of Justice in the Office of Human Rights and Special Prosecutions next summer, and ultimately hopes to practice immigration law and teach at a law school.

Written by OPIA 1L Section Representative Lily Axelrod

Robin Lipp is in his third year as a JD/MPP student here at Harvard, and spent last summer working at the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB). Robin had worked for the New York City Law Department the previous summer, and wanted to get more of a policy oriented experience in his second summer (next summer, he hopes to combine the two, possibly through a legal position within a policy oriented non-profit or government office). Despite being a JD/MPP student, much of Robin’s experience would apply to any HLS student interested in law and policy. One main concern that Robin emphasized at the outset is that the job search process is difficult. Legal internships have a much earlier timeline than some policy internships, and waiting to apply for policy positions, sometimes well into the spring semester, may preclude a person from having a legal internship as a fallback. However, Robin went into the process having enough confidence in his desire to work in a policy position that he was willing to wait.
Robin saw an opportunity when one of his professors at the Kennedy School, Jeffrey Liebman, mentioned his positive experiences working at OMB as Executive Associate Director and Chief Economist, and later as Acting Deputy Director. Professor Liebman ended up helping Robin get his summer position there. Robin’s experience is a good reminder of the importance of keeping track of all avenues of connection, especially the professors in an environment like Harvard’s. That connection is as valuable as the more stereotypical networking chore of trying to professionally schmooze with as many people as possible at “networking functions”; a chore which Robin, like many of us, does not enjoy.
While at OMB, Robin had the opportunity to do economic policy work informed by his time at Harvard. He recalled being interested back in Leg Reg in the use of cost-benefit analysis at OMB inside the White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, which vets federal regulations.
One of Robin’s main assignments at OMB was to research models for implementing evidence-based social policy through federal discretionary grant programs. For instance, he looked at programs such as Social Impact Bonds, also known as “Pay for Success Bonds,” where governments enter into contracts with socially innovative private organizations, but payment is contingent on successful outcomes. Robin sees this as a way to bring together policymakers concerned over social welfare with those who are concerned about government spending. Through this work, Robin joined his colleagues at OMB in meeting with officials from all levels of government to see what programs are out there and learn about the best practices of those programs. He ended up creating an internal website accessible to executive agencies with a guide to different program models in this area.
Robin found his experience at OMB enlightening in terms of how government operates in practice. He is interested in working in New York City government after law school, and feels this federal experience gave him a valuable lesson from both the legal and policy perspectives for any government work. He witnessed firsthand just how many moving parts are involved in government at all levels, and how all those parts necessarily have to interact with one another. His legal background was helpful because every action that a government agency might take has to look to the law to see if that action is even permissible, regardless of its policy merits. A final takeaway: learning all the acronyms involved in any type of government work is on par with learning a foreign language.

Written by 1L Section Representative Aaron Blacksberg.

During the summer of 2012, Stephanie Berger, current 3L, worked for ten weeks at the Disability Rights Section of the DOJ Civil Rights Division. The primary job of the Disability Rights Section is to enforce the American with Disabilities Act (ADA) and use the ADA to expand civil rights.

As an intern, Stephanie was given a lot of independence and responsibility and was able to take on a wide variety of cases. She investigated employment discrimination cases and made recommendations to the DOJ. She also researched whether delays in supplying medication to prisoners with HIV was a violation of the ADA as well as investigated whether an entity was violating the ADA for refusing to provide options for a mandatory meal plan to someone with food allergies.

Beyond working on issues that interested her, Stephanie was able to hone important skills. Day to day, she considerable research and writing, greatly improving her memo writing. She was also able to develop her legal reasoning skills because she was faced with real questions of fact and not just ones manufactured in the classroom. Stephanie saw how cases were decided not just based on law, but also based on what the best outcome should be, both for the individual client and for people in the future facing that issue. She also received helpful constructive criticism and learned how to balance not just her personal responsibilities but also her responsibilities to her team.

Stephanie really enjoyed working for the DOJ and when asked, could not think of one negative thing to say about her experience. Even as a summer intern she felt like an integrated member of the team and was able to request particular issues she wanted to work on. The atmosphere was friendly, but fast-paced and she liked being involved in an agency doing cutting edge litigation in a wide variety of issues and capacities. The attorneys and interns she worked with were friendly and helpful, and she noted that attorneys seemed happy and were able to balance life and work well.

She had a phenomenal experience and highly recommends anyone to work there. Stephanie is now applying to a variety of positions for next year and hopes to work for the federal government.

Written by OPIA 1L Section Representative Nora Mahlberg