Learning the Law, Serving the World
We are thrilled to announce the graduation of the Class of 2023 from the Clinical & Pro Bono Program! This year’s cohort of talented, dedicated students has made an incredible impact on the world of public service and legal advocacy.
“Harvard Law School’s 38 clinics and 11 student practice organizations offer our students unparalleled opportunities to gain hands-on experience while serving a broad range of clients and the communities in which they live. Our students gain vital experience and learning from excellent lawyers and teachers across nearly every field of legal practice. And in doing so, they not only make a real difference for clients and communities, but also develop a lifelong commitment to public service that will benefit them throughout their careers. I could not be more grateful to our clinical faculty and staff, or more proud of the students and future Harvard lawyers whom they teach. There is no better place to learn to practice law by serving others.”
John F. Manning
Morgan and Helen Chu Dean and Professor of Law
Harvard Law School
“The twin pillars of the Clinical and Pro Bono Program at Harvard Law School are to provide exemplary legal services to local, national, and international communities and to ensure the continuous education, learning, and growth of the clinical community. Our remarkable students are at the heart of both of these goals. As student attorneys, they engage boldly and bravely. They bring their own diverse backgrounds and expertise, coupled with the knowledge they have garnered at Harvard, to advance access to justice with savvy legal strategy and zealous representation. Our partners trust our students to develop sound policy and legal reasoning. Our clients feel seen, valued, and empowered. Our legal service is better, broader, and more joyful because of our students.
In the classroom, clinics, and student practice organizations, our students teach as much as they learn. As we advise and mentor students on their path to becoming ethical lawyers, the students, in turn, challenge us to look at legal problems with a fresh set of eyes and creative new perspectives. They teach us. They enhance our community partnerships. They build teams and friendship among their peers that will continue to strengthen their own learning and bolster the legal profession for years to come. Our students teach and change us. And our students change the world: one classroom at a time, one case at a time, one client at a time. As our clinical students join the broader legal profession, we know their impact and contributions will only grow.”
Meredith Boak
Assistant Dean for Clinical and Experiential Education and Pro Bono Programs
2022-2023 By the Numbers
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Clinical Placements in 2022-23 1,161
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LLM Clinical Placements in 2022-23 31
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JD ’23 Class Participation in Clinics 89%
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JD ’23 Participated in 2+ Clinics 52%
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Average Pro Bono Hours Per JD ’23 Student 673
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Total Pro Bono Hours by JD ’23 384,552
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JD ’23 Students with >1,000 Pro Bono Hours 131
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Student Practice Organizations Members 22-23 755
Clinical and Pro Bono Awards
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Ricardo Jimenez Solis wins the David A. Grossman Exemplary Clinical Student Award
This award is presented annually to a student who demonstrates outstanding expertise in representation and policy reform initiatives and shows a clear capacity for thoughtfulness and empathy in their practice.
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Molly Crane honored with the Andrew L. Kaufman Pro Bono Service Award
The award’s recipient is a member of the J.D. class who has displayed an outstanding commitment to improving and delivering high quality volunteer legal services to disadvantaged communities.
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Stephanie Perez honored with the Ralph D. Gants Access to Justice Award
The award recognizes a student who is dedicated to advancing access to justice and racial equity and has demonstrated leadership in helping to eliminate systemic barriers to justice.
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Katie Martinez and Ben Rankin receive 2023 CLEA Outstanding Clinical Student Awards
The awards are presented annually to students from each law school for outstanding clinical coursework and contributions to the clinical community.
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Alex Ropes honored with the Kristin P. Muniz Memorial Award
This award recognizes a graduating CJI student who has demonstrated an exemplary dedication to client-centered representation in criminal courts and has focused their efforts on racial justice and equality, respect for human dignity, fairness, diversity, and compassion.
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Ryan Gunderman named winner of Stuntz Award
The William J. Stuntz Memorial Award for Justice, Human Dignity, and Compassion recognizes a graduating student who has demonstrated an exemplary commitment to those principles while at Harvard Law School.
Stories from the In-House Clinics
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Crimmigration Clinic
Allie Cunningham ’23 and Jess Vanzuela Ramirez ’23 presented oral arguments to the Second Circuit Court of Appeals.
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Education Law Clinic (TLPI)
Brian Dezurick ’23 and his clinical team held a Youth Summit at HLS for local high school students.
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Election Law Clinic
The clinic is working toward the adoption of a district map that reflects the growing population of people of color in Jacksonville, FL, ensuring that electoral power in the city is fairly distributed.
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Environmental Law & Policy Clinic
“It ended up becoming one of the most defining and rewarding experiences in my law school career and changed the trajectory of my career.” – Kaylee Ding ’23
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Immigration and Refugee Advocacy Clinic
Juan Castano ’23 and Isabel Espinosa Moguel ’23 helped prepare a defensive asylum claim for an indigenous Guatemalan man who suffered severe persecution in his home country.
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Animal Law & Policy Clinic
“If I could make farmed animal law a required class for every student, I would,” says Arlene Lopez ’23.
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Harvard Legal Aid Bureau
Former HLAB President Suzanna Bobadilla ’23 reflects on her time in law school & on becoming an advocate for workers’ rights.
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International Human Rights Clinic
The clinic resumed in-semester international travel for the first time since the outbreak of COVID-19 with students and clinicians heading to Dublin, Ireland and Pristina and Mitrovica, Kosovo.
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Transactional Law Clinics
“I had always been told law school would teach me to ‘think like a lawyer’… I am grateful for my time at TLC for allowing me the opportunity to ‘act like a lawyer.'” – Millen Trujillo ’23
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Food Law and Policy Clinic
Liz Turner ’23 worked with a non-profit group in East Cleveland, Ohio to change discriminatory municipal codes.
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Health Law & Policy Clinic
Ali Gentry ’23 attended the AIDSWatch Conference in Washington D.C. – “one of the most formative experiences of law school.”
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Religious Freedom Clinic
“Most importantly, I learned about my colleagues’ shared, genuine commitment to the protection of all faiths and witnessed the role faith plays in lives very different from my own.” – David Tye ’23
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Crimmigration Clinic
This March, Pablo Lozano ’23 presented an oral argument before the First Circuit Court of Appeals.
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Harvard Dispute Systems Design Clinic
Valerie Gutmann ’23 and Austin Riddick ’23 interview each other about how they became interested in dispute resolution, why they think the field is vital to our culture and the legal system today, their passion for helping those in conflict find agency and ownership in problem-solving.
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Veterans Law & Disability Benefits Clinic
Anthony Pericolo ’23 describes his work to reinstate a Vietnam veteran’s benefits and the lessons learned.
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Religious Freedom Clinic
“It’s incredibly special to find a group of devoutly religious people who are eager to learn from each other’s faiths and who stand for religious freedom for its own sake,” writes Azhan Hasan ’23.
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Housing Law Clinic
Annalise Wagner ’23 worked on an amicus brief in solidarity with tenants and survivors of abuse.
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Veterans Law & Disability Benefits Clinic
Strategic lawyering by a team of Harvard Law students led Veterans Affairs to change its long-standing benefits policy.
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LGBTQ+ Advocacy Clinic
Lauren Andrews ’23 and Jackie Weinell ’23 worked on a West Virginia case advocating for transgender rights on the state level.
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Tax Litigation Clinic
In the aftermath of COVID-19, David Lee ’23 worked with clients to navigate interactions with the IRS.
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Family Justice Clinic
Madeline Finnegan ’23 explores what happens when perpetrators of domestic violence use civil court system to re-victimize survivors.
Stories from the Externship Clinics
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Criminal Justice Appellate Clinic
Students spent their winter term in Washington D.C., working on appellate briefs at the MacArthur Justice Center.
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Child Advocacy Clinic
“The clinic is an opportunity to address the passions that started at a young age related to the justice system, and the passion for special education law that I’ve had for as long as I can remember because of my brother.” – Austin Riddick ’23
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Judicial Process in Trial Courts Clinic
“My time in the Judicial Process Clinic taught me that there is good to be found—you just have to know where to look, and create it where there is none.” – Lisa Wang ’23
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Employment Law Clinic
Abel Rodriguez ’23 worked with Justice at Work, a Boston-based legal nonprofit that supports organizations of workers in low-paying jobs, through direct legal assistance and by counseling workers on how to be their own best advocates.
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Democracy and Rule of Law Clinic
“The opportunity to work on both ECA reform and confronting the independent state legislature theory as part of my clinical experiences has allowed me to understand the real, on-the-ground impact of the doctrine I’ve learned in my classes.” – Zachary Goldstein ’23
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Capital Punishment Clinic
Fjora Arapi ’23 moderated a panel of fellow clinical students describing their experiences in Philadelphia and Austin.
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Sports Law Clinic
Sports Law Clinic alum Rehan Staton ’23 traces path from sanitation worker to Law School grad, gives thanks for sacrifices by dad, brother and help from pals, profs — and Tyler Perry
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Sports Law Clinic
“Both the work and the people were filled with legal, as well as life, lessons that I will forever carry with me.” – Aaron Fogelson ’23
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Supreme Court Litigation Clinic
Eric Xu ’23 and Samantha Neal ’23 worked on a petition for certiorari for their pro bono client.
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Government Lawyer: Attorney General Clinic
At the Iowa State Attorney General’s Office, Harley Moyer ’23 published an article that gained national attention, urging state attorneys general to pay mind to the implications of data being released by federal agencies.
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Judicial Process in Trial Courts Clinic
“More than the subject matter of the Clinic’s jurisdiction, however, I think it was the personal aspects that most discernibly impacted me,” writes Billy Goulston ’23.
Independent Clinical Projects
Pro Bono Stories
Spring Break Pro Bono Trips
Stories from the Student Practice Organizations (SPOs)
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Highlights of the 2022-2023 SPO Experience
SPOs are cherished by HLS students, as an opportunity to explore their own passions from human rights to the arts. Here’s what students had to say about some of their SPO experiences this year.
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Clients, CORIs, and community in Harvard Defenders
Apoorva Krishnan ’23 and Molly Crane ’23 on finding their place and learning from clients in Defenders.
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‘There is always more to the story’
Mary Cao ’23 on her most memorable client and the lessons learned in Harvard Defenders.
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Expanding legal empowerment for local tenants
The Tenant Advocacy Project led an initiative to bring a powerful legal tool to as many Boston area tenants as possible.
Student Achievements
Students Who Have Completed 2,000+ Pro Bono Hours
Isabella M. Badia Bellinger
Sarah E. Blatt-Herold
Molly Crane
Hannah Lee Finnie
Mina Ibiye Kalu-Ezikpe
Apoorva Krishnan
Oliver Ma
Syeda Malliha
Olivia Murray
Sarah Ariella Rosenkrantz
Anne Miriam Woronecki
Students Who Have Completed 1,000+ Pro Bono Hours
Vandana Apte
Fjora Arapi
Sarah Gordon Armstrong
Ayodele N. Aruleba
Marlon Shane Becerra
Mariah K. Bellamoroso
Kevin Mark Bendesky
Matthew Besman
Michael James Blank
Olivia Ruby Blom
Suzanna Elise Hurlong Bobadilla
Christina M. Breitbeil
Alexander Jacob Brown
Samantha S. Camy
Rebekah R. Carey
Katherine Ayako Chu
Nayeon K. Chung
Jessica S. Cianci
Christina Danielle Coleburn
Alexandra N. Cunningham
Cristina Dan
Neil S. Davey
Sophie Gottesman DeBode
Brian J. Dezurick
Marième Diop
Naima Drecker-Waxman
Isabel Espinosa Schatz
Riley Doyle Evans
Madison L. Ferris
Alison Taylor Gentry
Fredrica Florine George
Hannah Gerdes
Malia C. Gesuale
Lydia Singh Ghuman
Leonard Giarrano IV
Zachary B. Goldstein
Alexa H. Gray
Luca Greco
Grace G. Griffith
Harold I. Grigsby III
Alisha Gupta
Valerie Raizel Gutmann
Mattie C. Haag
James Roy Hamilton III
Gillian Hannahs
Kiese Tangye Kanza Hansen
Arabi Hassan
Delaney Irene Herndon
Laura Dylan Hipple
Rowan Hong
Sung Hwan Hong
Brendan Christopher Hopkins
Dylan K. Hosmer-Quint
Serena A. Hughley
Caroline Gail Jaschke
Ricardo Jimenez Solis
Joan Josiah
Ariella Paula Katz
Jaspreet Kaur
Charlotte Underwood Keeley
Stuart T. Key
Amelia T. Keyes
David Kilbridge
Raya Rivka Koreh
Samuel Eric Kurland
Rachel Landry
John Christopher Lawson
Emma Rose Leibowitz
Jessica C. Levy
Elbert Keng-Ming Liang
Arlene Altagracia Lopez
Graham E. Lowder
Pablo Arturo Lozano
Amanda P. Madigan
Jayee K. Malwankar
Carlos Cristobal Martinez
Katelyn Elizabeth Martinez
Gayane Matevosyan
Sean V. McDonough
Matthew T. Meehan
Colette B. Midulla
Michael E. Mitchell
Elizabeth G. Moens
Robert Molina
Emilie Raphaela Montgomery
Rebecca Faith Murphy
Samantha J. Nagler
Jessica N. Nelson
Rachel Niegelberg
Patrick N. O ́Connor
Ji Soo Janet Park
Krupa K. Patel
Stephanie Perez
Samantha Lauren Perri
Elena Adele Plenefisch
Lincoln R. Plews
Anastasia Pyrinis
Carolina Rabinowicz
Benjamin T. Rankin
Thomas Mitchell Roberts
Georgia Nicole Rochon
Jordan Alvis Rogers
Alexander S. Ropes
Shilpa Sadhasivam
Andrew D. Santana
Rachel Erin Schwarz
Emma Sherry
Miriam Liv Iversen Shestack
Dominic Joseph Solari
Lauren M. Spiwak
Martin Alexander Strauss
Hui Sun
Katherine E. Super
Emma Jane F. Svoboda
Tram Ngoc Tran
Sara Tsai
Elizabeth Rood Turner
Rebecca Elizabeth Tweedie
Dane Underwood
Rosa C. Vargas
Elena Maria Vázquez
Jason Rafael Vazquez
Kevin Ricardo Vazquez
Hannah Rose Wallach
Elizabeth Rosemary Walsh
Yiran Wang
Jennifer K. Ware-Phillips
Jaclyn Weinell
Nicole T. Yapp
Cathy Zhang
Tracy S. Zhang
Clinics in a Minute
This year we kicked off a new series on the Harvard Law School Instagram account (@harvardlaw) highlighting the student experience in the clinics and SPOs.