Alumni Spotlights

Jake Howard did not follow what most would call a conventional path to the law. In many ways, that’s exactly what has made his story such an interesting one.

After working as a teacher, Nicole Dooley (HLS/HKS ’09) enrolled in a joint J.D./M.P.P. with the knowledge that she eventually wanted to effect change in the education system. Nicole concentrated her time at Harvard on gaining valuable, hands-on experience in education and public interest law. That hands-on experience came in a variety of forms. Because […]

Adam Neufeld was set on being a doctor until a pre-law class in his junior year of college piqued his interest in law and policy. He had always seen himself doing mission driven work and so, following a year working on public health research, set out for HLS with public interest work in mind.

Andrew Chan (HLS, 2013) had an eye set toward working at the US Attorney’s Office even before law school.

Sean Hill (HLS, 2012) attributes his journey to Youth Represent to three factors: his upbringing, a life-changing elective his 1L year, and clinical experience at HLS.

Kerri Sherlock Talbot (HLS, 2002) knew she wanted to focus on immigration work when she came to HLS, but wasn’t quite sure how a post-HLS career would look like in the field.

Jill Tauber (HLS, 2005) never expected to be an environmental attorney. While she was committed to doing public interest work in her career, she started off focused on civil rights and had been working already on establishing a background around housing issues. It was her experience through Hurricane Katrina that deepened her curiosity about climate justice and led her down the path she is currently going down as an attorney with Earthjustice.

Becoming a human rights attorney takes risk, tenacity, and also some luck. Regina Fitzpatrick (HLS, 2008) had a little bit of everything to help launch her into the human rights field.

Jacquelyn Greene has spent her much of her career focused on youth and child advocacy, but in different public interest practice areas. Students may often wonder (and wrestle) with the decision of doing direct legal work vs. doing policy work. Jacquelyn's career has taken her through both arenas. Read about Jacquelyn's career path and how it's often important to focus on your passion to help you figure out your next steps.

Lee Strock (HLS, 2009) made the transition from the private sector to the public sector in 2012 when he made the jump to become the Director for the Peter Cicchinio Youth Project at the Urban Justice Center. The jump wasn't easy, but with deliberate action at various stages of his career, and maintaining (and building) of his network, Lee was able to make the transition into a position he felt deeply committed to.

Jason Gelbort (HLS, 2013) had an eye towards international work when entering HLS, but didn't quite know how he was going to use a law degree to move that focus forward. After a few years of exploring HLS and the opportunities available to him through clinics, student groups and summer internships, he began to see how he would harness his experiences at HLS and direct it towards the work he wanted to be doing abroad. Jason emphasizes that it's important to keep an open mind when exploring your legal education, and use all the resources available to you to foster that learning.

Lexie Kuznick is just 8 years removed from HLS, and she has already had a varied career path. From an Equal Justice Works Fellowship at the Urban Justice Center's Domestic Violence Project to a position on Capitol Hill, to her current role as a policy director with Colorado's Human Service Directors Association, she's been exposed to different work settings, both legal and non-legal, that have allowed her to pursue her passions and interests, while also providing new challenges at different turns. Kuznick's experience shed's light on how one's legal skills can apply broadly, not just to the legal field. It may all depend on how you pitch it.

Robert McCreanor is now the Executive Director for the Rhode Island Center for Justice, a nonprofit public interest law center that focuses on providing services in Rhode Island around issues including housing, immigration, and workers’ rights. Read more about his organization at http://www.centerforjustice.org/. This post was written when McCreanor was the Director of Legal Services […]

Nisha Agarwal, ’06, is the Commissioner of the New York City Mayor’s Office of Immigrant Affairs (MOIA), an office charged with promoting the well-being of immigrant communities – no small task in a city with an immigrant population larger than the total population of Chicago.

Cori Crider ’06, Strategic Director for the Abuses in Counter-Terrorism Team at Reprieve in the UK talks about her path to becoming a human rights lawyer.

Genzie Bonadies, a class of 2013 alumna, discusses her path to her current position, and how some of the lessons she has learned, early on, have really opened up her way of thinking of what it means to practice public interest law.

When Stephanie Gendell '98 arrived at law school, she knew she didn’t want to follow a conventional path. She wanted to help children and she had no desire to do litigation. “At the time,” she said, “both of those things were very unusual.”

Amal Bass ’06, Staff Attorney with the Women’s Law Project in Philadelphia, knew when she enrolled at HLS that she would emerge a public interest lawyer, though she wasn’t sure in what form.

Brett Stark (HLS, class of 2012) and an organization he recently co-founded, Terra Firma, were highlighted in the Atlantic this month. The article spotlights work being done through medical-legal partnerships and how essential their work can be for different communities.

Aminta Ossom ’09 is the Crowley Fellow in International Human Rights at the Leitner Center for International Law and Justice at Fordham Law School.