Student Spotlights

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.

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.

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.

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).

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 a 1L, Alexandra Gliga knew she was interested in the impact of the war on terror on individual rights. In her second semester, she had an incredible time in Professor Feldman’s 1L class on Constitutional Law and the International Order, which discussed Supreme Court cases related to Guantanamo and habeas corpus issues.

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 […]

The summer before coming to HLS, 3L Ieshaah Murphy was an intern investigator at the Public Defender Service in Washington, D.C. 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 […]

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 […]

Nina Catalano, 3L, spent the summer of 2011 at the Center for Court Innovation (CCI), an organization that conducts research and development for the court system. The principle location is in midtown New York, although it does have smaller offices in Albany and London. CCI closely resembles the work of the Vera Institute, and the two of them often collaborate.

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).

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.

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.

Last summer Rachel Heron, 3L, interned with the U.S. Department of Justice, Environment and Natural Resources Division Appellate Section in Washington, D.C. The internship lived up to all her expectations and she would highly recommend the experience to anyone who is interested in appellate work and enjoys legal research and writing. Her supervisor assigned only substantive work, the attorneys she worked with offered constructive feedback, and she had the opportunity to write full appellate briefs on a range of environmental issues.

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.

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.

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 […]