OPIA

Have a quick question about the public interest job search? Come to OPIA for drop-in office hours. Please note that drop-in office hours are for quick questions only on a first-come, first-served basis.

Join Wasserstein Fellow Angelica Salceda as she shares insights on building a public interest career in regions with great needs but limited legal resources. Angelica will discuss how to grow professionally even when you’re one of the few attorneys in the region, strategies to balance local demands while continuing to develop legal expertise, and how to leverage available resources to bridge the gap. She’ll also cover ways to navigate unique joys and challenges of place-based practice. Lunch provided. Please RSVP below! Open to the HLS community.

Join Wasserstein Fellow Sapna Khatri to learn how to view reproductive justice through a wide-angle lens, recognizing that issues such as economic justice, racial equity, and environmental justice are all interconnected in the pursuit of reproductive justice. Using her own career as an example, Sapna hopes to provide students with insight navigating legal pathways and developing skills that can enhance one’s ability to advocate effectively for reproductive justice, regardless of where they practice. This session will both provide an overview of integrating reproductive justice into various aspects of legal practice, while also offering practical advice to aspiring advocates on identifying and pursuing opportunities that make a meaningful impact in the field. Lunch provided. RSVP below. Open to the HLS community.

Law school is full of conventional wisdom—including that as a 1L you need to pick an area of the law in which to specialize and that appellate litigation is the pinnacle of the profession. Join OPIA for a conversation with Wasserstein Fellow Bradley Girard, Senior Counsel at Democracy Forward, on why you should ignore that conventional wisdom. Bradley is a public-interest appellate generalist who has litigated cases involving the First Amendment, Title VII, habeas corpus, police violence, bankruptcy, and much more. As a first-generation law student, Bradley didn't know what to focus on—he didn't even know what lawyers actually did. Bradley will share how he figured out that impact and appellate work was his path, and will offer you advice on getting there if that's what you want. But he will also talk about how conventional wisdom obscures that different approaches to the law and career paths are just as important. Lunch provided. Please RSVP below! Open to the HLS community.

Have a quick question about the public interest job search? Join Catherine's Zoom meeting room during her virtual drop-in office hours. Please note that virtual office hours are for quick questions only on a first-come, first-served basis.

Peter O’Meara from the Harvard International Office will hold drop-in office hours in the OPIA suite to offer quick consults and answers questions about travel and work authorization as an international student. No need for an appointment; students will be served on a first-come, first-served basis.

Join Wasserstein Fellow and union attorney Pamela Devi Chandran for a discussion on using law as one (important) tool in the larger fight for working people’s rights. Unionized workplaces comprise people of diverse backgrounds who are united in a struggle to improve their worklife. At a time when the contours of labor law seem bent against the labor movement, Pamela will share how lawyers must rely on strategy, advocacy, and the power of numbers to effect change – including change in the law. Open to the HLS community. Lunch provided. RSVP below.

Join OPIA to learn more about the Public Service Leaders Program (“PSL”). PSL is designed to build supportive relationships among Harvard Law School’s public interest community. It offers 1L participants the opportunity to connect with other public interest-oriented students and receive mentorship from like-minded alumni and upper-class students. This welcome event will introduce interested students to one another and begin to co-create our community. Stick around after the program for a happy hour in the HLS pub. RSVP to attend. Haven't yet registered for OPIA's Public Service Leaders Program? Register here by September 19!

Navigating a career in international human rights may be daunting, particularly during the first few years after law school. Join Wasserstein Fellow Niku Jafarnia ’20, as she describes the path she took to build a career in international human rights while a student at HLS and immediately following graduation. Niku will discuss working as a post-graduate fellow with a Yemeni human rights organization, making the jump from fellowship to a staff position, considerations for living/working abroad, and how to build a skillset (and mindset!) that will ready you for this challenging but rewarding practice area. Lunch provided. Please RSVP below!

Join OPIA for a community discussion with Wasserstein Fellow Tara Koslov, Deputy Director of the Bureau of Competition at the Federal Trade Commission and a member of the Federal Senior Executive Service. Tara will discuss her 27+ year career at the FTC, where she has served in a variety of enforcement, policy, and leadership roles. She will share her insights on career-track and political-appointment opportunities within the federal government, the best ways to grow one’s legal skillset at each stage of development, and the “joys” of management and executive leadership in a public interest setting. She will also discuss her passion for competition law, what makes it an intellectually stimulating discipline, how it has changed over the years, and why vigorous antitrust enforcement is so important to our economy. When Tara began the practice of law as a baby antitrust associate at a BigLaw firm, she found it challenging to explain her work to her extended family. But antitrust has now become so mainstream that she can even talk about it around the Thanksgiving table. Lunch provided. Please RSVP below!

Join OPIA for a community discussion with Wasserstein Fellow Richard Saenz, as he discusses his career in the LGBTQ+ movement as an advocate for the rights of incarcerated people. Richard will share how litigation, policy advocacy, and community organizing can be powerful tools to challenge anti-LGBTQ+ bias in the criminal legal system. Learn how Richard centers the lives and stories of his clients—including when movement priorities have left them out—and how, as an openly gay, Latino, and the first in his family to go to law school, Richard’s life experiences have shaped his career as a public interest lawyer. Lunch provided. Please RSVP below!

While “the arc of the moral universe bends towards justice,” the journey there is rarely easy, and there are many losses along the way. Join OPIA for a community discussion with Wasserstein Fellow Michele Hall, a former public defender and an attorney at Brown, Goldstein & Levy working primarily in criminal defense and appellate practice, on how to confront losing in public interest practice. Michele will reflect on her experiences taking losses in the Supreme Court of Maryland and turning them into legislative change, reframing individual case losses and understanding how they can be systemic wins, and how to maintain hope and sustain career longevity despite the obstacles public interest lawyers face. Lunch provided. Please RSVP below!

Fellowships can be the gateway to new ideas and innovations and a critical component to a successful postgraduate public interest job search. Join OPIA's Director of Fellowships Judy Murciano for an overview of fellowships, grants, and scholarships that will support public interest work, study, research, and entrepreneurship in the U.S. and abroad. Lunch provided. Please RSVP!

Join OPIA for an overview of the 2L summer public interest job search. If you are a 2L planning to seek a public interest job and have not yet started your search, we particularly encourage you to attend! Lunch provided. Please RSVP.

Bring your lunch and questions to a conversation with Harmann Singh ‘19, who completed clerkships with Justice Sonia Sotomayor on the U.S. Supreme Court, Judge Andrew L. Carter Jr., of the Southern District of New York, and Judge Raymond J. Lohier, Jr., of the Second Circuit Court of Appeals. Between clerkships, Harmann worked at a litigation boutique where he helped defend the certification of the 2020 presidential election, represented criminal defendants in state court, investigated the NCAA for gender equity issues, and worked on complex commercial trials. Space is limited t0 34. RSVP if you plan to attend!

by Joan Ruttenberg
Director, Heyman Fellowship Program
Assistant Director for Government Advising, OPIA Introduction The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) hires law students and lawyers…

All students are encouraged to take advantage of the opportunity to speak with Wasserstein Fellows. 1Ls may meet with Wasserstein Fellows even before the September…

Engaging with HLS faculty makes for a more educational and enjoyable law school experience. More concretely, faculty recommendation letters are required in applications for certain types of jobs, including judicial clerkships and fellowships. Get insights from a panel about how best to cultivate substantive relationships with faculty. This program will be recorded and posted to the OCS website. Lunch will be provided to those who register before Wed, Sept 25th at 9am. Register here. Co-Sponsored by OCS, OPIA, and OCP.

Professional and polished job search documents are the foundation for every successful LL.M. job search. Attend this session to learn the basics about how to…

Below is a feed of fellowships and entry-level jobs OPIA has received in order by deadline. This feed is updated regularly. Check back often! This…

An Introduction to Foundation Work Foundation philanthropy appeals to many law students interested in building and maintaining public interest programs. The prospect of learning about,…