People
Daniel Nagin
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With job losses mounting during the pandemic, thousands of Massachusetts veterans are turning to a $72 million state program that is intended to provide them with emergency cash assistance for basic needs such as housing, food, fuel, and medical care. The Veterans Legal Clinic at Harvard Law School has reported a tenfold increase in recent visitors to its online calculator that helps veterans determine their eligibility for the benefits program, which the state describes as the only one of its kind in the nation...Advocates said the state needs to do a much better job providing veterans with information about benefits that can exceed $1,000 per month for a single person with no dependents. A veteran and spouse can receive a maximum of twice that amount. “We urge DVS to more aggressively get the word out about these benefits, including making information about the program more accessible to the public on its website,” said Betsy Gwin, associate director of the Harvard veterans clinic...Officials at the two advocacy organizations said they still had not received a single reply from Francisco Urena, the Department of Veterans’ Services secretary, despite multiple requests over the past month to discuss how to expedite and ease access to the benefits...Richardson and Daniel Nagin, director of the Harvard legal clinic, wrote to Urena late last month that with "mortgage, rent, and other bills looming, and new layoffs, furloughs, and COVID-19 cases occurring each day, it is critical that DVS act now to ensure access to this vital resource."
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For the Clinical Program at Harvard Law School, the past weeks of the COVID-19 pandemic have been a time to mobilize. As the clinics have moved to working remotely, their work has continued with new urgency.
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LGBTQ+ Advocacy Clinic launches at Harvard Law School
January 28, 2020
Harvard Law School has announced the launch of the new LGBTQ+ Advocacy Clinic, to be led by HLS Lecturer and Clinical Instructor Alex Chen '15, a tireless advocate in recent years in efforts to protect and expand LGBTQ+ civil rights.
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Clinic Stories: Prepping for the U.S. Court of Appeals
November 14, 2019
Follow a student in the Federal Tax Clinic as he prepares to argue an appeal on behalf of a military veteran forced to pay back taxes on $500K he didn't know his wife had embezzled.
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LSC Housing Clinic student helps win precedent-setting case for domestic violence survivors facing eviction
June 24, 2019
A recent Massachusetts court case spearheaded by clinical students and teachers at the WilmerHale Legal Services Center (LSC) has created important new protections for survivors of domestic violence.
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Putting compassion into action
April 12, 2019
On April 5, Harvard Law School's Legal Services Center celebrated its 40th Anniversary of training more than 4,000 attorneys and law students and providing pro bono civil legal services to thousands of Greater Boston’s most vulnerable residents.
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Putting compassion into action
April 12, 2019
“Reaching out to others is how you find out who you really are,” said Daniel Nagin, vice dean of experiential and clinical education and faculty director of the WilmerHale Legal Services Center of Harvard Law School (HLS). He was quoting the late HLS Professor Gary Bellow, LL.B. ’60, who in 1979 co-founded the Jamaica Plain center with his wife, senior lecturer in law Jeanne Charn, J.D. ’70. On April 5, Nagin and others celebrated the center’s 40th anniversary, and the quote strikes at the heart of the center’s mission of improving the legal profession through experiential learning while working with community organizations to enact real and lasting change.
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Earlier this month, Casey Connolly ’19 and Laurel Fresquez ’19, both students in Harvard Law School's Veterans Legal Clinic, presented oral argument before the U.S. Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims on behalf of a proposed class of veterans with multiple disabilities.
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In a ruling issued on December 21, 2018, the Massachusetts Superior Court found in favor of three Massachusetts veterans represented by the Veterans Legal Clinic in their challenge to the state government’s denying them the Welcome Home Bonus, which these veterans earned by serving overseas in Afghanistan and elsewhere.
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Legal Services Center reaches out to homeless veterans at Stand Down 2018
September 19, 2018
A team of volunteers from Harvard Law School's Legal Services Center recently partnered with Veterans Legal Services to provide legal advice to homeless or at risk veterans at Veterans Stand Down 2018, a one-day event that brings service providers and veterans together allowing veterans to access services ranging from employment assistance to legal support to medical care.
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The founder and director of Harvard Immigration and Refugee Clinic Deborah Anker LL.M. ’84 received the Federal Bar Association’s NGO Lawyer of the Year Joint Award on May 18. She was honored alongside Karen Musalo, director of the Center for Gender and Refugee Studies at Hastings College of the Law.
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In the Spirit
June 26, 2018
In April, Harvard Law School’s bicentennial programming came to a close with HLS in the Community, a day of hackathons and workshops. The spirit of the clinics infused the event.
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HLS 200 finale celebrates clinics
May 2, 2018
On April 20, HLS in the Community wrapped up a year-long celebration of Harvard Law School's bicentennial by highlighting the contributions made by HLS clinics and students practice organizations (SPOs).
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As part of the “HLS in the Community” bicentennial event, HLS brought the hackathon concept to the legal space. Instead of writing code, alumni and other professionals worked together on April 20 to hack out legal solutions to social and political issues.
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Kristin Turner ’17 named Public Welfare Foundation A2J Tech Fellow
February 6, 2018
Kristin Turner ’17 was selected as the recipient of Harvard Law School's Public Welfare Foundation A2J Tech Fellowship. She will spend year working with Upsolve, a nonprofit that has developed a platform designed to guide both debtors and attorneys through the Chapter 7 bankruptcy process.
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From Harvard Magazine: The Justice Gap
December 21, 2017
A look into America’s unfulfilled promise of “equal justice under law.”
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Mentors, Friends and Sometime Adversaries
November 29, 2017
Mentorships between Harvard Law School professors and the students who followed them into academia have taken many forms over the course of two centuries.
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The Justice Gap
October 18, 2017
...Initiatives under way at HLS have returned it to a prominent role in advancing legal aid—and in developing new approaches that will change and enhance the delivery of these services in the future. Daniel Nagin, vice dean for experiential and clinical education and faculty director of both the school’s Legal Services Center and its Veterans Legal Clinic, is exploring improvements in legal services that could help bridge the divide between those who insist that lawyers are essential in providing legal services and those who believe they aren’t. Green professor of public law D. James Greiner, faculty director of the Access to Justice Lab, is HLS’s main proponent of the view that sometimes the solutions can be simpler and less expensive...[Martha] Minow emphasized HLS’s mission as a justice school, as much as a law school, by expanding opportunities for public-interest work and by bringing the curriculum and clinical offerings closer together—so theory informs practice and vice versa...Esme Caramello, a clinical professor who is the bureau’s faculty director, told me, “Within five years of graduating from the law school, a lot of students who did HLAB are in public-interest jobs, doing legal services and otherwise. They feel compelled to do this work.”
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“Nothing rankles more than the feeling of injustice”
October 18, 2017
Reginald Herbert Smith’s Justice and the Poor is in the library of Harvard Law School’s Legal Services Center, in the Jamaica Plain neighborhood of Boston, about five miles from Harvard Square, along with many other books from the personal collection of the late Gary Bellow, LL.B. ’60, who co-founded the center in 1979...As community legal needs have changed, the center’s services have, as well...Daniel Nagin, faculty director of the center, says, “I tell students that, if they really want to make a difference, they should explore all of the things Congress has tried over the years to restrict grantees of the Legal Services Corporation from doing: class actions; lobbying the government; efforts to change and improve the law on behalf of groups.”
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Helping low-income clients navigate the IRS
October 6, 2017
Tenacious legal research and petition-filing by Harvard Law School students working in the Tax Clinic of the Legal Services Center at HLS helps low-income clients fight for their legal rights – rights that are meaningless if clients lack access to a lawyer to stand up for them.
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Coding for Justice
August 23, 2017
It takes a lot of preparation to rev up a new case. That’s true in all law offices, including Harvard’s legal clinics. As a clinical law student who was cross-enrolled in an undergraduate computer science course, Jeffrey Roderick ’17 wondered whether he could streamline the process through technology.
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In June, the Harvard Law School’s Veterans Legal Clinic filed a class action lawsuit in Massachusetts Superior Court on behalf of Army combat veteran Jeffrey Machado and an estimated 4,000 veterans from Massachusetts who have served abroad since 9/11, but deemed ineligible to receive the state’s $1000 Welcome Home Bonus for honorably discharged servicemembers.
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Hundreds of veterans in need to benefit from $350,000 in funding from Attorney General Maura Healey
February 23, 2017
The state is helping hundreds of veterans by awarding $350,000 in grants to four Massachusetts organizations. The grant funding will go to Community Legal Aid, Inc., in Worcester; Montachusett Veterans Outreach Center in Gardner; The Legal Services Center of Harvard Law School in Boston; and Veterans Legal Services in Boston, Attorney General Maura Healey's office announced Wednesday...The Legal Services Center of Harvard Law School plans to hire an attorney to provide legal representation for discharge status upgrades and veterans benefits claims using the funding. That attorney will conduct outreach to veterans and present legal training on veteran and military law to services providers. The grant funding will provide nearly 50 veterans with legal representation. "Low-income and disabled veterans in Massachusetts have vast unmet legal needs," said Daniel Nagin, director of the Legal Services Center of Harvard Law School. "We are honored to receive grant funding from the Attorney General's Office to expand our ability to advocate for the men and women who have the worn the uniform and now face barriers to care, financial stability, and other critical supports."
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Hon. Robert Russell reflects on the founding and future of Veterans Treatment Courts
December 5, 2016
On November 9, 2016, the Honorable Robert Russell, founder of the nation’s first Veterans Treatment Court delivered the 2016 DAV Distinguished Speaker Lecture at Harvard Law School.
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Invisible Wounds of War
October 10, 2016
Military sexual trauma—rape or sexual harassment during military service—is a fast-emerging issue in the nation’s care for veterans and one focus of an HLS clinic.
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Veterans clinic files rulemaking petition on access for veterans with ‘bad-paper’ discharges
July 12, 2016
More than 125,000 veterans who have served since 9/11 are denied access to basic services like health care by the Department of Veterans Affairs, according to a report by the Veterans Legal Clinic at the Legal Services Center of Harvard Law School.
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Fighting for Veterans, Learning the Law
February 20, 2016
...The student lawyers became involved in Ausmer’s case in 2013, while interning at the HLS Veterans Law and Disability Benefits Clinic, within the school’s WilmerHale Legal Services Center (LSC). Each year since 2012, when the clinic was established in Boston’s Jamaica Plain neighborhood, dozens of students have assisted veterans with legal cases, winning verdicts of local and national importance... “As we train students, we want to give them the opportunity to understand and appreciate the needs and sacrifices of disabled veterans,” says Daniel Nagin, clinical professor of law, faculty director of the Legal Services Center, and founder of the veterans clinic. “The work is complicated and demanding—it’s an uphill battle, and there are too few resources for people who need help….We are asking students to consider, ‘What is the role of lawyers in responding to this problem?’”
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Lecturer on Law Alan Jenkins ’89 shared ideas for reframing conversations on race and social justice at a talk at Harvard Law School on Jan. 12. The talk was moderated by Clinical Professor Dan Nagin, vice dean for experiential and clinical education at HLS.
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Christopher Melendez ’15 received the Outstanding Clinical Student Award from the Clinical Legal Education Association. The award is presented annually to one student from each law school in recognition of outstanding clinical coursework and contributions to the clinical community.
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Harvard Law School Dean Martha Minow has appointed Clinical Professor Daniel Nagin as Vice Dean for Experiential and Clinical Education. In that role, Nagin will help to further expand the Law School’s extensive offerings in the area of experience-based learning, and he will work to develop new initiatives drawing upon the school’s wide array of clinics, student practice organizations, and other opportunities for learning through hands-on experience.
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HLS legal clinic lands victories for veterans
November 10, 2014
Standing in near-frozen water while guarding a bridge during the notorious Battle of the Bulge in 1945, the infantryman sustained such severe frostbite he almost lost a foot. Evacuated to a hospital in England, he avoided amputation but had serious problems with his feet the rest of his life. When he died in 2008 from a variety of health problems, his widow — who had very little income — applied for a type of benefit for survivors of veterans whose death had resulted, at least in part, from a service-related disability...It took nearly six years and a trip to federal court, but with the help of the Harvard Law School (HLS) Veterans Legal Clinic the widow finally prevailed, winning a monthly payment from the VA that completely changes her financial health....In just two years, more than 30 HLS students have enrolled in the Veterans Legal Clinic — housed at the WilmerHale Legal Services Center (LSC) in Jamaica Plain, with [Dan] Nagin as its faculty director — and represented more than 100 clients in areas of federal and state veterans’ benefits, discharge upgrades, and estate-planning matters.
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HLS Veterans Legal Clinic lands victories for veterans
November 6, 2014
In just two years, more than 30 HLS students have enrolled in the Veterans’ Legal Clinic—housed at the WilmerHale Legal Services Center (LSC) in Jamaica Plain, of which HLS Clinical Professor Daniel Nagin is faculty director—and represented more than 100 clients in the areas of federal and state veterans’ benefits, discharge upgrades, and estate-planning matters.
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Clinic awarded $1M for veterans’ advocacy
November 6, 2014
In August, the Disabled American Veterans (DAV) Charitable Service Trust significantly increased an existing grant to expand its support of the Veterans Legal Clinic and other veterans’ advocacy program at Harvard Law School’s WilmerHale Legal Services Center.
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Legal Services Center announces leadership transition
September 17, 2014
Harvard Law School’s WilmerHale Legal Services Center—one of the leading providers of legal aid in Greater Boston and surrounding communities—has announced that Daniel Nagin, Clinical Professor of Law, will be its Faculty Director.
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Four HLS professors ‘think big’ at annual event (video)
July 11, 2013
“HLS Thinks Big,” an event inspired by the global TED (Technology, Entertainment and Design) talks and modeled after the university's “Harvard Thinks Big” event, was held at Harvard Law School on May 28. Four professors—Daniel Nagin, Glenn Cohen '03, Jeannie Suk '02, and James Greiner—presented on some of their recent work and research.
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Serving Those Who Have Served
July 1, 2013
The Board of Veterans’ Appeals of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs denies a soldier’s claim for disability benefits for an injury that occurred while he was on active duty. But the decision is handed down while the soldier is redeployed to Afghanistan, and he doesn’t realize he has the right to appeal until after he returns stateside—after the appeal deadline has passed. For students in HLS’s new Veterans Legal Clinic, the chance to work on this case and others like it is eye-opening.
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HLS establishes new Veterans Legal Clinic
April 1, 2013
The Board of Veterans’ Appeals denies a soldier’s claim for disability benefits for an injury to his lower extremities. But the decision is handed down while the soldier is serving in Afghanistan, and he doesn’t realize he has the right to appeal until after he returns from his deployment—after the appeal deadline has passed. For students in Harvard Law School’s new Veterans Legal Clinic, the chance to argue that the appeal deadline should have been tolled and the case allowed to proceed on the merits is proving invaluable educationally and personally.
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Daniel Nagin appointed Clinical Professor of Law
December 5, 2011
Daniel Nagin, a tireless advocate for low-income communities, will join the Harvard Law School faculty as a Clinical Professor of Law this summer. He will direct community-based lawyering at HLS’s WilmerHale Legal Services Center.
