Amicus for Students

Amicus Overview

• What is HLS Amicus?

  Amicus is the Harvard Law School directory, community-building platform, and advising network. HLS Amicus is secured with HarvardKey and is the best platform for connecting with HLS community members who share your interests and aspirations.

• How to register and sign in

  Amicus is secured with HarvardKey. Your username and password for Amicus will be the same as your email and password for your HarvardKey.

  Within the HLS Amicus site, click on the “Sign In” button in the top right corner.

  If you start from the HLS website, click on one of the log in buttons located on the left-hand rail of every CEEB webpage.

  You will also need to read and accept the HLS Amicus terms and conditions to learn about proper use of the system. You will be asked to agree to the terms set forth in the policy to complete your registration process.

• The Student Directory (formerly LawList)

  What is the Student Directory?
  The Student Directory (formerly LawList) is the Harvard Law School online student directory within HLS Amicus. As a member of the community, you can log in at any time to update your personal information or search for the contact information of other student.

  What is my profile?
  Your profile in the Student Directory is your personal contact information page and a way to share information about yourself with your classmates. You can customize your profile to be as general or specific as you would like. The more information you put in the better we can connect you to other HLS students with shared interests to form a greater community. You can provide recent and previous work experience, areas of interest and expertise, as well as hobbies.

  Who can see my profile, and what can they see?

  1. All HLS students, staff and faculty can see name, program and section, and email address by default. They can also see any additional information you add to your profile and mark as visible.
  2. You have the ability to mark fields as private or visible; if set to private no one will be able to see that information.
  3. All students of HLS are included in the Student Directory by default. If you do not want to be listed in the Student Directory please contact the Office of the Registrar at registrar@law.harvard.edu.
  4. HLS Alumni that you connect with, through mentorship or email, will be able to see your profile as you will be able to see theirs.

  What types of searches can I perform?
  You can search for fellow students using a variety of criteria including: name, keyword, class year, section, HLS program, city, state, country, HLS student organizations and more.

  You are able to use multiple search criteria as well as dictate the importance of each criterion.

  Can I save contacts in the Student Directory?
  Yes, to save a contact, click on the “view full profile” drop down button to the right of the contacts name and information. Select the “Save Contact” option. The contact will now be saved under the “Saved Contacts” button on your left hand navigation menu.

  Can I decide what information I want displayed?
  Harvard Law School has made every effort to give you the flexibility to share as much or as little information as you wish. The information you provide forms part of the school’s records and is not accessible to anyone except users of HLS Amicus. HLS Amicus offers the ability to hide information on a field-by-field basis, except for name, HLS program, class year, email and section. Simply adjust the “visible / private” settings for each entry. If an HLS community member searches for your record, any information that you have chosen to be private will not be provided. If you make a mistake or change your mind about removing any information from view, just adjust the visibility box. The changes you make are effective immediately.

• Student Directory Search tips

  • In the left navigation, you have the option within “Search” to select either “Keyword Search” or “Browse All”. Keyword search provides the opportunity to filter down the Student Directory list based on specific search criteria and browse all will return all students within the database.
  • To begin your search, click on “Search” on the left-hand menu of your home page. Select “Keyword Search” and you will begin a new search. Choose what field you would like to search on from the first drop-down menu (keyword, location, section, name, and many other options) and then enter a search term in the in the middle field. You can then select the importance of that search term from required to not very important; you can even select “excluded” to have it omit records with that search term. Search results will include anything with the search term as part of a word. If you search for Anna, it will return all Anna’s as well as Johanna and Hannah.
  • By hitting the “Add Criterion” button you can add additional search terms to refine your results.
  • To remove a search criterion, you can click on the “-” (minus sign) at the end of the row and that option will be removed.
  • The results screen will display an individual’s photo, first and last name, program, class year, and section as well as the results of your search. For additional profile information, click on the “View Full Profile” dropdown button on the right side of the screen and select “Full Profile”.
  • If you’d like to keep track of specific individuals, you can select “Save Contact” by clicking on the “View Full Profile” drop-down. You can then view all of your saved contacts by clicking on the “Saved Contacts” link in the left navigation.
  • The system will not know nicknames that were not supplied or part of an individual’s name. For instance, if someone is entered at “Robert” the system will not find them as “Bob” unless they have included that as part of their profile.
  • Once you have the results, you can sort them by match %, first name, or last name and then select the results to appear in ascending or descending order.
  • In general, the fewer search criteria you enter, the more results you will get; the more criteria you provide, the more you will narrow your results.
• Courses

  Both current and past courses are now available in your Amicus profile. For your current courses, you can see who is in your class and view their Amicus profiles. You can also make your previous courses visible to other students so they can see what you have taken and reach out to solicit advice on course selection. The default is that past courses are private so you have the ability to make them public to help other HLS students.

  To see current courses:

  • Go to the Student Directory tab
  • On the right side of the page, select “View Profile”
  • Below your Student Directory profile picture are links to your current courses
  • Click on a link and you will see all of the other students in that course
  • Click on any profile to get more information about your classmates

  To make your previous courses visible to other students:

  • Go to Student Directory
  • Click on ‘Edit my Profile’
  • Go to the ‘Past Courses’ tab
  • Click on ‘Private’ toggle so that it says ‘Public’. (You can make all of your courses public by using the “group switch” or adjust the privacy of each course individually based on what you would like to share)
  • Click ‘Save’
• HLS Amicus security

  How secure is my information?
  Harvard Law School has taken every effort to ensure that individual privacy is protected. The site is technologically secure and password-protected through HarvardKey, and it is intended strictly for the purpose of personal interaction between students and the School.

  How do I report inappropriate behavior in Amicus?
  If you would like to report someone for inappropriate use of the system, please go to their profile and click the “Report inappropriate behavior” flag at the bottom of the page. This will generate an email notifying the Amicus team. Please explain in the email what the behavior is and we will forward the email to the relevant office at HLS to determine appropriate next steps. You will receive a response that your message was acknowledged and may also receive a follow up email from that HLS office. Inappropriate behavior includes any violation of the terms and conditions of the system.

  What happens if someone misuses the system?
  Please see the HLS Amicus Terms and Conditions for appropriate use of the platform.