Student Spotlights

During Winter Term, 12 Harvard Law School students traveled to 12 countries as Cravath International Fellows to pursue clinical placements or independent research with an international, transnational, or comparative law focus. Four of them share their experiences.

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.

The Harvard Law School LL.M. Class of 2019 welcomed faculty, students and staff to the annual International Party to share food, music and dance performances from around the world.

Last spring, Thomas Wolfe '19 shared his experience working on issues of water contamination in the Mississsippi Delta with the Mississippi Delta Project, an HLS Student Practice Organization that provides policy and legal services to clients in one of the poorest regions in the poorest state in the U.S.

The Harvard Law Review has elected Lauren Beck ’20 as its 133rd president. Beck succeeds Michael Thomas ’19.

Frantic phone calls from family and friends facing life-altering legal challenges were Felipe Hernandez' primary motivation for leaving a career in the non-profit world to attend Harvard Law School, and they continue to fuel his involvement in clinics and student practice organizations at HLS, as he hones the skills he needs to keep answering them.

I joined the Prison Legal Assistance Project (PLAP) the fall of my 1L year at a time when I knew very little about the criminal justice system. I knew, however, that PLAP provided important services to prisoners in Massachusetts, including representing them in disciplinary hearings and in their bids for parole.

For Jameyanne Fuller ’19, outer space represents infinite possibilities. “I’ve always been an astronomy nerd,” she says. “I went to space camp in third grade, and I took all of the space-focused classes I could in college, but the technology wasn’t really there for me to be a science major.”

The notice came in a white envelope, hand-delivered by a staffer at the project-based Section 8 development that my elderly grandparents lived in. From the outside, it looked like it could be a notice that they received on a weekly basis. However, this was a “Notice to Cease.” From what my immigrant Chinese family could tell, it meant eviction.

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.

A plan designed by a team of Harvard University students to create a reliable source of renewable, affordable electricity for a Puerto Rican community hammered in 2017 by Hurricane Maria has moved a step closer to reality. The students are enrolled in Professor Wendy Jacobs' Harvard’s “Climate Solutions Living Lab” course.

There are many things in common between Connor Veneski and Chance Fletcher, two students from Yuma, Ariz., and Oologah, Okla, respectively. They both grew up in small towns in rural America. They were both raised by working-class parents. They both have Native American ancestry. And they both ended up at Harvard Law School.

Practitioners, technologists and innovators from across the legal spectrum came together for a series of discussions on the impact of ever-changing modern technologies on today’s practice of law at the 2018 Harvard Legal Technology Symposium.

On a March evening, Michael Thomas Jr. gave a tour of Gannett House to his dad and two brothers, who were visiting to see where Barack Obama first made headlines as the first black leader of the Harvard Law Review. But they were also there to celebrate Thomas, who had recently been elected the journal’s third African-American president.

Andrew Leon Hanna ’19 recently won the 2018 Bracken Bower Prize from the Financial Times and McKinsey & Company for the best book proposal about emerging businesses from someone 35 or under. Hanna’s book proposal, “25 Million Sparks”, aims to celebrate refugee entrepreneurs.

Bryce Burgwyn ’21 had one firm conviction at the beginning of her college search—she would not follow her older sister to the Coast Guard Academy (USCGA). Of course, that was before she went to the USCGA campus for a weeklong visit with her sibling.

Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States Sonia Sotomayor was at Harvard Law School on Nov. 13 to hear finalists in the 2018 Ames Moot Court Competition.

In October, Harvard Law School's Mock Trial Team won first place at the 2018 Lone Star Classic, an annual invitational mock trial tournament hosted by St. Mary's University School of Law, in San Antonio, Texas.

The service and unique perspective of the veterans currently enrolled at Harvard Law School enrich the entire HLS community, elevating awareness about the legal and policy issues affecting veterans and the significance of law in contemporary warfare; three military veterans in this year’s entering class shared their experiences in the military and at HLS.

Eve L. Howe ’21 is an expert in nuclear submarines -- specifically, the fluid systems that cool the nuclear reactors in military submarines. Drawn to military service because she wanted to use her engineering skills for public service, Howe spent five years as an officer in the U.S. Navy, where she solved complex technical problems to ensure the submarines would be able to accomplish their missions.