Student Spotlights

“What counts as ‘income’ for taxes?” “Will paying taxes affect the public assistance I receive?” “Will I lose my veterans disability benefits if I make too much money?” These are some of the questions street vendors of Spare Change News grapple with—questions students of Harvard Law’s Community Enterprise Project aim to answer.

Rep. Joseph P. Kennedy III ’09, who got his start in civil legal aid as a student attorney at HLAB representing tenants in evictions, reflects on how his time as HLAB influenced his advocacy in the legislature, and why it is of utmost importance to safeguard access to counsel for those who cannot afford it.

A team of Harvard Law students won the North American regional competition at the European Law Students Association (ELSA) Moot Court Competition on WTO Law. The team will advance to the final round at the WTO Headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland later this spring.

Last week, the Animal Law & Policy Program (ALPP) at Harvard Law School partnered with the HLS Student Animal Legal Defense Fund (SALDF) to organize the third annual “Student Animal Law Trip to Washington D.C.”

Now in its second year, the Harvard Law School Public Interest Scavenger Hunt continued its focus on HLS history and trivia, but also highlighted alumni who have done important public interest work.

Sarah Grant ’19 is one of 12 law students and early-career attorneys chosen for the 2018 Law Program of the Fellowships at Auschwitz for the Study of Professional Ethics to participate in a two-week program in Germany and Poland this summer, which uses the conduct of lawyers and judges in Nazi-occupied Europe as a way to reflect on ethics in the legal profession today.

From Feb. 9 to April 14, the Harvard Law School student-run organization Harvard TaxHelp is leading the University’s branch of the IRS's Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) program at the Cambridge library.

After Hurricane Maria roared over Puerto Rico in 2017, Puerto Rican native Natalie Trigo Reyes ’19 felt “completely overwhelmed.” Within days, however, she raised $40,000 for relief efforts, collected truckloads of emergency goods, and helped plan the school’s response to the disaster.

A group of 29 Harvard Law School students (led by Natalie Trigo Reyes ’19) traveled to Puerto Rico over spring break to lend a hand to local residents who are still struggling to obtain disaster relief aid.

Each year, teams of Harvard Law School students are given the opportunity to spend their Spring Break experiencing legal services work with clinics and legal organizations in the Boston area, or working on projects around the country and abroad.

In February, five students from Harvard Law School were selected to join their peers from 10 other leading U.S. law schools in Washington, D.C. to explore the future of public and private international law at the sixth annual Salzburg Cutler Fellows Program.

On March 3,  the Harvard Law School LL.M. Class of 2018 welcomed faculty, students and staff to the annual International Party in Wasserstein Hall to share international food and drink, cultural displays, and music and dance performances from around the world.

In 2018, ten Harvard Law School students were selected as Cravath International Fellows. During Winter Term, they traveled to nine countries to pursue clinical placements or independent research with an international, transnational, or comparative law focus. Here, four of them describe their experiences.

The Harvard Law School Drama Society showcased the 2018 Harvard Law School Parody in February. This year's parody, "Lord of the Deans: Return of the Rankings," featured Frodo and the rest of the fellowship as they journeyed to destroy the evil of the Ames plaque.

The Harvard Law School trial team of Rahul Garabadu ’19 and Marilyn Robb ’18 won first place at the Northeast Regional Qualifiers of the National Trial Competition, sponsored annually by the American College of Trial Lawyers and the Texas Young Lawyers Association.

The Harvard Asian Pacific American Law Students Association (APALSA) performed “Heart Mountain: Conscience, Loyalty and the Constitution” on Feb. 3, an acclaimed reenactment of the trials and the events surrounding the internment and drafting of Japanese-Americans during the Second World War.

The Harvard Association for Law and Business (HALB) hosted Kim Koopersmith, chairperson of Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld, and Jami Wintz McKeon, chair of Morgan Lewis & Bockius, as a feature event in HALB’s inaugural Women's Leadership Speaker Series.

The Harvard Law Review has elected Michael Thomas ’19 as its 132nd president. Thomas succeeds ImeIme Umana ’18.

In December, Amy Feinberg ’18 became the second Federal Tax Clinic student to argue an appeal in a federal circuit court since the Clinic opened at Legal Services Center of Harvard Law School in 2015.

With Evisort, a powerful new search engine that harnesses cloud storage and artificial intelligence, four HLS students hope to revolutionize the costly and labor-intensive way that lawyers currently handle contracts and other transactional work, liberating them for more creative and interesting tasks.

This year, Jon Hanson challenged his torts students to create short documentaries about how tort law might apply to social issues and problems on the edge of the law’s reach. This challenge culminated in the inaugural Torty Awards--a screening and ceremony celebrating their inventive films on climate change, driverless cars, and the Flint water crisis.