Student Spotlights

As part of the Asian Pacific American Law Students Association’s (APALSA) annual conference, “Soft Power Hard Knockout: The Asian American Punch,” on Feb. 4, Harvard Law School presented a reenactment of the Vincent Chin trial, written by Judge Denny Chin of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit.

Influenced by the six years he spent herding goats as a child in the Rio Grande Valley, Harvard Law 1L Sam Garcia has written “How a Goat Was Elected Mayor and the Political Spring That Followed,” a book that explores untold or rarely-heard stories behind upset elections.

On Feb. 11., the Harvard Law School (HLS) LL.M. class of 2017 welcomed faculty, students and staff to the annual International Party in Wasserstein Hall.

On the morning of Jan. 9, Dayne Lee ’17, a student practitioner with the Harvard Legal Aid Bureau, slipped into a suit after three sleepless nights leading up to his major argument before the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, in a case pitting federally controlled mortgage giant Fannie Mae against homeowner Elvitria Marroquin – a Lynn, Mass. homeowner who has been fighting foreclosure since 2008.

Two Harvard Law School teams competed at the 13th annual Williams Institute Moot Court Competition at the University of California Los Angeles School of Law earlier this month. The event, which featured 30 teams from law schools nationwide, is the only national competition dedicated exclusively to the areas of sexual orientation and gender identity law.

In early February, Harvard Law School hosted the New England Regional of the National Trial Competition, the largest law school trial advocacy competition in the country.

Since being selected last spring, Harvard Law School's 2016 Public Service Venture Fund seed grant recipients have begun work on projects ranging from environmental litigation and advocacy to transgender healthcare and identity issues.

Students, faculty, and guests entering Harvard Law School's Wasserstein’s ground-floor lounge on election evening were greeted by two large sheet cakes decked out with red, white, and blue balloons, along with stars made of frosting.

HLS students Tony Garofano LL.M. ’17 and Sarah Grant ’19 spoke with writers for Harvard Law Today about their experiences serving in the military and studying at Harvard Law.

At 96 years old, the Hon. John Paul Stevens, Associate Justice (Ret.) Supreme Court of the United States, returned to the bench to preside over the final round of Harvard Law School’s 2016 Ames Moot Court Competition.

In the summer of 2016, 19 students traveled to 13 countries through the Chayes International Public Service Fellowship Program. Chayes Fellows spend eight weeks working within the governments of developing nations, or with the inter-governmental and non-governmental organizations that support them.

Since 2001, a select group of Harvard Law School students have undertaken public service internships under the auspices of the Chayes International Public Service Fellowship. Chayes Fellows spend eight weeks working within the governments of developing nations, or with the inter-governmental and non-governmental organizations that support them.

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.

Last spring, the Criminal Justice Policy Program developed an initiative to provide representation to incarcerated people petitioning President Obama for clemency. Twenty-six Harvard Law students volunteered to work with a team of pro bono attorneys to represent clemency petitioners, in what has become the largest law student-based clemency initiative in the country.

Orientation for new students in the J.D., LL.M. and S.J.D. programs wrapped up last week. They were kept busy with ice cream socials, campus tours, lawn games, a visit from Judge Merrick Garland and section photos, capped off with a welcome by Dean Martha Minow in Sanders Theatre.

It took Pedro Spivakovsky-Gonzalez several years and nearly 10,000 miles, on a journey that included several cities around the world, to find his calling in his hometown.

Every year, the American Bar Association presents the Law School Newspaper Award to the best student-run newspaper organization at an ABA-approved law school. This year, The Harvard Law Record was honored to receive this coveted award.

Chayes Fellow Michael Jung ’18 recently wrote about his experience working with UNICEF in Bangkok, Thailand, researching and gaining an overview of the current and future landscape of juvenile justice in the region.

In a recent post on the HLS International Legal Studies Program blog, Malik Ladhani, a rising 2L at HLS with an interest in refugee protection and asylum advocacy, recounted his summer working for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in Amman, Jordan, assisting in UNHCR’s response to the Syrian refugee crisis.

Harvard Law 3Ls Andrea Clay and Sam Koplewicz are two of the student filmmakers with the Harvard Law Documentary Studio ('Doc Studio'), a student organization that aims to produce original documentaries that explore social and policy issues.

Early in the spring, first-year Harvard Law School students Chloe Goodwin, Nora Ellingsen, and Josh Looney jumped at the opportunity to volunteer with a national organization to help felons get a second shot at life: Clemency Project 2014, a coalition that supports petitions by nonviolent drug offenders for executive clemency.