Student Spotlights

Drawing inspiration from his time at HLS, Kelly Kapianga LL.M. ’20, who founded a nonprofit to provide legal services to juveniles, aims to combat corruption in Zambia.

A physician-researcher, Machteld van Egmond LL.M. ’20 explored the intersections among empirical science, law, and medicine during her LL.M. year at Harvard Law School.

With the aim of advocating for refugees, Niku Jafarnia J.D. / M.P.P.’20 focused on the intersection of refugee rights, armed conflict, and counterterrorism as joint law and public policy student at Harvard.

Lyla Wasz-Piper ’20 and Kennedi Williams-Libert ’20 have received the 2020 Outstanding Clinical Student Team Award from the Clinical Legal Education Association, recognized for their unique partnership and exemplary teamwork during their time as student attorneys at the Criminal Justice Institute.

The Office of Clinical Pro Bono recognizes Class of 2020 clinical students who have exemplified a pro bono public spirit and demonstrated an extraordinary commitment to delivering high-quality legal services.

Jeremy Ravinsky ’20, this year’s recipient of the Andrew L. Kaufman Pro Bono Award, was recognized for providing more than 2,000 hours of pro bono services with the Tenant Advocacy Project and Project No One Leaves.

Sejal Singh ’20 is the recipient of the David Grossman Exemplary Clinical Student Award. She was recognized for her work on the Project on Predatory Student Lending, as well as her exemplary contributions to public-interest endeavors.

As the 133rd president of the Harvard Law Review, Lauren Beck ’20 has focused on making the journal more inclusive and accessible.

Members of the Class of 2020 reflect on their interests and share experiences they will take from their time at Harvard Law.

Dylan Asafo LL.M. ’20 plans to use his HLS education to help address the inequalities facing communities of color in New Zealand and the wider Pacific region.

Deftly adapting to a shift in both venue and format, and applying skills from their J-Term negotiation workshop, Harvard Law 1L students Adira E. Levine, Noopur Sen, and Adam J. Toobin were able to negotiate their way to victory in The Negotiation Challenge—an international contest drawing competitors from around the world.

Student fellows at the Petrie-Flom Center for Health Law Policy, Biotechnology, and Bioethics recently celebrated their fellowships’ end virtually when their capstone meeting moved to Zoom due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Born and raised in Nepal, Sabrina Singh ’20 has been speaking out about how the COVID-19 pandemic could exacerbate conditions in her home country.

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.

HLS students reflect on their first week of online classes.

Harvard Law School Professor Emily Broad Leib ’08, director of the HLS Food Law and Policy Clinic, and her students have been working furiously to ensure that the most vulnerable—and ultimately the rest of us—are fed during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Harvard’s Animal Law & Policy Program filed its first Supreme Court brief challenging the Trump administration’s waiver of laws regarding the U.S.-Mexico border wall construction. Ashley Maiolatesi ’20 recently corresponded with Harvard Law Today about what is at stake, the specific ramifications of these waivers, and her own personal connection to the project.

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.

Patients are often subjected to nonconsensual procedures and other mistreatment during the birthing process; Alexa Richardson, a student fellow at the Petrie-Flom Center for Health Law Policy, Biotechnology and Bioethics at Harvard Law School, is working to bring this situation to light.

For the fourth consecutive year, the Asian Pacific American Law Students Association (APALSA) welcomed the Honorable Judge Denny Chin of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit for a reenactment of a key trial that shaped Asian American history.

On Feb. 15, Harvard Law School LL.M. Class of 2020 celebrated the annual International Party in Wasserstein Hall.

HLS students traveled to 25 countries over winter term with the support of the Winter Term International Travel Grant Program.

The Harvard Law Review has elected Michaeljit Sandhu ’21 as its 134th president. Sandhu succeeds Lauren Beck ’20.

An organization started by Harvard Law students offers community and resources for low-income and first-generation college students at the school.

A night of glamour at HLS to celebrate student films on tort law and justice.

As a member of Harvard Law School’s International Human Rights Clinic, Madelyn Petersen '19 and several other students traveled to northwest Iowa to study how the federal government’s plan to potentially privatize the U.S. Postal Service might affect the small, largely rural communities there.

Ben Miller-Gootnick ’21 wins the Gellhorn-Sargentich Law Student Essay Competition.

Two teams of 3Ls competed for the coveted recognition of their advocacy skills in the final round of the 2019 Ames Moot Court Competition on November 12 at Harvard Law School.

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.

Four of the 26 current and former members of the U.S. armed forces in this year’s entering class at Harvard Law School share their experiences in the military and at HLS.

With a lifelong commitment to helping people in need, especially those in impoverished countries, Brandon Ricaurte joined the U.S. Army to become a Special Forces soldier, whose mission is to fight for those who cannot fight for themselves.

Born in Madrid, Spain, to heroin-addicted parents who neglected and abused her, and as a teenage immigrant who spoke no English when she arrived in Texas in the late 1990s, Ivanka Canzius ’22, a U.S. Army veteran, has walked a long and rocky path to Harvard Law School.

As a U.S. Air Force Nuclear and Missile Operations officer, Riley Vann was one of 90 missileers whose job it was to ensure that U.S. nuclear weapons are ready to launch on command. The experience taught her how to cope—and maintain leadership—under pressure.

U.S. Navy Lt. Cmdr Anthony P. “Tony” Sham LL.M. ’20 has served in Afghanistan as a legal adviser to American military leaders and at the Pentagon as a deputy executive assistant to the Judge Advocate General of the Navy.

In a series of profiles, Harvard Law Today highlights the experiences of three of the 17 Harvard Law School students who traveled the globe as Chayes International Public Service Fellows in 2019.

S.J.D. Candidate Eric Gitari describes his work this summer monitoring the status of human rights for LGBTIQ persons in Gambia and Senegal.

With the help of Harvard Law School's Transactional Law Clinics, Democracy Brewing has become the first brewery in Massachusetts to launch as a worker-owned business.

As new Harvard Law students settle into life on campus, we feature highlights from the beginning of the academic year.

On August 19, Harvard Law School’s Graduate Program officially welcomed the LL.M. Class of 2020 to campus, along with eight new S.J.D. candidates and 10 international students from six of the law school’s exchange partner schools.

As new HLS students begin to move in this weekend for orientation next week, we take a look at how some past students began their lives at Harvard Law School.

Alyssa Bernstein ’19 recounts her experience working for the Office of the Federal Public Defender for the District of Columbia.

On Thursday, May 30, the Harvard Law School Class of 2019 received their diplomas and celebrated their graduation with family and friends.

Harvard Law School looks back in pictures on the 2018-19, from orientation through commencement, as we congratulate our graduates. 

Most law school graduates look forward to seeing their mothers and favorite professors at their commencement ceremonies. Very few see their 4th grade teachers or the mothers of their professors cheering them on as they receive their diplomas. Michael Donohue is the exception.

The Class of 2019 celebrated Class Day with friends and family, faculty and staff, and special guests on Harvard Law School's Holmes Field.

A number of Harvard Law students from the Class of 2019 received special awards during the Class Day ceremony on May 29. They were recognized for outstanding leadership, citizenship, compassion and dedication to their studies and the profession.

Nancy Pinn, director of administration and student affairs in the Graduate Program, received the Suzanne L. Richardson Staff Appreciation Award during Harvard Law School’s Class Day exercises on Wednesday, May 29. 

Asseret Frausto ’19 is the winner of the Outstanding Clinical Student Award from the Clinical Legal Education Association (CLEA). The award is presented annually to one student from each law school for outstanding clinical coursework and contributions to the clinical community.

Logan Leslie JD/MBA ’19 loved military service and planned to spend his lifetime in it. But a growing family—along with the ‘heartbreaking’ poverty and failed institutions he witnessed in Afghanistan—spurred him to serve in a different way.

Emanuel Powell ’19 is the winner of this year’s Gary Bellow Public Service Award, established in 2001 to honor Professor Gary Bellow ’60, his commitment to public service, and his innovative approach to the analysis and practice of law.