Miljana Bigović
Miljana Bigović wasn’t supposed to graduate this year.
Bigović, a managing associate at a leading law firm in Sweden, first arrived at Harvard Law School in 2024, thrilled to begin her Master of Laws program. But just hours after she landed in Boston, Bigović was in a hospital bed, preparing for emergency surgery. Doctors had discovered a cyst on her brain — present since birth but undetected until then — and told her she needed immediate treatment to survive.
Fortunately, the operation was a success, and Bigović recovered — but Harvard would have to wait. “I had to defer the year, but it also gave me access to treatment I might not otherwise have received,” she says.
Zane Daniels
Transfer students at Harvard Law School have had a friend in graduating student Zane Daniels, who has worked tirelessly to make the campus a more welcoming one for them. His community-building efforts have earned him this year’s Yvonne L. Smith Award, which recognizes a student showing an exemplary dedication to supporting others. The award is named for the much-loved administrator of the Board of Student Advisers, who retired in 2023 after 46 years at the law school.
Tabitha Escalante
As executive director of both Harvard Defenders and Harvard Prison Legal Assistance Project this year, Tabitha Escalante has been honored with the Ralph D. Gants Access to Justice Award, for her outstanding dedication to advocating for those involved in the criminal legal system. “I can think of no greater job in the world than to look for the very best in people each day, and to extend grace, care, and compassion in the face of a system bent on denying it.”
Ben Guzman
Micael Ben Guzman is the recipient of this year’s Andrew L. Kaufman Pro Bono Service Award, granted in honor of Professor Andrew Kaufman ’54 who spearheaded creation of the Pro Bono Program at Harvard Law School. During law school, Guzman contributed more than 2,100 pro bono hours, a number that represents countless conversations supporting clients, late night case work, and advocacy efforts for housing and immigrant justice. “These experiences affirmed my commitment to public interest work and taught me the necessary skills to be a successful public interest attorney.”
Reo Hayashizaki
He suffered greatly, but Reo Hayashizaki considers himself lucky.
After a 2016 car crash in his home state of Oklahoma left him with a severe spinal cord injury, Hayashizaki spent months in a hospital and rehab facility recovering and learning how to live life from an electric wheelchair. He also watched as young patients around him tried to heal without the daily love and support he received from his family, and he decided to do something about that.
“I realized I’m the lucky one here,” said Hayashizaki who graduates this month with a J.D., a master’s degree from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, and a plan for a career focused on health care reform. “I took a forward-looking purpose to the suffering. … I realized everything happens for a reason, and I had to define this purpose for myself, because otherwise, the suffering would have been for nothing.”
Patrick Healy
While at Harvard Law School, Patrick Healy has been an admissions fellow, a student government representative, a journal editor, a student practice organization board member, a social planner for his law school section, a college teaching fellow, and a pre-law mentor. For those and other roles, he is the recipient of the inaugural Dean’s Community Impact Award, which celebrates a student who has fostered connection or has meaningfully improved relationships within the student body.
Jordan Hoogsteden
Jordan Hoogsteden has a philosophy that underlines his studies at Harvard Law School and his work as a public defender. For him, “The name of the game is harm reduction.”
“In a system that is really hellbent on denying people their humanity, we are doing the utmost to recenter the story,” he said, and his motivations go beyond law. “This work is really built on the strong belief that there is a light inside everyone and that, despite the horrors, humanity will persist. That’s the crux of what public defense comes down to.”
Felipe Lobo Koerich
Felipe Lobo Koerich ’26 knows what it’s like to join a new community — he’s done it many times before.
After spending his early years in Brazil, Lobo Koerich’s family moved to the Netherlands when he was around seven years old, then to the United States when he was 12. In the U.S., he has lived in Houston, New Orleans, and Washington, D.C., before moving to Cambridge three years ago.
“My background has been a lot of moving around and adjusting to new communities and contexts, and meeting people across very different backgrounds and experiences,” he says.
Perhaps that is why Lobo Koerich has prioritized building relationships — and welcoming others — wherever he goes. Especially at Harvard Law School.
Cordy McJunkins
Cordy McJunkins received the CLEA Outstanding Clinical Student Award for his transformative contributions to the Youth Advocacy & Policy Lab, or Y-Lab. Across four semesters in the Education Law Clinics, McJunkins was guided by a single conviction: that young people most affected by these systems belong not at the margins of advocacy, but at its center.
“This award reaffirms a core value of mine,” McJunkins reflected. “Growing up, I experienced firsthand how youth-facing systems can fail the children they’re meant to serve — spending over two years navigating a foster care process that was anything but smooth, and then sitting in classrooms where teachers and counselors looked past me and told me, in so many ways, that I wasn’t the right fit for advanced coursework. I often wondered whether those experiences had any place in legal practice. Law school is doctrinal by design, and it can quietly signal that what you lived before you arrived doesn’t belong in the room. But I brought my story into every space I occupied anyway, and receiving this award tells me that it isn’t just welcomed, it’s needed.”
James Morrison
While studying for final exams this year, James Morrison found a novel way to reduce stress. He led a tour of the Harvard Law campus, something he had done many times and enjoyed.
“It was really bittersweet to do my last one on the last day of class,” he said. “For these people, it’s the start of their journey, and for me it’s the end. But it was a great way to reflect on everything I’ve been able to do here. And it made me grateful that I’ve made a lot of lifelong friends and have some really good memories.”
Wesley Streicher
Wesley Streicher received the CLEA Outstanding Clinical Externship Student Award for her unwavering commitment to advocating for the dignity and humanity of clients navigating the margins of the legal system in the Child Advocacy Clinic and the Capital Punishment Clinic.
Streicher came to Harvard Law after working in the juvenile division of the Miami-Dade Public Defender’s Office, where she says she began to see how early and often young people can encounter the criminal legal system. “Since then, I’ve tried to build on that perspective and learn how to be a better advocate through my pro bono work. Each experience has taught me different aspects of advocacy — from working directly with clients navigating high-stakes school discipline proceedings to engaging in more systemic, impact-oriented litigation work.”
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Jett Watson
Coming to Harvard Law after serving in the U.S. Navy, Jett Watson felt called to join the veterans clinic during his second year of law school. The clinic is composed of three distinct areas serving veterans in various capacities: veterans justice, estate planning and safety net. While most clinic students decide to focus on just one area, Watson was the first student in the clinic to work across all three, requiring him to get up to speed quickly on a wide array of legal matters serving all manner of clients.