Clinical Professor Esme Caramello ’99, faculty director of the Harvard Legal Aid Bureau, was selected as one of the 2018 Top Women of Law by Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly. The award ceremony, held on Oct. 18, honored “legal educators, trailblazers, and role models who have demonstrated outstanding accomplishments in social justice advocacy and business, while also serving as role models for young female attorneys.”
Several HLS alumnae were among the Top Women of Law honorees. Honorees were selected by a panel comprised of members of the legal community and representatives of Lawyers Weekly.
Caramello joined the Harvard Legal Aid Bureau in 2009 as deputy director and clinical instructor after having worked in the Housing Unit at Legal Services Center of Harvard Law School and at Suffolk University Law School’s Housing Clinic. As a clinical instructor at HLS’s Legal Services Center, she worked with students to help protect the rights of low-income tenants and homeowners. She co-wrote “Tenants Facing Foreclosure,” a tenants’ rights guide to help people in Massachusetts who were facing eviction after foreclosure. In 2014, she was appointed to clinical professor of law by Dean Martha Minow and shortly thereafter became the faculty director at HLAB.
Recently appointed to the Access to Justice Commission, she is an active
member of the group’s Access to Attorneys Committee, volunteers regularly at the Boston Bar Association’s Lawyer for the Day program at Boston Housing Court, and co-chairs a housing working group under the SJC’s 2017 Justice for All grant.
A trustee of the Boston Bar Foundation, Caramello has been a member of the BBF’s
Grants Committee since 2005 and also sits on the Cambridge City Manager’s Advisory Committee. She helped to found Harvard Law School’s “Developing Justice” project, an initiative using technology to close the justice gap
Among the 50 women who were named 2018 Top Lawyers were several HLS alumnae and a former HLS visiting lecturer:
Laura Hodges Taylor ’82, a partner in Goodwin Procter’s Financial Industry and FinTech practices and co-leader of the Impact and Responsible Investing practice.
Rebecca Jacobstein ’01, an attorney with the Committee for Public Counsel Services, the state’s public defender agency.
Anita S. Lichtblau ’84, a partner at Casner & Edwards’ Nonprofit Practice Group, advises nonprofit organizations on wide variety of legal issues, including formation of organizations and application for tax-exempt status.
Former Islamic Legal Studies Program Visiting Fellow Hauwa Ibrahim, a Nigerian human rights lawyer who defended people condemned under the Shari’a laws in force in the northern Nigerian provinces, was also named a 2018 Top Lawyer. Ibrahim was a visiting lecturer on Women’s Studies and Islamic Law at Harvard Divinity School, and a fellow at both the Human Rights Program and the Islamic Legal Studies Program at Harvard Law School.
Lisa G. Arrowood ’82, founding partner of Arrowood LLP, was one of five Circle of Excellence recipients honored by Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly. Arrowood, who has more than 30 years’ experience practicing law in the areas of business litigation, employment disputes, medical malpractice, personal injury and legal malpractice, was previously a founding partner of Todd & Weld.
For more information, visit the Clinical and Pro Bono Programs blog.