During Commencement on May 24, Dean Martha Minow congratulated the Harvard Law School Class of 2012 on all that they accomplished while at HLS. Minow urged graduates in their future careers not only to take problems apart and work to persuade others, but also to celebrate and extend their role as designers.
She cited a range of examples of the positive impact of redesign: from the redesign of the food pyramid to the food plate; to Chief Justice Warren Burger’s reconfiguring the Court’s judicial bench, from a straight row to curved bench, to allow justices to see each other and communicate better; to the work of students in the cyber law clinic who created a user-friendly website explaining the court process for an access to justice project with the courts. Thinking about things differently allows for alternative ways to solve problems, said Minow.
“As you design options, rules, for clients, for the public, you design your career, your priorities. I have hope for our world because you will design solutions to local, national, international challenges; you design our future worlds.”