While studying for final exams this year, James Morrison ’26 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.”
Morrison came into law school with a strong sense of community, having dealt with the isolation of the COVID pandemic during his last two years as an undergrad. His community-building efforts at the law school have earned him this year’s Frank S. Righeimer Jr. Prize for Student Citizenship.
“As an undergraduate, I lost a lot of the opportunity to be involved in student organizations, to have leadership and to give back to the community. So I made a pretty intentional decision to be involved in a lot of student organizations. I’m also the first in my family to go to college; my parents sacrificed a lot and I have benefited from mentorship. So I wanted to give that back and have a pay-it-forward mentality.”
He is president of the Harvard Plaintiffs’ Law Association, and the student attorney and president of the Tenant Advocacy Project. The latter has represented tenants in public housing and worked to seal evictions in Massachusetts, keeping tenants from being locked out of new leases due to previous evictions.
His interests outside of law range from backpacking and rock climbing to homemade ice cream. He’s also a musical theater enthusiast, and for a time that’s where he saw his career going. “I had the vision that I was going to be an actor on Broadway. I haven’t always wanted to be a lawyer.”
One turning point came in an undergraduate economics class at Johns Hopkins University. “That really shaped a lot of my trajectory. It made me think more about the inequalities in the workforce and the economy.”
“I’m the first in my family to go to college; my parents sacrificed a lot and I have benefited from mentorship. So I wanted to give that back and have a pay-it-forward mentality.”
Around this time, he also learned that his parents had been taken advantage of financially. “They were the victims of a predatory lending scheme. They had shielded that information from me until I was an undergraduate. And that was a wake-up moment for me, when I shifted toward wanting to go to law school. I thought I could make sure those things don’t happen to people in the future.”
That led to his focus on plaintiffs’ law, representing individuals against more powerful interests, and his involvement in a number of related Harvard Law organizations. He also has mentored students who are interested in that field.
“I think plaintiffs’ law is becoming more mainstream, but a lot of people don’t know it’s available to them. So I’d say that during … second year I was doing two coffee chats a week with 1L’s who were on the job hunt. And maybe they’ll come up to me later and say ‘Hey, I got that job.’”
Along with frequently leading tours and managing his other activities, he has served as academic chair for LAMBDA, the LGBTQ+ law students’ association, and as a member of the First Class group of first-generation students. “There were also some organizations that were a surprise to me, like being part of the Civil Rights-Civil Liberties Law Review. I wasn’t expecting to be part of a journal, but I made some really good friends through that.”
After graduation, he will join Hausfeld, where he was a summer associate last year. He will be based in the firm’s New York City office.
“I’m excited to continue the work I was doing at the firm last year. I was very interested in cases that were using the antitrust laws in new ways .”
He also plans to advise the Plaintiffs’ Law Association as an alum. As he looks to the future, he says that “My vision is to always be on the plaintiff’s side. That’s where I want to use my skills.”
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