Tucked under the entrance of the newly renovated Reginald F. Lewis Law Center building on the Harvard Law School campus stands a marble bench inscribed with the words:
“On January 17, 1985, not far from this spot, two people met and fell in love.”
The bench serves as an enduring testament and a concrete reminder that the law school experience can be transformative in ways not imagined by what’s outlined in the core curriculum. For many, the law school experience shapes not just minds and professional careers, but relationships and futures. Here a few alums share — in words and pictures — their Harvard Law love story.
Robert Farnham ’25 and Caroline Kurani ’25
“Caroline and I met the first day of orientation our 1L year. Funnily enough, we were both from Charlotte, NC. Even more of a coincidence, is that we had never met before (despite sharing mutual connections). But, we did have another thing in common: we shared the same dentist growing up. He had separately mentioned to both of us that he knew another person going to HLS, and both Caroline and I thought ‘the odds I ever meet this other person in a 560 person class are miniscule.’ But, when we showed up to orientation, walking up the stairs in the WCC, I struck up a conversation with her. And the rest is history. We got married in May and now both work at firms in Boston. We’re both very thankful for HLS bringing us together, over 720 miles from where we both grew up.”
Jim Lytle ’78 and Lisa (Allen) Lytle
“We met at a party for my section mates at a function room between the Gropius dorms on February 6, 1976. We met up for brunch two days later and have been together ever since. We were married two years later, just before my graduation in 1978. Her M.B.A. program at Columbia and the Manhattan DA’s office brought us to NYC — and then several jobs, three cities, three children and four grandchildren later, we’ve returned to Boston. We’ll be celebrating the 50th anniversary of our meeting at a Cambridge restaurant not far from the HLS campus.”
Iqra Saleem Khan LL.M. ’21 and Dimitar Grozdanov LL.M. ’22
“We met in front of Hastings Hall at Harvard Law School in August 2021. We technically belonged to the same LL.M. class and had already ‘met’ virtually on Zoom during Fall 2020, but Dimitar deferred his on-campus semester until Fall 2021. I completed my LL.M. entirely online in Spring 2021 and returned to Cambridge that fall as an S.J.D. candidate. On my very first day walking around campus, I saw him standing in the Hastings courtyard. We re-introduced ourselves. He struggled to remember who I was. I was mildly offended. After that, I found excuses to talk to him. I once asked him to help me move a mini-fridge into my dorm in Dane Hall (Gropius), a task I was perfectly capable of doing myself. Our first ‘official’ date was at Langone Park in the North End, where we brought some bubbly and watched the Boston skyline together. Since he also lived on campus (Hastings Hall), our lives started to become more and more intertwined. We went to free-food lunch events together (shout-out to Bible Reading on Wednesdays for the Panera sandwiches and cookies, and to SALSA for consistently great food). We kayaked on the Charles, visited museums across the city, including the glass flowers that then-Dean Manning loved to mention at every event, and spent long afternoons on the grounds of the Harvard Museum of Natural History next to Gropius, where a group of LL.M. friends would gather for food, music, and good banter. After Dimitar graduated, he moved to NYC for his BigLaw job while I stayed in Cambridge. We spent the next two years doing long-distance Boston–NYC, trading weekends between the two cities. On October 21, 2023, on a rainy evening, we got engaged in front of Hastings Hall. Dimitar told me we were going to dinner with Professor Holger Spamann, a dinner I had not, in fact, agreed to, but I begrudgingly went along. On the way to the ‘restaurant,’ he stopped on the same patch of pavement where we had first met, turned to me in the rain, and proposed.”
Ana Worthington ’26 and Jack Lucas ’25
“Jack and Ana met at Harvard Law School in the Spring of 2024 (she was a 1L, and he was a 2L). But, they have two different stories about how we met! If you ask Ana, she’ll tell you they sat next to one another at a local church in March of 2024. Soon after, Jack asked her to get dinner in Harvard Square. If you ask Jack, he’ll tell you he first saw Ana in October of 2023 at a law school lunch talk. Jack asked a mutual friend for Ana’s name, and then responded to the friend that he’d found his wife. Jack kept an eye out for Ana over the next few months, but their opposite schedules kept them apart until March. Then, in God’s perfect timing, they sat in the same row at church. Jack proposed in May, and they are getting married this September! After, they’ll move to DC and start their life and careers together.”
Mia Gettenberg ’21 and Virginia Wright Gettenberg ’21
“My now-wife and I met on ‘day zero’ of 1L: the first day of orientation in 2018! She was hanging out with her roommates on the lawn and looking so relaxed despite the new-school jitters. I went up to them and asked, ‘Can I sit with y’all? You look like you’re having more fun than I am.’ The rest was history; we’ve been best friends — and then more — ever since. After graduating from HLS in 2021, we moved to her hometown of Birmingham, Alabama, to start our lives and careers together. Fast forward nearly five years, and we couldn’t imagine being anywhere else. I love it here; we have such an awesome community of friends, family, and even coworkers. We got married here in Birmingham in January of 2025. Thanks for introducing us, HLS.”
Stanley Keller ’62 and Sandra Freshman Keller
“It was Mar. 4, 1960, my first year at the Law School, and there was a big snowstorm, with classes cancelled perhaps for the first time in the school’s history (but Roscoe Pound made it into his office in the Garrett at the top of Langdell). Some of the boys in the Gropius dorms were out on Everett St. throwing snowballs, especially at Lesley girls, so I joined. I saw this cute dark hair girl walking toward the Lesley dorm and threw a snowball at her — but missed, and she disappeared in the dorm ‘never to be seen again.’ The Lesley girls were taunting the boys from the dorm down the street, so I walked down, packed a snowball and fired it (I pitched in college) and broke a picture window in the Lesley dorm. I went into Lesley with a few of my classmates to confess (it cost us $45, with each paying about $5), when someone said, ‘Let’s have a cocoa party.’ My friend, Dean, who was going with a Lesley girl (who he later married), said he would host in his dorm room if his girlfriend would invite some of her classmates, which she did. At the appointed time a bit later, I walked into Dean’s room and there sitting on the sofa on the other side of the room was that cute dark hair girl I had missed with the snowball, never to be seen again, and I made a beeline over to her. The rest is history, as we were married nine-months later (Dec. 25, 1960) and have been happily married for 65 years and counting (with one granddaughter having graduated from the Law School and one grandson in his first year (living in the same apartment building Sandy and I lived in). Thanks Harvard Law School!”
Michael Solow ’84 and Dale Solow
“I met my wife of now over 42 years while I was in my first year. I proposed to her after my moot court argument in my dorm room in Ames. We married in Boston before beginning my third year and have never looked back. She made law school easy and life unforgettable!”
Ashleigh Stanley ’18 and Maclen Stanley ’18
“As luck would have it, we were both in Section 2. On the first very day of orientation, I arrived early; Maclen, late (each of these, a very stereotypical showing). As Jim Greiner began lecturing on civil procedure, Maclen took the last available seat, which happened to be next to me. It took a few months of friendship-slash-friend-zoning before things progressed, but by March of our 1L year, we were dating. At graduation, Maclen told my parents he intended to ask me to marry him. It’s important that you know that he did this next to a large dumpster.”
Michal Herzfeld ’09 and Aryeh Herzfeld
“I married my husband, Akiva, over two decades ago — years before I even applied to law school. But this submission is about the love I found well after he and I packed our bags and headed north for Cambridge. On a still-chilly day in early April of 2L year, while reading Bush v. Gore for Con Law class, I put down the bulky red textbook and told Akiva we were going on a drive. This love actually wasn’t found on the HLS campus at all, but rather across the river at Brigham & Women’s, when our firstborn (to be named Aryeh eight days later at the Harvard Hillel) was placed in my arms. To be honest, I don’t remember whether I finished that reading assignment (sorry, Prof. Neuman!), but I’m glad to say that I managed to pass Con Law and graduate a little over a year later. Here’s a photo of Aryeh and me lining up to receive my diploma. As I recall, his t-shirt was a gift from my Section 7 classmates, and said ‘HLS Class of 203?’. I guess the accuracy of that prediction remains to be seen, as Aryeh is just starting his last semester of high school, but he and his four younger siblings are still, and will always be, the loves of my life.”