Of Wit and Passion
Mayar was the kind of friend everyone wanted to be around. Wit was a constant. Laughter was guaranteed. Mayar was the kind of colleague who could make long hours of studying for finals on the fourth floor of Langdell Hall amusing. When she was around, the opportunity cost of reading those pages on the enforceability of arbitration agreements was much higher. You were potentially missing a brilliant joke. There was more to Mayar than humour, though. Much more. Mayar lived passionately—and her passions unfolded multi-continentally. She was born in Syria and she grew up in Ghana, where she ballet danced through teenagehood. Later, she moved to Paris, where she excelled as a law student at the Sorbonne. Her intelligence and hard work led her to become the first Syrian woman to be admitted to Harvard Law School’s LL.M. Program. She was the epitome of Harvard LL.M. classes in general, and of the LL.M.’12 class in particular: international, committed, and intellectually bold. After graduating from Harvard in 2012, Mayar moved back to Paris to join Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton LLP, where she became, in Managing Partner Mark Leddy’s words, “an enthusiastic and highly valued member” of the international arbitration team, as well as a “wonderful colleague and friend”. Her sharp acumen distinguished her, no matter the challenge. Mayar unexpectedly passed away in Paris on March 31, 2015 at the age of 26. No laugh will ever be as hearty. But those of us who were lucky enough to have shared a year of their lives with her can honour her memory by living the way she taught us to: with wit and passion.
—Submitted by Claudia Pharaon LL.M. ’12 on behalf of the HLS LL.M. class of 2012