Harvard Law School welcomed 629 new students to Cambridge this week. They hail from Alaska to Zimbabwe, and from Fenway Park to Wimbledon.
The incoming J.D. class—the class of 2011—includes 557 students from across the United States and from 14 countries, including Turkey, Colombia and Singapore. They are graduates of 156 different undergraduate institutions.
Also arriving are 158 master of laws (LL.M.) candidates from 61 countries and jurisdictions, including France, Israel, and Uzbekistan. Their ranks include 13 Supreme Court or Constitutional Court clerks, 29 people who have taught law, and four former judges. They are joined in the HLS Graduate Program by 11 new candidates for the doctor of juridical science (S.J.D.) degree.
Many of the incoming graduate students have held impressive public service positions, such as staff attorney in Canada’s Ministry of the Attorney General; attache in Georgia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Department of International and Cultural Relations; and deputy director of Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, International Investment Office, Trade and Economic Cooperation Bureau.
The entering J.D. class includes:
- 4 Fulbright scholars
- 3 Truman scholars
- a Goldwater scholar
- a Marshall scholar
- 69 former congressional interns
- 234 students who have worked as paralegals, legal assistants, law clerks, or law related interns
- 12 students with military experience
- 7 alumni of the Peace Corps and 8 alumni of AmeriCorps
The class also includes a defense industry engineer who worked on missile-launching systems for the U.S. Navy and Army, a Fenway Park souvenir salesman, an economist for the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, a field coordinator for the International Rescue Committee in Darfur, an advisor on nuclear non-proliferation policy for the Norwegian government, an assistant to the leader of Japan’s Democratic Party, and a Wimbledon statistician.