Notes and Comment: Mentorship in its simplest form
Dec 03, 2025
Since 2017, students and faculty have convened in the Harvard Law School Library reading room for the event known as Notes and Comment, where students seeking guidance on their research and writing for publication meet individually or in small groups with faculty members and librarians.
Over the years, dozens of faculty, librarians, and students have participated. The event was originally conceived of by Jonathan Zittrain ’95, vice dean of Library and Information Resources and George Bemis Professor of International Law, who saw it as a way to create new student-faculty interactions on scholarly topics and to reinforce the library’s position as the home of scholarship on campus.
Credit: James Rasaiah
Michael Ashley Stein is the co-founder and executive director of the Harvard Law School Project on Disability and a visiting professor at Harvard Law School. Credit: James Rasaiah
Notes and Comment was the brainchild of Jonathan Zittrain ‘95, George Bemis Professor of International Law and vice dean of Library and Information Resources. Credit: James Rasaiah
Zahra Haghi LL.M. ’26 meets with a professor. Credit: James Rasaiah
“We’ve found that many students can be shy about asking faculty questions … Notes and Comment is a way to lower the activation energy for those kinds of conversations.”
Jonathan Zittrain ’95, vice dean of Library and Information Resources
Susannah Barton Tobin ’04, the Ezra Ripley Thayer Senior Lecturer on Law Credit: James Rasaiah
Christine Park, student services research librarian and instructional designer Credit: James Rasaiah
Alexandra Natapoff, Lee S. Kreindler Professor of Law Credit: James Rasaiah
Molly Brady, Louis D. Brandeis Professor of Law Credit: James Rasaiah
Bussey Professor of Law Joseph Singer ’81 Credit: James Rasaiah
Aileen Nielsen, a visiting assistant professor of law, meets with a student. Credit: James Rasaiah
Credit: James Rasaiah
Credit: James Rasaiah
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