TABITHA COHEN: I think that the law can be a great tool
to achieve social justice.
And I've definitely found that my clinical work at HLS
has proven that.
JIMMY MCENTEE: It's tough to explain in words how amazing it
felt to basically be pursuing my dream of working in sports
and seeing what it was like firsthand.
HA RYONG: The clinics really gave me
a holistic and practical understanding
of what it means to be a true child
advocate working on behalf of children
and upholding their rights.
DANIEL NAGIN: The best way to master a skill
isn't just to talk about the skill
and to read about the skill and to think about the skill,
but it's actually to practice the skill
and have to do so in a real situation involving
a real client with real stakes.
It is in that crucible that students
will learn the most about what it takes
to be an outstanding lawyer.
And they'll also learn about themselves.
HA RYONG: I came with the purpose
of wanting to further pursue studies in children's rights
and child protection.
I continuously came across instances
where legal frameworks existed, but the rights and protections
that I so believed that children were entitled to
were being violated nonstop.
And I couldn't really understand why.
The Human Rights Clinic and the Child Advocacy Clinic,
in my opinion, really complemented each other well,
because I wanted to not only understand
international human rights and children's rights but also
the domestic system.
If it wasn't for the Child Advocacy Clinic,
I would not have been able to really explain
my understanding of what the system here
looks like, especially Massachusetts,
but also sort of generally within the United States
when it comes to the different systems that work on children.
DENISE GHARTEY: I worked in eviction prevention
and homelessness prevention.
And I really enjoyed that work.
And I thought that if I could educate myself and learn
a lot about it, then I could also
help people facilitate and navigate that system easier.
I had sent clients to H Lab.
I knew they did really great work,
and they were generally taking cases
that a lot of other legal aid and pro bono service providers
were not able to provide.
So I knew that H Lab would be a place I wanted to come even
before I came to law school.
JIMMY MCENTEE: What I think separates Harvard's
clinical opportunities from other law schools
is the sheer number of clinical opportunities
available to students.
During my law school experience, I
worked my 2L J term at the legal office
for National Football League.
I worked 3L J term in the baseball operations department
at the Minnesota Twins.
I've been able to try different types of law,
see what litigation is like, see what transaction work is like,
see what IP work is like.
WENDY JACOBS: It was really important to me
to provide students with an experience
that they won't get during law school
unless they're in the clinic and they
won't get for several years after law school either.
And that is to really learn what it's
like to practice law and really experience
working with other professionals,
whether the others are clients or experts in a field
that touches on their projects or government officials
or other decision makers.
ESME CARAMELLO: Students have had a dedicated
clinical instructor who has been matched
with them who is really focused on,
who is this student as a professional?
What are their strengths?
How can we bring those out?
What are their weaknesses?
What are the things that they love to do?
What are the things that they find challenging?
And could the things they find challenging
become things that they love to do
with the right sort of support?
KENDRA ALBERT: Sometimes students
come in with a very particular idea of who they want to be
or what they want to do.
But when a student comes to me and says,
I can't do work for this client, because I'm
not technical enough.
Or I can't do work for this client,
because I've never taken copyright.
For me, those are opportunities to push students
to challenge themselves.
I've had students show up in my office and be
like, I just really think I'm not getting x.
And them I'm like, well, all right.
Let me email my fellow clinicians.
Let's go find you some x, right?
Let's go figure out some way for you to get more client contact.
Let's go figure out some way for you
to get more experience working on briefs or litigation.
DENISE GHARTEY: Your clinical instructor is always
in the court with you.
So just in case you get nervous or just in case
you don't know how to answer the question,
they know everything about the case as well,
and they're standing right there.
TABITHA COHEN: They care very, very deeply
both about their students and our clients, and it shows.
And they very much lead by example.
They also tell us, you are this person's attorney.
And you're the one who's going to be
during the oral arguments.
You're the one who's going to be cross examining the officers.
You're the one who's going to be filing and drafting
the motions.
NADIA FARJOOD: One of my favorite cases
that I was able to work on was with a young girl
from Brazil who came to the US to live with her godmother
because she was abused, abandoned,
and neglected by her parents.
I think one of the most exciting aspects of that case
for me is working with a young person
with so much passion who wanted to be
in this country, who wanted to flee a very
violent part of the world.
Being able to file a motion for special findings
with a legal memorandum and to go into the Suffolk family
and probate court and to argue a motion in front of a judge.
And I learned so much up to that point
in terms of organizing a case file
and writing an affidavit that was true to her experience,
being able to go to that court and argue something
with my client by my side answering questions,
and to be able to get that order of special findings
and then to pass that on to a partner
organization that ended up helping her process her I360.
And now she's a resident of this country.
It's just been a really exciting and meaningful experience
for me as a student attorney.
And it was a huge team effort and something
I was incredibly proud of.
NATALIE TRIGO REYES: In the wake of Hurricane Maria in September
of last year, Professor Andrew Crespo from here from the law
school reached out to me and we started this project
to support Puerto Rico.
It's been very emotional for me, because I'm from Puerto Rico.
And the hurricane really devastated the island
on many levels.
It's estimated $90 billion of damages.
18 of us will be working on legal assistance type of FEMA
work, FEMA claims, and insurance claims,
maybe issues with contractors and other types of issues.
It's really been a labor of love.
OCP really brought amazing institutional knowledge
and experience, including experience working Katrina
and Katrina recovery efforts.
TABITHA COHEN: Our clients are facing
some of the most oppressive, opaque, racist, classist,
convoluted systems that exist, particularly
through the Immigration and Refugee Clinic,
through the Criminal Justice Institute,
through the Prison Legal Assistance Project.
Our clients are fighting an uphill battle every day.
Through the Prison Legal Assistance Project,
I had the opportunity to handle an impact litigation case.
The case went up to the Supreme Judicial Court.
And so, I was able to argue before the justices
on this prisoners' rights and disability rights issue.
We won the case.
And it now set precedent for all of Massachusetts' prisoners.
And now, the Americans with Disabilities Act
applies to parole hearings, and my client is always
talking about how happy he is.
And I'm able to tell him, you helped so many people
in Massachusetts.
It's because of you that now all of these people
are able to cite to your case in their parole hearings
and say that they can't be discriminated against because
of their disability.
HA RYONG: It was fascinating when
we took the trips to, for example,
Myanmar with the Human Rights Clinic.
There were HLS alumni that were already working there
with different organizations.
And some we worked with directly on our projects.
And others provided us with a better understanding
of the local context that really informed
the work we were doing.
And It was empowering to see other HLS graduates, especially
those who had taken the same clinics that I have working
in the field and to see that, oh, that's what I may
be doing going forward as well.
JIMMY MCENTEE: I can think of 10 teams
right now that have in-house lawyers that
are graduates of this law school and specifically graduates
of the sports law program here at HLS in recent years.
It's one of the reasons why the program is growing so quickly
is because when students start leaving the law
school after a few years, they make
their way to leagues and teams.
They feel kind of a desire to repay Harvard and Harvard
students, because they know how much
they got out of the experience.
ESME CARAMELLO: It can be hard to feel part of the Harvard Law
School alumni community because it's so vast
and so having these smaller communities these shared
experiences create these natural bridges
that I've seen help people both professionally and personally
NATALIE TRIGO REYES: Finding a group of students
who share your values and your interests
is just really wonderful.
NIMAT LAWAL: I've been blessed to meet some of my best friends
on this campus through Defenders.
SETH HOEDL: I found that the clinic was really
my home with the law school like nowhere else.
TABITHA COHEN: I think that that has really shaped my law school
experience as well to have these communities through my clinics.
And I've developed some of the closest friendships
that I have in law school through them.
And it's been really great.