DEAN JOHN MANNING, VOICEOVER: Harvard Law School has always
been a radical experiment.
Instead of apprenticing with practitioners,
new lawyers would be trained in a school of Law, a school that
would be national and even global,
where every student would have a chance to demonstrate merit,
to challenge and be challenged, to learn, to think,
and to lead.
For 200 years, Harvard Law School
has shaped the way people think about law
and has led nearly every advancement in how law
is taught: the case method; the first year
curriculum; the first student practice
organization to provide free legal aid,
which became the blueprint for clinical education.
Our alumni have served throughout government,
the judiciary, and national and international law firms.
They've led businesses, NGOs, and academia.
They've pioneered public interest law
and created international frameworks for engagement
among nations.
200 years, countless stories.
Here are just a few.
BRYAN STEVENSON: My life was changed by the rule of law.
It was only when lawyers came into the community
to enforce Brown versus Board of Education
that they opened up the public schools, which
is the only thing that made it possible for me to graduate
from high school to go to college
and to end up at Harvard Law School.
HABEN GIRMA: I work as an accessibility and inclusion
advocate teaching organizations and individuals to design
with accessibility in mind.
I'm deaf-blind.
Deaf-blindness encompasses a wide spectrum
of vision and hearing loss.
LORETTA LYNCH: I, Loretta Elizabeth Lynch.
VICE PRESIDENT JOE BIDEN: Do solemnly swear.
LORETTA LYNCH: Do solemnly swear.
I had actually attended court with my dad.
He had taken me just to watch.
But you would see sometimes how someone's life could
be changed by a decision, by a judge, or by something
that they had chosen to do about how a case was handled.
BEN FERENCZ: In the area in which we lived
was known as Hell's Kitchen, because it
was a high density crime area.
And so I know a lot of criminals.
I didn't know any lawyers.
I went to City College.
And I inquired then which is the best law school in the world.
And I was told the best law school is Harvard.
So I filed an application to only one school, Harvard.
MICHELLE WU: I left my life as a young professional
and went back to take care of my two younger sisters and my mom
and decided to open a small family
tea-house to keep us going.
And that experience completely changed my life trajectory.
Every interaction with government
permitting and licensing, I saw that government matters
a whole lot, but the way that it was
connecting with people's real life experiences
was not at all helpful.
So I vowed then that if I ever had the opportunity,
I would do something about it.
H. RODGIN COHEN: I would say the most valuable lesson
from Harvard Law School really was to think,
not to just have a case and read it and understand it,
but to think more about what it meant.
BEN FERENCZ: In Harvard, I was primarily concerned
with juvenile delinquency.
I was raised in the atmosphere of juvenile crime.
And I was interrupted by the war so that then I
had seen real crimes.
BRYAN STEVENSON: And I wasn't absolutely certain
what I wanted to do when I showed up
at Harvard Law School.
But I was hoping that commitment to justice
through the rule of law that opened up so many doors for me
when I was a little boy might empower me to open up
doors for other people.
I needed to know everything about substantive due process
and procedural due process and federalism and comity
and all of the doctrine that were going to impact my ability
to help condemned people get the justice that they deserved.
LORETTA LYNCH: I enjoyed my time at the law school.
I enjoyed the questioning.
I enjoyed the different perspectives.
Talking to people who saw an issue in a very different way
than I did was eye-opening.
It was engaging.
It was what I came here for.
I was involved in activities here on the Legal Aid Society.
And being able to actually work for indigent people
and go to court and make a change in someone's life
made my Harvard experience great.
HABEN GIRMA: Growing up, I've experienced many access
barriers, organizations that say, sorry,
we can't help people with disabilities.
So I went to law school to become a disability rights
lawyer and advocate.
BEN FERENCZ: I was hired by General Telford Taylor.
He said "I understand that you're occasionally insubordinate."
I said, "that's not correct. sir.
I'm not occasionally insubordinate.
I'm usually insubordinate.
I don't obey orders that I think are illegal or stupid.
But I don't think you're going to get me any such orders
and that you can find a better man."
He said, "you come with me."
I went with him back to Nuremberg
for the subsequent trials.
H. RODGIN COHEN: Law is so pervasive in society.
It touches everything we do.
Our role in the freeing of the Iranian hostages
was the most complicated and difficult set
of negotiations one can imagine because it was being played out
on the world stage.
To be able to sign the deal that morning
and go home and hear the broadcast talking
about the hostages going out of jail, getting on the plane,
that that has to be, I think, the proudest moment.
BEN FERENCZ: When I was 27 years old,
I was the chief prosecutor in the biggest murder
trial in human history against 22
high-ranking and well-educated Nazi leaders.
My problem as a prosecutor was to ask, what do I ask for?
Do I ask to sentence them all to death?
22 defendants against a million people murdered?
I said, there's no way of balancing,
of doing justice there.
But if I could get them to create
a more humane world, using this as an example,
that would be worthwhile.
So I asked the court to affirm, by international criminal law,
the right of all people to live in peace and dignity,
regardless of their race or creed.
BRYAN STEVENSON: We started out as an organization
trying to provide legal services to people on death row,
that right to counsel is available to people
at their initial trial.
But after that, there is no constitutionally enforced right
to counsel.
And so many people on death row can't
find legal help they need.
NEWS REPORTER: Being on death row brought attention to McMillian's case
that it otherwise would not have received.
And that scrutiny revealed the weaknesses in the state's case
that eventually led to his freedom.
HABEN GIRMA: As internet services open more opportunities for people,
we're going to see more people with disabilities employed
and succeeding.
H. RODGIN COHEN: There had been an amendment
to expand the powers of the Federal Reserve to lend.
We were able to discuss with the Fed,
providing the assistance under that provision.
And it opened the door then for it to occur a number of times
during the financial crisis.
MICHELLE WU: I think if you had asked me at the beginning
of law school, what would I be doing coming up on my fifth
year reunion, there's no way I would have said,
I'm going to be president of the Boston City Council,
no way in my wildest dreams, or my parents', would they have
thought that one day, their daughter would not only be able
to be working in government, but having a strong role in it.
LORETTA LYNCH: I've always thought
it was very important to always remember
that the purpose of the law is to order our lives,
is to order the lives of everyday people.
How do we live together?
How do we interact with each other?
How do we deal with conflict?
How do we, in fact, account for ourselves?
For me, I think it really came to fruition
when I was here in law school.
[Music plays over images of prominent alumni]
[Deans of Harvard Law School]
JUSTICE ANTONIN SCALIA: Counsel for the petitioner ready?
Proceed.
JUSTICE WILLIAM BRENNAN: Would you say that
went too far?
STUDENT: Your honor, the only fair answer to that question
is it depends on how Congress--
BRENNAN: I don't ask for a fair answer.
STUDENT: Well, I'm going to give you one, Your Honor.
[LAUGHTER]
JOSEPH N. WELCH: Have you no sense of decency, sir?
ELIZABETH DOLE: Tonight I'd like to break with tradition...
ELENA KAGAN: Those wise restraints that make us free...
that phrase has always captured for me the way law,
and the rule of law, matters.
JOAQUIN CASTRO: So it's with much love and pride
that I present to you my best friend, my twin brother, San
Antonio mayor Julian Castro.
[CROWD CHEERS]
MITT ROMNEY: The strength and power and goodness of America
has always been based on the strength and power
and goodness of our communities, our families, and our faiths.
[CROWD CHEERS]
BARACK OBAMA: But I will always be honest with you
about the challenges we face.
I will listen to you, especially when we disagree.