Harvard Law School Totally Explained

Everything about Harvard Law School totally explained

Harvard Law School (also known as Harvard Law or HLS) is one of the professional graduate schools of Harvard University. Located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, It is the United States' oldest law school in continuous operation. It is home to the largest academic law library in the world.
   Harvard Law introduced what became the standard first-year curriculum for American law schools — including classes in contracts, property, torts, criminal law, and civil procedure — in the 1870s, under Dean Christopher Columbus Langdell. At Harvard, Langdell also developed the case method of teaching law, which became the dominant model for U.S. law schools.
   The current dean of Harvard Law School is Elena Kagan, who succeeded Robert C. Clark in 2003.
   The size of each cohort in the J.D. program numbers approximately 550 students and the first-year (1L) class is broken into seven small sections of approximately 80 students, who take all first-year classes (with the exception of one distribution requirement and one elective) together. Harvard Law has 246 faculty members.
   Admission to Harvard Law is highly selective: For the class beginning in 2007-2008, 11.7% of 6984 applicants were admitted, and 67.9% of those admitted enrolled. The median half of the class that entered in 2007 had a GPA between 3.75 and 3.95 (out of 4.00) and an LSAT score between 170 and 175 (out of 180). Harvard Law's admissions process includes the unusual feature of telephone interviews conducted amongst students likely to be accepted.
   Harvard Law School has produced numerous leaders in American law and politics, including many more U.S. Supreme Court justices and U.S. Senators than any other law school. In part because of its large size, it's consistently the best represented law school among the faculty at the U.S. law schools and among the attorneys at the top law firms in the U.S.

Campus

Harvard Yard, the historic center of Harvard University, and contains several architecturally significant buildings. Austin Hall, the law school's oldest dedicated structure, was completed in 1884 by architect H. H. Richardson. The law school's student center, Harkness Commons, was designed by Bauhaus founder Walter Gropius, along with several law school dormitories. Together, they make up the Harvard Graduate Center complex. Langdell Hall, the largest building on the law school campus, contains the Harvard Law Library, the most extensive academic law library in the world.
As of 2006, a new complex is scheduled to rise on the northwest corner of the law school campus, to be designed by traditionalist architect Robert A. M. Stern. The complex is set to marry the architectural themes present in Austin and Langdell Halls, as well as the Gropius buildings.

History

Harvard Law School was established in 1817, making it the oldest continuously-operating law school in the nation. (The Marshall-Wythe School of Law at The College of William & Mary opened in 1779, but was forced to close at the outset of the American Civil War, and didn't reopen until 1920.)

The Royall estate

Its origins can be traced to the estate of Isaac Royall, who sold most of his Caribbean slaves and plantations to move to Medford, Massachusetts. His Medford estate, the Isaac Royall House, is now a museum, and includes the only remaining slave quarters in the northeast United States. The estate was passed down to Royall's son, Isaac Royall, Jr., who fled Massachusetts as the American Revolution broke out. Just prior to his death in 1781, Royall, Jr. left land to Harvard, the sale of which was intended for the "endowing of a Professor of Laws at said college, or a Professor of Physics and Anatomy". Harvard took the opportunity to fund its first chair of law. The Royall chair remains today. It traditionally was held by the Dean of the law school, but the current Dean, Elena Kagan, declined the Royall chair, instead giving herself the Charles Hamilton Houston Professorship.
In 1806, the Royall estate in Medford was returned to Royall, Jr.'s heirs, who sold it and donated the proceeds for the formal foundation of Harvard Law School. The Royall family coat-of-arms was adopted as the school crest, which shows three stacked wheat sheaves beneath the university motto (Veritas, Latin "truth").

Growth and the Langdell curriculum

While the law school had previously been located on Harvard Yard, the new curriculum that Dean Christopher Columbus Langdell developed in the 1870s demanded lecture halls suited to the case law and interrogatory Socratic method of teaching. H. H. Richardson would later design the law school's first independent home, the Romanesque Austin Hall, to the north of the Yard, with these needs in mind. This would come to form the nucleus of the current law school campus.
As the 20th century dawned, Dean Langdell's innovations became standard in law school curricula across the country, and Harvard's approach to legal scholarship began to stagnate. New theories, such as legal realism, blossomed at Yale and Columbia, while Harvard faculty members were generally known for their conservative approach.

Institutional criticism

In the second half of the 20th century, the school began to develop a reputation for being a cold and unfeeling place for students. Books and films such as John Jay Osborn, Jr.'s The Paper Chase and Scott Turow's One L cast the student experience at the school in a particularly harsh light.
Criticism wasn't limited to the student experience, however. Eleanor Kerlow's book Poisoned Ivy: How Egos, Ideology, and Power Politics Almost Ruined Harvard Law School criticized the school for a 1980s political dispute between newer and older faculty members over accusations of insensitivity to minority and feminist issues. Divisiveness over such issues as political correctness lent the school the title "Beirut on the Charles".

The Kagan Deanship

Elena Kagan sought to reverse these stereotypes when she assumed the deanship of the school in 2003, promising reforms. She has been given credit for a host of quality-of-life improvements at the law school, including an ice-skating rink (during the winter) and beach volleyball court (the rest of the year) on campus, free coffee in classroom buildings, free tampons in campus public restrooms, and the renovation of several of the school's aging facilities. She has also managed to boost the school's involvement in international and public interest law, and has hired a number of new faculty members with a variety of political beliefs.
In 2006, the faculty voted unanimously to approve a new first-year curriculum, placing greater emphasis on problem-solving, administrative law, and international law. The new curriculum is being implemented in stages over the next several years.
In addition, a vast new complex under construction on the northwest part of the law school campus is intended to expand classroom space for additional courses and create more space for an expanding clinical program. Several dormitories are also set to be renovated.

Present-day culture

The hyper-competitiveness once present at the school has also dissipated in recent years. Institutional changes that may have played a part in reducing competition are reduced class sizes in the first year courses, a reduced student-to-faculty ratio, and the introduction of interviews as a part of the admissions process.
   The school may also have attracted a different mix of students over time. The number of students interested in public interest law positions has expanded as Harvard has begun to offer summer funding for public interest internships and low income loan reduction plans for alumni who take on careers in the public interest and academia. For example, beginning with the J.D. Class of 2011, students who pledge to spend five years working for nonprofit organizations or the government after graduation will receive a grant in the full amount of their tuition during their third year, and are entitled to keep the grant if they remain in such positions for the five-year period. Tuition for the 2008-2009 academic year is $41,900.
   In addition, the growth of large law firms over the latter part of the 20th century and a rough parity in salaries for entry-level positions at those firms has meant that even students in the bottom third of the class can find jobs paying $160,000 and up. Nevertheless, even among the most prestigious firms there are still disparities in bonuses, leverage (associate-to-partner ratio), partnership opportunities, exit opportunities, and so on. These firms typically hire based on first year grades, so some incentives to compete in the first year remain for those students interested only in the most exclusive firms.
   There is still a heavy degree of competition among second and third year students interested in the most exclusive appellate clerkships (especially U.S. Supreme Court clerkships). Obtaining one of these clerkships typically requires an exemplary law school record and a masthead position on a law journal.

Programs

Harvard Legal Aid Bureau

The Harvard Legal Aid Bureau is the oldest (and perhaps only) student-run legal services office in the country, founded in 1913. The Bureau's mission is to provide an important community service while giving student attorneys the opportunity to develop professional skills as part of the clinical programs of Harvard Law School.
   The Harvard Legal Aid Bureau is a student-run law firm. The Bureau serves clients in housing law (landlord-tenant relations, public housing, subsidized housing), family law (divorce, custody, paternity, child support), government benefits (Social Security, unemployment benefits, Veterans' benefits, welfare), and wage and hour cases (including unpaid or underpaid wages, benefits, and overtime). The Bureau employs seven supervising attorneys and elects approximately twenty student members annually. Students at the Bureau practice under the supervision of admitted attorneys; however, students are primarily casehandlers on all matters. As a result, students gain firsthand experience appearing in court, negotiating with opposing attorneys, and working directly with clients. Students receive both classroom and clinical credits for their work at the Bureau.
   Unlike most clinical programs at Harvard (or other schools), the Bureau is a two-year commitment. This gives clients a chance to have a much more sustained and in-depth academic experience. In addition to the substantive legal experience, students gain practical experience managing a law firm. The student board of directors makes all decisions regarding case intake, budget management, and office administration.
   Famous alumni include Supreme Court Justice William J. Brennan, Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick, activist Michelle Obama, and professors Erwin Chemerinsky and Laurence Tribe.

Berkman Center for Internet & Society

The Harvard Law School is home to the Berkman Center for Internet & Society, which focuses on the study and construction of cyberspace. The Center sponsors conferences, courses, visiting lecturers, and residential fellows. Members of the Center do research and write books, articles, and weblogs with RSS 2.0 feeds, for which the Center holds the specification. The Center's present location is a small Victorian wood-frame building which sits next to the larger-scale buildings of the Harvard Law School campus. It is in the process of relocating to a larger site on the campus' perimeter. Its newsletter, "The Filter

", is on the Web and available by e-mail, and it hosts a blog community

of Harvard faculty, students and Berkman Center affiliates. The Berkman Center is funding the Openlaw project. One of the major initiatives of the Berkman Center is the OpenNet Initiative, which is a joint worldwide study of the filtering of the web, along with the Universities of Toronto and Cambridge (UK). The Berkman Center was a co-sponsor of Wikimania 2006. Charles Nesson, Lawrence Lessig, Jonathan Zittrain, John Palfrey, William W. Fisher, and Yochai Benkler hold appointments at the Berkman Center.

Charles Hamilton Houston Institute for Race and Justice

Established in the fall of 2005 at Harvard Law School, the Charles Hamilton Houston Institute for Race and Justice

seeks to honor the contributions of Charles Hamilton Houston, who dedicated his life to using law as a tool to reverse the unjust consequences of racial discrimination. The Institute carries forth Houston's legacy by serving as a hub for scholarship, legal education, policy analysis, and public forums on issues central to current civil rights struggles. see also Charles Ogletree

Labor & Worklife Program

The Labor and Worklife Program

(LWP) is Harvard University’s forum for research and teaching on the world of work and its implications for society. Located at the Harvard Law School, the LWP brings together scholars and policy experts from a variety of disciplines to analyze critical labor issues in the law, economy, and society. The LWP also provides unique education for labor leaders throughout the world via the oldest executive training program at Harvard University, the Harvard Trade Union Program, founded in 1942. As a multidisciplinary research and policy network, the LWP organizes projects and programs that seek to understand critical changes in labor markets and labor law, and to analyze the role of unions, business, and government as they affect the world of work. By engaging scholars, students, and members of the labor community, the program coordinates legal, educational, and cultural activities designed to improve the quality of work life.
The faculty, staff, and research associates of the Program include some of the nation’s premier scholars of labor studies and an array of internationally renowned intellectuals. The executive training program (HTUP) works closely with trade unions around the world to bring excellence in labor education to trade union leadership. The LWP regularly holds forums, conferences, and discussion groups on labor issues of concern to business, unions, and the government. Housed at the LWP are the Paywizard.org

and ElMundoLaboral.org

websites, the latter providing the only Spanish-language wage-checker available for the American workplace.

WilmerHale Legal Services Center

The WilmerHale Legal Services Center

(formerly known as the Hale and Dorr Legal Services Center) is Harvard Law School’s oldest and largest clinical teaching facility. The Legal Services Center is a general practice law firm that provides legal counsel to over 1,200 clients annually. It offers students an opportunity to gain practical legal experience and earn academic credit by handling real cases for real clients under the supervision of clinical instructors who are experienced practitioners and mentors. The Hale and Dorr Legal Services Center sponsors up to 70 students each semester through several clinical courses offered at Harvard Law School and, during the summer, sponsors a program for volunteer law students from across the country.
Students working at the Center are placed in one of its clinics housed in five substantive practice groups and work with clinical instructors, experienced practitioners and mentors, who supervise student work and provide guidance as students build and manage their own caseload. The Center provides substantive training in each practice area and also offers general instruction on topics such as client interviewing and intake, case management, legal investigation and discovery, creative legal analysis, research and drafting.
The WilmerHale Legal Services Center is located in Boston’s culturally diverse Jamaica Plain neighborhood.

Other Harvard Law School programs

The Ames Moot Court Competition
Harvard Immigration and Refugee Clinical Program
Child Advocacy Program
East Asian Legal Studies Program
- Director: Professor and Vice Dean William P. Alford
European Law Research Center
Fund for Tax and Fiscal Research
Human Rights Program
Islamic Legal Studies Program
John M. Olin Center for Law, Economics and Business
Petrie-Flom Center for Health Law Policy, Biotechnology and Bioethics
Prison Legal Assistance Project
Program on Corporate Governance
Program on Empirical Legal Studies
Program on International Financial Systems
Program on Negotiation
Program on the Legal Profession
Public Interest Auction
Harvard Legal Aid Bureau
Harvard Association for Law and Business

There are two additional programs affiliated with Harvard Law School, the Ames Foundation and the Selden Society.

Publications

Students of the Juris Doctor (JD) program are involved in preparing and publishing the Harvard Law Review, one of the most renowned university law reviews, as well as a number of other law journals and an independent student newspaper. The Harvard Law Review was first published in 1887 and has been staffed and edited by some of the school's most notable alumni. The student newspaper, the Harvard Law Record, has been published continuously since the 1940s, making it one of the oldest law school newspapers in the country, and has included the exploits of fictional law student Fenno for decades. The law journals are:

Harvard Law Review

Harvard Journal of Law and Public Policy

Harvard International Law Journal

Civil Rights-Civil Liberties Law Review

Harvard Law & Policy Review

Black Letter Law Journal

Environmental Law Review

Human Rights Journal

Journal of Law & Gender (formerly Women's Law Journal)

Journal of Law and Technology

Journal on Legislation

Latino Law Review

Negotiation Law Review

Unbound: Harvard Journal of the Legal Left

Notable alumni

Fourteen of the school's graduates have served on the Supreme Court of the United States, more than any other law school, and another four justices attended the school without graduating. Six of the current nine members of the court attended HLS: Chief Justice John Roberts, and Associate Justices Antonin Scalia, Anthony Kennedy, David Souter, Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Stephen Breyer. Ginsburg transferred to and graduated from Columbia Law School. Past Supreme Court justices from Harvard Law School include Harry Blackmun, Louis Brandeis, Felix Frankfurter, Lewis Powell (LLM), and Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. Rutherford B. Hayes, the 19th president of the United States, graduated from HLS, as did U.S. attorneys general Alberto Gonzales and Janet Reno, among others, and noted federal judge Richard Posner and Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals judge A. Wallace Tashima.
   Famous legal academics who graduated from Harvard Law include Erwin Chemerinsky, Ronald Dworkin, Susan Estrich, Arthur R. Miller, William L. Prosser, John Sexton, Kathleen Sullivan, Cass Sunstein, and Laurence Tribe.
   Past or current presidential candidates who are HLS graduates include Barack Obama, Mitt Romney, Michael Dukakis and Ralph Nader. Obama was also the first black president of the Harvard Law Review.
   In addition to their achievements in law and politics, Harvard Law alumni have also excelled in other fields. Many have gone on to become influential journalists, writers, media and business leaders and even professional athletes.

Notable professors

Gerald Frug

Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.

Morton Horwitz

Randall Kennedy

Duncan Kennedy

Michael Klarman (joining the faculty in summer, 2008)(External Link

)

Christopher Columbus Langdell

Todd Rakoff

Mark J. Roe

Cass Sunstein (joining the faculty in fall, 2008)(External Link

)

Jonathan Zittrain

In popular culture

Books

The Paper Chase is a novel set amid a student's first ("One L") year at the school. It was written by John Jay Osborn, Jr., who studied at the school. The book was later turned into a film and a television series (see below). Scott Turow, a novelist, also wrote a book about his experience as a first-year law student at Harvard, One L.
Less notable is Richard Kahlenberg's account of his experiences at the school, Broken Contract: A Memoir of Harvard Law School. Kahlenberg breaks from the other two authors and describes the experience of the final two years at the school, claiming that the environment drives students away from their public interest aspirations and toward work in high-paying law firms.

Film and television

Several movies and television shows take place at least in part at the school. Most of them have scenes filmed on location at or around Harvard University. They include:

Legally Blonde (2001)

The Firm (1993)

Soul Man (1986)

The Paper Chase (1973)

Love Story (1970)

Rubeusutori in Habeodeu (2004), or Love Story in Harvard, a Korean TV series Many popular movies and television shows also feature characters introduced as Harvard Law graduates. Some of these include:

Boston Legal (2004-)

NCIS (2003-)

Two Weeks Notice (2002)

The People vs. Larry Flynt (2000)

Passions (1999-)

Sex and the City (1998)

The Practice (1997-2004)

Ally McBeal (1997-2002)

Quiz Show (1994)

The Firm (1993)

A Few Good Men (1992)

Law & Order (1990-)

The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air (1990-96)

Matlock (1986-95)

American Psycho (film) (2000)Further Information

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