Dear Harvard Law School Class of 2018,
Harvard Law School’s stated mission is “to educate leaders who contribute to the advancement of justice and well being of society.” Every January, when the sun sets early and corporate interest law firms flock to campus to wine and dine us, that mission can fade to the background. It is important that we do not let the hustle and bustle of Big Law receptions crowd out the reason we are here: to launch not prestigious careers, but rather transformative vocations that serve to advance justice and societal well-being.
There exist great civic challenges of our time. One in four American children grow up in poverty. Our nation’s Congress has been corrupted by money. A warming globe threatens humanity’s most vulnerable. One in three of our black male neighbors will be locked in prison at some point in their life. These challenges need all hands on deck. These challenges need the Harvard Law School Class of 2018.
We came to law school to develop a skill with a proven track record of tackling great challenges such as these. In winter, though, as we are shuffled from corporate interest reception to corporate interest reception, doubting questions cloud our memory:
If most students are going into corporate interest law, it must be crazy to pursue a different path, right?
If legal work designed to serve those without money is — as one professor recently told our class — “the Lord’s work” and I am no martyr, am I not fit to pursue it?
If serving the interests of a wealthy and powerful few can provide stability to my life, but serving the interests of the public will require periods of uncertainty, would it be best for me to play it safe?
As these doubts grow bigger with each passing winter night, it becomes easy to ignore the civic challenges calling us and forget the reasons we came here in the first place. Left to its own devices, the creeping belief that there is no alternative but using our skills to serve wealthy interests will take hold of us. Our ambitions to build transformative vocations will be suppressed and delayed. Our dreams of living Big Lives will be shrunk to the consolations of Big Law: “…there will be some pro bono work, I guess…” “…wealthy folks need lawyers, too, you know…” and“…maybe later…”
We must remember, though, when we find a quiet moment during these snowy, winter nights and contemplate what we want to labor for during our brief and precious time here on this Earth, that there is always an alternative. It is an alternative that we are blessed to have had so many Harvard Law alumni take up: to trade the prestigious certainty of corporate advocacy for the transformative citizenship of contributing to the advancement of justice and well being of society. To name just few:
- After graduating from Harvard Law School in 1992, Jennifer Gordon founded the Workplace Project, a non-profit worker center, which organizes immigrant workers and fights for stronger state labor protection laws.
- After graduating from Harvard Law School in 1970, Mark Green spent the Seventies publishing various books on reigning in corporate power, culminating in his founding of the New Democracy Project, a public policy institute.
- After graduating from Harvard Law School in 2010, Gina Clayton founded the Essie Justice Group to support and empower women with incarcerated loved ones to help end mass incarceration.
Gordon, Green, and Clayton — as well as hundreds of their fellow citizens over the years who pursued a civic-minded vocation right out of Harvard Law School — faced the same winter of doubt that we face today. But they listened to that voice that drew them to law school in the first place: we have a mission to serve, we have great challenges to tackle, we have skills to deploy in service of our human community and we cannot let fear of uncertainty distract us.
Unfortunately, for every 2014 Harvard Law graduate who pursued work in organizations designed “to contribute to the advancement of justice and well being of society,” four graduates joined firms designed to serve wealthy clients’ interests. We, the Class of 2018, can take a different path. We can have a higher estimation of our own civic significance. We can survive this winter with our vocations intact.
Sincerely,
Pete Davis