Have a response to this collection of testimonials that you’d like to share? Letters to the editor are always welcome; send submissions to editor@hlrecord.org.
The pressure around EIP almost got to me – despite knowing that there was no chance I would actually accept a firm job. Choosing not to participate was questioned by almost every person I spoke to and I was made to feel ‘behind’ in my job search for months. But it wasn’t true and I’m so glad I had friends and colleagues to remind me that my career path was valid, possible, and within my reach. – Jessica Cianci, JD’23, she/her
I came to law school knowing I wanted to work in the public interest right away. A driving factor for me was avoiding the demanding nature of work at a large law firm. I feel committed to a 40 (or fewer) hour work week, and although overtime is undoubtedly a facet of my career, these extra hours will directly serve communities and issues about which I am passionate. – Anonymous, JD’23
I am looking for a professional life that is reasonable in terms of time commitment, rich in community, and meaningful in impact. I have been privileged to find that in public defense work. I am excited about the possibilities that will open up in the world when it is not a minority of HLS students that commit to public interest. – Amanda Madigan, JD’23, she/her
Before law school, I worked in a high-paying, high-stress job analogous to big law and found it to be physically, mentally, and spiritually demoralizing. I was deeply unhappy on a day-to-day basis, and worse, ashamed of the impact of my work overall. I cannot go back to living that way. I feel so blessed to be able to firmly refuse from engaging in EIP and to be able to pursue more meaningful work. I admit that part of why I am able to firmly refuse is because I accumulated financial resources in my first job — but I also think the experience gave me perspective on both how much money I need to live and how the work I do impacts myself and those around me. Above all, I resent Harvard Law School, the wealthiest educational institution in the world with an ever-increasing endowment, for creating structures that fuel big law and deepen wealth inequality. Shame on Harvard. I look forward to organizing for structural changes that support PI and/or low-income students, including a return of third-year free tuition for PI students and 100% funded financial aid. – Anonymous, JD’23
I chose not to do EIP because I came to law school to fight for progressive social change — to empower working people, redistribute wealth, alleviate poverty, challenge corporate power — and corporate law firms directly contribute to and produce and perpetuate and exasperate poverty, inequality, suffering, and virtually every system of harm and inequity and oppression and antidemocracy in our society. – Jason Vazquez, JD’23, he/him
I chose not to do EIP because I came to law school to alter our society’s distribution of wealth and power — not to perpetuate and strengthen it. I want to become a lawyer to help construct a more equal, democratic, and sustainable society without exploitation, oppression, or social or economic hierarchies. Although an ugly truth that is so often obscured on campus, working for an elite law firm primarily entails serving corporate clients, which ultimately means promoting our current economic and political systems and further entrenching the existing distributions of wealth and power. Corporations exploit workers, cheat consumers, undermine governments, plunder the planet’s resources, and pillage civil society. To serve corporate clients means to be implicated in and personally profit from this violent, unsustainable, and destructive system. As lawyers — particularly as Harvard Law School graduates — we are uniquely privileged to choose the impact that we wish to have on the world. We can choose to join the side of the rich and powerful and work for corporations, or we can choose to fight for the oppressed and marginalized through work for labor unions, public defense offices, legal aid organizations, nonprofits, progressive government agencies, and other community-based groups. I’m proud to stand on the side of the marginalized and oppressed, and that’s why I chose not do do EIP. – Kevin Vazquez, JD ’23, he/him
I chose not to do EIP because it is antithetical to my values, and because I want to use my legal degree to support radical movements for liberation. I am first-gen and don’t come from a wealthy background, but I am still pursuing public interest because I recognize the privilege of my HLS education and am committed to using that privilege on behalf of historically oppressed communities (specifically currently and formerly incarcerated individuals). – Lexi Gray, JD’23, she/her
I knew I didn’t want to do big law, and I thought staying away from EIP completely would be the best way to not get lured by the money. I also had a core group of friends who weren’t doing EIP, which really helped me stay on track. – Annie Woronecki, JD’23, she/her
I chose not to do EIP because I never want to use the privilege of a Harvard Law degree to work at a corporate interest firm. There are many dignified ways to use your legal education to, as Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg once said, “repair tears in your community” and “make life a little better for people less fortunate than you.” Working to maintain corporate power is not one of them. – Michael Migiel-Schwartz, JD’22, he/him
I want to use my privilege to support people and communities, not corporations! – Anonymous, JD’23
I chose not to do EIP because I want to spend my career combatting the harm and violence carried out against marginalized communities every day. A lot of the work that firms do causes direct harm to our society and our environment. But even to the extent that I could separate myself from that direct harm, for me, it’s not enough to just say “well, I’m not actively causing harm.” For me, being complacent or complicit in the face of harm is itself a failure of my core values. I feared that working at a firm, would encourage and, at times, require my complacency, and that’s a sacrifice I wasn’t willing to make. – Emilie Montgomery, JD’23, she/her
I came to law school knowing that my career path would likely focus on public interest work and government service. I didn’t do EIP primarily because I didn’t believe EIP jobs could provide the experiences and connections that would best serve my career goals in public service. Instead, I decided to spend my summers exploring the federal and state government career paths that I hope to enter after law school. – Taylor Broadbent, JD’23, he/him
I chose not to do EIP because I think that using our law degrees to serve corporate interests is an abuse of the responsibility that this privilege accords. Corporate law firms protect companies that extract wealth from the most marginalized among us. They obviate justice. I, like many among us, came to law school to pursue justice, however amorphous of an ideal that might be. I’m not yet sure of what the “right” thing to do is, but I know what it isn’t. – Alex Ropes, JD’23, he/him
I came to law school to improve the education system for students from the public sector. While the ridiculous disparity in pay (and support from HLS) makes doing EIP tempting, I know I would be miserably killing time in a firm when I have specific goals. I also recognize that there’s privilege in that choice. The need to be financially stable and the inability of public sector jobs in making that happen is real and I don’t blame people for choosing a different path. I do, however, blame the institutions that could work to close the gaps in resources, knowledge, pathways, and finances that make going through EIP feel like a non-option for many students. – Anonymous, JD’23
I decided not to do EIP because I went to law school in order to challenge the status quo and systems of oppression. The opportunities for doing that in Big Law are few and far between. Those firms work almost exclusively for rich and powerful corporations and individuals. Their business is using and developing the law to their client’s advantage. With the utmost respect to my many friends who have decided to go into Big Law, there are many more personally (and even financially) rewarding ways to use a Harvard law degree than entrenching the power and wealth that’s already so concentrated in our world. – Isaac Green, JD’22
I was very lucky because I received a lot of financial aid through certain scholarships, but I never wanted to do Big Law. I came to law school in order to work for the public interest, not to make money. – Anonymous, JD’23
After working in consulting, I didn’t want to go into a big firm environment and I was lucky enough that I wasn’t financially pressured to do so. – Anonymous, JD’22
big law is stupid – Oliver Ma, JD’23, he series
I knew I was interested in plaintiff-side law firms with a public interest bent and only one of those firms participated in EIP. – Anonymous, JD’22
Big Law is too ableist for me to feel comfortable applying to. – Anonymous
I knew it was only going to get harder to pursue my passion as I start a new family and become accustomed to a certain level of income. – Anonymous, JD’23
I have a math degree! Also I would like to use both my degrees to help other people. – Kate Royce, JD’24, she/her
First, I do not have financial obligations that require me to make more than 200k per year, so I am glad to be relatively fortunate in that regard. Second, I continue to identify strongly with the substantive political and philosophical commitments I made to myself before law school and, particularly, in my personal statement. Third, I feel good about the career soul-searching, informal mentorship, and formal advising I’ve been able to get at HLS, and I love knowing how many cool roads lay ahead! EIP offered me dissonance and a betrayal (or postponement) of my values, but public interest work has offered me affirmation and the chance to explore and achieve my sense of mission and responsibility to my family and identity. – Lenny Giarrano, JD’23, he/they
I came into law school with a few ideas of career paths, and none of them involve working for a firm. With that in mind, I have not heard any compelling reason for me individually to do EIP. More broadly, I am deeply concerned about the harms perpetrated by corporate law firms and do not want to be part of that. – Anonymous, JD’24
I was not interested in a firm job. – Anonymous, JD’23
I’m here for public interest, so no interest. But it does sound like there’s good food. – Anonymous, JD’23
Corporate law is not a necessary evil – although much of it is indeed evil. I understand the anxiety about debt – I’ll be 35 when I graduate. But we’ll all make it work, just like so many before us have made it work. Our partners will understand, our children will have ample opportunity. The debt is monopoly money; LIPP is paying the vast majority back, so we shouldn’t let the illusion of indebtedness coerce us into abandoning our values. – Riley Doyle Evans, JD’23, he/him
I refuse to support big law. – Ash Tomaszewski, JD’23, they/them
I came to law school knowing that I was interested exclusively in public interest work, so EIP seemed both irrelevant and a waste of time. I’ve been able to find great internships in my area of interest both summers, and do not regret my lack of participation in the least! – Anonymous, JD’23
I chose not to do EIP because I knew from the beginning that public interest work is what I was interested in doing, and that working at a law firm, while it can be useful, was not the right path for me. I came to law school to help people and fight for specific goals (in my case, the prevention of a total collapse of our democratic government into authoritarianism, and the expansion of voting rights and other civil liberties to create a more inclusive democracy for all). BigLaw firms insist that they can teach you skills you don’t get in other entry-level legal jobs, but that simply isn’t true. And working with an organization that has a cohesive mission, whether that be a nonprofit, government organization, or a public interest law firm, means you’re working with colleagues who care about the same issues as you and want you to succeed. Instead of competing with your peers for cases/bonuses/partner positions, the work is one of constant collaboration, support, and excitement. I will always prefer working with teammates who share my values, and I’m grateful that I get to. – Sarah Armstrong, JD’23, she/her
I chose not to do EIP because I came to law school knowing I wanted to help the most vulnerable and marginalized communities. I was not willing to compromise my values for the promise of prestige and a higher salary. I also knew that I would be bored to tears working for a law firm, but that working in public interest, I would have my passion and knowledge that I was helping people to sustain me through the long, arduous hours I will inevitably be working as a lawyer. If I had chosen to work at a firm, I knew I would be forced to represent people or companies that I strongly disagreed with, or that I knew were harming the people around me and/or the planet. I am not ok with making that moral compromise, so I will choose instead to work for organizations that represent people I can be proud to advocate for. – Samantha Nagler, JD’23, she/her
I came to law school to learn how to help people and fight against oppressive systems, and I knew that doing EIP wasn’t a viable path for me to do the kind of work I wanted to do. I also was lucky to find a community of people who were similarly committed to pursuing public interest and having that support and validation in the face of institutional promotion of EIP also greatly helped me feel affirmed in my decision not to do EIP. – Fjora Arapi, JD’23, she/her
I came into law school with a plan of what I wanted to do with my Harvard Law degree that was not corporate law. I saw no reason to amend or change that plan at any point just because the path to biglaw is easy! I chose Harvard partially because of the freedom LIPP gives me and just never wanted to do corporate law, so I’m not doing it. – Anonymous, JD’23
In a legal system like ours, the quality and quantity of representation that a party can bring to bear on a situation often determines its result. So it matters greatly that our nation’s most elite lawyers are overwhelmingly using their legal firepower to help corporations maintain and expand their stranglehold on our judicial and political systems. And that is particularly true when it comes to the climate crisis (a report from Law Students for Climate Accountability found that the nation’s 100 most elite law firms facilitated an almost inconceivable $1.36 trillion in fossil fuel transactions, litigated 358 major cases on behalf of oil and gas corporations, and received nearly $35 million to lobby for fossil fuel interests). In law school, we are told again and again that the rule of law is a pillar of societal stability. Yet if that is to be the case, then the legal industry simply must confront the economic, social, and climate crises facing us. Doing anything less constitutes a betrayal of everything that is noble about our profession. And more important, it would represent the abandonment of a fundamental moral responsibility we have as human beings on this breathtaking and profoundly fragile planet we all share. – Aaron Regunberg, JD’22, he/him
I applied to law school because I was committed to a career in public service. I came to Harvard because of LIPP. It can be easy to forget why we came to law school when everyone gets wrapped up in laurel-chasing and Harvard makes it so easy to go into big law. I’m not thrilled about my 300k loan principal but LIPP makes it manageable— you don’t have to give up on your goals to pay off your debt. Stay strong! – Anonymous, JD’22
While I cast absolutely no aspersions on my incredible classmates who chose to participate in EIP for a wide variety of reasons, I’ve found myself drawn to public service and public interest lawyering. As a result, I decided to instead participate in the Virtual Public Interest Interview Program (V-PIIP), and I’m excited to more fully begin my pursuit of a career in public interest appellate law this coming summer. – Jack Bartholet, JD’23, he/him
because public defenders rule and firm lawyers drool – Matt Besman, JD’23, he/him
EIP places you on a track that’s harmful to the world and unhealthy to you as an individual. I’d never do that to myself or my community. – Dane Underwood, JD’23, he/him
I’ve never been interested in big law – public interest work is more challenging, more rewarding, and (in my opinion) more important. – Anonymous, JD’22
I came to law school because I wanted to work to prevent climate crisis. With OPIA’s help, I’m lucky to be able to do so (hopefully in a way that allows me to balance work and life) after graduation. – Nathan Lobel, JD’22, he/him
I came to law school to do public interest work, and I am proud to be doing that work. – Anonymous, JD’22
I care about the direction the world is headed and the speed at which it is headed that way. I want to make change now. – Aaron Nytes, JD’24, he/him
EIP presents corporate big law as morally neutral, when in fact the industry harms our people and our planet. – Anne Delong, JD’24, she/her
I didn’t come to HLS to work for big law. – Lily Cohen, JD’22, she/her
I want to dedicate my career to social and racial justice and am happy Harvard’s LIPP will allow me to do so despite the financial pressure of loans! – Anonymous, JD’23
I CHOSE not to do EIP because I pursued a legal education to serve the most vulnerable in our society, not to work for corporate interests. I consider myself privileged to have the choice, by way of an HLS education, of how I want to impact the world; such privilege comes with the responsibility, and duty, to effectuate justice. For me, prioritizing profit over people and undermining democratic values by exacerbating wealth inequality is deeply unjust. To assist in this corporate plundering of the values I hold closest would be an abdication of the duty I have to my family, my community, and myself. Lex iniusta non est lex – I came to law school to fight for justice, and EIP does not present the avenue for me to achieve that goal. – Nick Soyer, JD’23, he/him
I realized I couldn’t use my degree to help the already rich and powerful in a world so full of disparity. – Marcus Miller, JD’22, he/him
Eight years ago, I worked at a sweatshop where the supervisors would expect us to keep working with blood dripping off our hands. Virtually everyone there was an immigrant worker; most were making minimum wage even after working there for decades. As I organized a union with my coworkers, I had my first real experience fighting against injustice. Since I left that sweatshop, I told myself I’d never forget the horrors I experienced for only a brief period while working there—horrors that people around the world are subjected to day after day—and what it felt like to fight against them. I promised to the world that I would use whatever power and privilege I arrived at in this life to fight against the injustice that I experienced. Working in big law would mean perpetuating these injustices, consolidating even more power into the hands of corporations like the one that made me go home crying every day while I worked at its sweatshop eight years ago. – Tascha Shahriari-Parsa, JD/MPP’24, he/him