Dear Readers,
Given that this is a new year and the start of a new semester, there’s no better time than the present to announce that we now have an entirely new executive board. I am happy to tell you that I am your new Editor-in-Chief.
I’d like to thank my predecessor, Jim An, for teaching me almost everything I know about doing this job. With that in mind, my plans for The Record won’t be entirely groundbreaking in that this paper still exists for you. We exist so you, the student body, alumni, and faculty at Harvard Law, can discuss important issues of the day without censorship or fear of reprisal – and more importantly, that mission matters more than ever today.
As a writer and a future lawyer, the reality that actions speak louder than words does frustrate me. I wouldn’t be surprised to find out that public interest lawyers who work on challenging legal issues day by day find slacktivism infuriating, and I’m pretty sure most people get annoyed when other people say things and don’t do anything to back up what they said. But taking a public stance on an issue that matters to you is an action of consequence. It’s possible that your ideas will spread among people who already agree with you and give them better ways to articulate what they already believed. You might even persuade someone else to think differently, even if that happens much later than you originally wrote in.
I’ve actually had several people ask me within the past few weeks, “So how does one get a piece in The Record?” The answer to that question is pretty simple: talk to me! I’m extremely responsive, and given that my last stint as Editor-in-Chief was for a college literary journal, you have every reason to believe that I won’t be unkind to you (I mean, have you met creative writers? You cannot possibly take enough measures to avoid stepping on their egos!). There is so much going on in and out of the legal world, and I think all of you are qualified to talk about it or even investigate. At the very least, I invite you to try, especially if you believe you’ve been silenced or that you have something new to add to a conversation. Who knows? If you become an alumnus of note, future Record staff members may dissect what you wrote (or, if you didn’t write anything, a blurb about your partying habits may end up highlighted on our website). Maybe you’ll even learn to be braver.
– Kate Thoreson
Masthead Effective Spring 2018
Editor-in-Chief: Kate Thoreson ’19
Online Editor: Andrew Langen ’19
Opinion Editor: Tom Wolfe ’19
Contributors
Evelyn Douek, S.J.D. candidate
Mark Satta ’19
Leilani Doktor ’19