This time last year I was finishing up my pre-law life. I had no conception of what law school, let alone Harvard Law School, would really be like. I couldn’t get time off work to come to an admitted students weekend, so the large blanks in my imagination were blurry, made up of whatever I could glean from books, friends and the internet.
From the outside, law school was alleged to be a vicious environment, where study groups evaluated résumés and the curve set everyone on edge and against each other. Professors stalked the classrooms, obsessed with humiliating the weak students, socratically eviscerating the unsuspecting and unprepared.
But of course, it wasn’t really like that. Perhaps I’ve been lucky in my experiences; I certainly feel that way. After all, there’s only one Professor Hanson. How can we ever thank him, our section leader, sufficiently? The deft fashion in which he bonded us together and set a high bar of mutual support and love will forever be my model for effective leadership. Or Professors Frug, Lahav, Gersen, Goldsmith and Wu, whose occasional piercing cold calls were so clearly borne out of a genuine and abiding passion for the subject, and the desire to instill knowledge in us, that it never stung too badly, if it hurt at all.
My section – section six – all eighty something of them: unique, caring, passionate, kind and brilliant. Always ready to help one another with notes, outlines, advice, a supportive word, even a hug. It can’t just be luck, can it? Because it felt that way out of section, too. There was unexpected camaraderie and whispered advice outside the interview rooms during SIP. The Editor of this newspaper, Michael Shammas, who took the time to chat to this 1L at a party and afterwards never failed to enthusiastically greet me in the hallways: never underestimate the power of a friendly face in a sea of strangers. Perhaps a dozen other 2Ls and 3Ls gave up their time not just dutifully but enthusiastically over the year to talk about their experiences, successes and failures with summer jobs, SPOs, Journals, and in doing so helped me more than I can describe. And I could thank by name each member of Harvard Defenders, and the staff there, who give up their time to help with other people’s problems, build each other up and provide a home inside the clinical wing that’s perhaps as necessary to the students as it is to the clients we serve.
Tempers frayed at times – more or less than other years, I couldn’t say – but I was moved and changed by my experience as part of a student body that could never be accused of indifference. I’m grateful to those who are spending so many hours in a genuine effort to make the law school better, and I applaud those who stand up for different principles, even when it must have been exhausting.
This year has been extraordinary and exhilarating, and though the institution has undeniable flaws, if Harvard Law School is the sum of its students then I’m proud to be a part of it. I cannot wait for next year.