When entering a new environment, we always face the question of how willing we should be to allow our beliefs and ideals to change. To help us answer just that, we asked Randall Kennedy, the Michael R. Klein Professor of Law, to share his views on just how law school can — or should — change you.
Interview conducted and condensed by The Record President Robert Mahari.
Q. How have you seen students change during their time at HLS?
A. Education is change. On day one, students might view a particular legal problem with no real knowledge as to how it might be solved. Over three years they learn how a problem might be solved through application of doctrines, legislation and so on. Apart from gaining substantive knowledge, students develop certain habits, such as the sober second look, and the idea of looking at things from another person’s point of view — an adversary’s point of view.
Q. How do you explain the observation that many incoming students’ stated ambition is to drive positive change, yet most students leave HLS to practice at large firms?
A. Over the years I have heard a recurrent complaint: Students come to law school wanting to engage in social change, and the law school then undermines these ambitions. Basically, the complaint is that law school has a corrosive effect; people come in wanting to be Ralph Nader yet leave as complacent tools for whoever is willing to pay them the most. I’m skeptical of that complaint.
I question the depth of the commitment of complainants who renounce their aspirations while pointing an accusing finger at their surroundings. I’ve known many people who entered law school with idealistic intentions and finished law school with those idealistic intentions still very much in place, in fact, reinforced. One of the great things about HLS is that it is a big place that can help people realize their ambitions with the understanding that those ambitions do vary dramatically.
I know that going to a firm is often portrayed as some sort of capitulation, as if people who go work for firms are doomed. But I know people who work at firms who live very fulfilled lives. There are people who work at firms who do all sorts of things, including engaging in public-spirited, socially progressive endeavors.
When people apply to law school, they often say what they think their audience wants to hear. Do they actually believe what they say in any sort of serious way? Well, in my experience, the answer is quite often no. They are not serious because they do not know much about what different career paths entail.
There needs to be much more attention paid to the sociology of legal careers. Lawyers from big firms in big cities are prominent at the law school. I would like to see students introduced to lawyers in small firms or, for that matter, lone practitioners who create interesting careers in medium sized or small cities or even towns in various parts of this huge country. I would also like to see students introduced to a wider array of cause organizations. Not just the established, prestige organizations — the ACLU and the NAACP Legal Defense Fund. But obscure, bold, new ones
Q. Have you observed particular gaps in the offerings at HLS?
A. While I am not a sociologist of the bar, my impression is that the legal talent generated by HLS is situated among the forces in American life that are powerful, that are privileged, that are affluent, that can pay for the highly skilled people that graduate from HLS.
The sorts of hierarchies that exist in the United States are scandalous. It’s scandalous that there are so many who live lives that are marked by deprivation, severe deprivation. I’m really glad when students say that they want to do something about that and I’m really glad when students — and for that matter, professors and lawyers — gear up to do something. Students should demand that the law school provide them with the educational resources needed to advance those sorts of campaigns and aspirations.
Q. Given all that has happened in 2020, has your view on the gaps in our legal education changed?
A. No, my mind has not changed much. For a long while I have felt torn. On the one hand, I situate myself on the ideological left. I think that our society is scarred by terrible inequities that were displayed in cruel relief in the summer of 2020 by the George Floyd moment and the egregious response to the pandemic. Hence, I want the law school to provide generous support to those who want to address the many social wrongs that surround us. I recognize, however, that the legal universe is large, that this community is diverse and that the law school should find ways to be attentive to the aspirations of students and instructors whose views not only vary but sometimes conflict.
Harvard Law School is a big, sprawling place where ambitious, energetic people of all sorts can find kindred spirits. I have always liked that big-tent, live-and-let live, rambunctious feel.
Q. Do you have any other final words of advice for the incoming class?
A. Three years is going to go by very quickly. I urge people to seize the time right from the first moment. Seize the moment and enjoy yourself for goodness’ sake! As a law school student your primary “work” is to read, learn new things and argue. Luxuriate in that situation!
Obviously, I liked being a student — I’m a professional student. I live in the law school, and this is my 36th season. I urge incoming students to make full use of this institution. Your classmates here are remarkable people from all around the world, so make full use of them. Make full use of your professors. Make full use of the dozens and dozens of people who come to speak here. The law school is bursting with all sorts of knowledge, all sorts of ideas, all sorts of possibilities. Make use of it.