![handle is hein.journals/hlrec118 and id is 1 raw text is: - Joint degrees afesmokin
The Record Editorial: Page 5.
'T h e R e c o rdThe Independent Weekly Newspaper at Harvard Law School
www.hlrecord.org Volume 118, No. Thursday, February 5, 200f
HLS receives record num*W
of Skadden fellowships
BY ADINA LEVINE
Eight Harvard Law School stu-
dents received two-year Skadden
fellowships for public interest,
setting a record for the greatest
number of law school students
from a specific school to receive
the fellowships in a given year.
For our-students, it's really
meaningful, com-
mented
Shabecoff,
of the
York University is second with
51.
The purpose of the fellowship
is to provide beginning attorneys
opportunities to provide civil
opportunities to the poor,j
explained Susan Plum, founding
director of the Skadden
Fellowship Foundation.
The two-year fellowships pro-
Project to advocate on behalf of
limited English proficient stu-
dents (James Freeman '03).
I was interested in this fellow-
ship because I felt I had to design
my own project to do the work I
wanted to do, asserted Carrie
Schneider, 3L, who will be work-
ing at the Greater Boston
Institute at The Conservation
Law Foundation
Alexa Who wins in the end is not just Harvard attempting to
director increase public
Bernard students, but the bunch of communities transportation for
Koteen Office of whi
Public Interest
Advising. They get
to approach the
organization that
they'd really love to work for,
and say 'would you take me on
for free, so I can work on a proj-
ect that I design?' They get to do
what they're passionate about.
In 1992, Harvard boasted
seven Skadden fellows and had
six each in 1994, 1995, 1998 and
2003.
Who wins in the end is not
just Harvard students, but the
bunch of communities who have
students serving them, asserted
Shabecoff. All Skadden fellows
will emerge as well-trained and
committed public interest
lawyers who will do great work
in different communities.
Harvard Law School also holds
the cumulative record: 75
Harvard graduates have received
Skadden fellowships since the
fund's creation in 1988. New
L have students serving ther
- Alexa Shabecoff
vide a $37,500 salary for 28 stu-
dents committed to public inter-
est. Graduating law students and
judicial clerks approach organi-
zations of their choosing and cre-
ate proposals before applying.
The awarding of the fellowships
is, according to Plum, extremely
competitive.
Students design their own
dream job, asserted Plum.
The eight Harvard students
receiving this year's fellowships
include four '04 graduates, as
well as four judicial clerks. Their
projects include improving hous-
ing for low-income tenants in
Washinton, D.C. (Nicole De
Sario '03), representing children
with special educational needs in
Jamaica Plains, Massachusetts
(Michael Gregory '04), and
working with Advancement
low income minority
communities. No
one was hiring.
The Skadden fel-
lowship allows stu-
dents to enter public interest
fields that are otherwise unavail-
able because of financial
restraints or required prior expe-
rience. For example, Melanca
Clark '02 will be working for the
NAACP Legal Defense and
Education Fund, a job which usu-
ally requires previous experience
or training.
There's no way [without the
Skadden fellowship] the LDF
would have taken them straight
out of law school, said
Shabecoff.
The Skadden fellowship adver-
tises itself as not simply a two-
year program, but an ongoing
investment in promoting public
interest law careers. In this
regard, it has proven enormously
Continued on Page 3...
Legal Aid -Bureau elects new president
BY JEN CANNISTRA
Charlotte Sanders, a second year stu-
dent from White Stone, Virginia, began her
tenure this week as president of the
Harvard Legal Aid Bureau, taking the
reins from 3L Susan Rohol. Founded in
1913 and incorporated in 1914, the
Harvard Legal Aid Bureau is the oldest
student-run legal services office in the
nation. The Bureau is made up of approxi-
mately forty-five 2L and 3L student mem-
bers, who are selected through a competi-
tive process during the spring of their first
year. They litigate in state courts, federal
courts and administrative agencies in prac-
tice areas such as housing, benefits and
family law. Student attorneys at the
Bureau provide free legal services to low-
income individuals in Middlesex and
Suffolk counties. I am honored, says
Sanders, to be able to carry on the
Bureau's tradition of student leadership,
high quality client representation and
hands-on legal experience.
Sanders, a 2000 graduate of Columbia
University and a 1999 Truman Scholar,
has always aspired to be an advocate for
progressive change and social justice.
Following internships at the Legal Aid
Society in New York City and the
Department of Justice Office of Policy
Development during college, Sanders
spent two years prior to law school work-
ing for the Washington Lawyers'
Committee for Civil Rights and Urban
Affairs in its Equal Employment
Opportunity Project. Sanders spent last
summer interning in the Farmworker
Division of the Georgia Legal Services
Program in Atlanta, and she will intern at
the Migrant Farmworker Justice Project, a
division of Florida Legal Services, and the
Atlanta Regional Office of the Mexican
American Legal Defense and Educational
Fund this summer.
Sanders says that she knew she wanted
to join the Harvard Legal Aid Bureau
before even arriving in Cambridge. I plan
to go into legal services work as my career,
and the Bureau provides the perfect oppor-
tunity to get an early start. She also
enjoys the practical skills that the Bureau
offers. I have had the opportunity to inter-
view clients in Spanish, formulate a theory
of the case, conduct discovery, argue
motions and cross-examine witnesses.
But Sanders was primarily drawn by the
chance for contact with the outside
world beyond HLS. The Bureau allows
all of its members the opportunity to look
beyond the Law School to problems of
poverty and inequality and do what we can and helps coordinate policy initiatives
to address them. including expansion into test case areas
As President, Sanders oversees the such as special education, workers' rights
Board of Directors, sits on the Intake and and consumer law. Sanders also hopes to
Diversity Committees, works with the increase alumni involvement at the Bureau
Law School administration and faculty Continued on Page 2...
Great skate!
Kagan builds ice rink
BY CLINTON DICK
Even though the Law School will not begin renovating Harkness
Commons until this summer, students can in the meantime skirt
around that eyesore and skate onto the newest addition to Kagan's
campus beautification efforts: a new ice skating rink on Jarvis
Field.
The project was Kagan's attempt to combat plunging temper-
atures and students' moods. I was walking around feeling sorry
for myself because it was so cold and other students were walk-
ing around feeling sorry for themselves because they were
cold, she says. In the end using the temperature for some sort
of enjoyment should take one's mind off of numbing noses and
Continued on Page 2...
m.°t](ViewImageLocal?handle=hein.journals/hlrec118&div=1&collection=&method=preview&ext=.png&size=3)
What Is HeinOnline?
Contact us for annual subscription options:
Already a HeinOnline Subscriber?
profiles profiles most
Contact us for annual subscription options:
Already a HeinOnline Subscriber?
profiles profiles most
Contact us for annual subscription options:
Already a HeinOnline Subscriber?
profiles profiles most