After the first semester of law school—including standing alone under the Socratic spotlight—one of the best aspects of the new Problem Solving Workshop in winter term is learning to rely on classmates while teaming up to resolve complex legal issues, students say.
“My favorite thing about [the workshop] was the opportunity to work in groups with other students,” says Abraham Funk ’12, who adds that the wide variety of life experience among his classmates proved fascinating as well as invaluable in working through the problems.
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Erica Harrison ’12 enjoyed the workshop, “especially because it gave me the opportunity to interact with my classmates in a way I wasn’t able to do in a formal setting in the fall.” Working collaboratively, she says, was not only enjoyable but very effective once each group figured out a working style that fit.
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The team approach didn’t necessarily come naturally to everyone, according to Lillian Langford ’12, “especially here at Harvard, where there tend to be very ambitious, very driven people who’ve been successful working alone. A lot of us, myself included, can use that practice of working in groups,” says Langford, who before HLS was an investigator for a public defender’s office in Florida. “You do get a lot more done.”