A ’60s Experiment with a Ripple Effect

A ’60s Experiment with a Ripple Effect

During an event at Harvard Law School last year celebrating its 40 clinics and student practice organizations, Van Lanckton ’67 was delighted to hear about so many opportunities for students to work in the public interest today. But he also felt a sense of pride and nostalgia as he recalled the legal services experiment he and hundreds of other students had been part of more than 50 years earlier—at a time when clinical education did not exist at the school and change was in the air.

HLS in Congress

HLS in Congress 1

Harvard Law School graduates across the country won political victories in the U.S. Senate and the U.S. House of Representatives as part of the nation’s 2018 midterm elections.

Q&A with Norman Eisen ’91

Norm Eisen

An HLS education’s value for an author: One of the things I first learned how to do at HLS was how to assimilate large amounts of evidence, gather them up, find the thread that runs through them and tell a story. My message to aspiring authors out there is, this is a good additional utilization […]

Mary Robinson LL.M. ’68

Leading a Movement

President of Ireland from 1990 to 1997 and the United Nations high commissioner for human rights from 1997 to 2002, Mary Robinson LL.M. ’68 now leads the Mary Robinson Foundation—Climate Justice. She’s the author of “Climate Justice: Hope, Resilience, and the Fight for a Sustainable Future,” published in the U.S. in September, and co-producer of Mothers of Invention, a podcast that advocates a feminist approach to fighting climate change.

Linda Chatman Thomsen ’79

Leading a Movement 1

The first woman to serve as the director of the Division of Enforcement at the Securities and Exchange Commission, Linda Chatman Thomsen ’79 led the Enron investigation and expanded enforcement of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. She is now a partner in Davis Polk’s litigation department.

Preeta D. Bansal ’89

Leading a Movement 2

After serving as New York’s solicitor general and working in private law practice, Preeta D. Bansal ’89 played a major role in the Obama administration’s first term as general counsel for the Office of Management and Budget. In 2015, she co-founded the Social Emergence Corporation to explore ways to encourage communication and community. She is a senior adviser to the MIT Media Lab’s Social Machines Laboratory.

Katie Biber ’04

Leading a Movement 3

A former election lawyer and the general counsel for Mitt Romney’s 2012 presidential campaign, Katie Biber ’04 now works in Silicon Valley. After a stint as senior counsel at Airbnb, she’s the general counsel and corporate secretary at Thumbtack.