2008 Woodie Awards
Vote Absentee
Harvard Law: The New York of Public Interest Communities
Erin Archerd
Issue date: 3/15/07 Section: Opinion
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Friday night I went to the Spring Public Interest Potluck. Silly me, I had not realized that the Harvard Legal Aid Bureau (HLAB) was right across the street from the law school. I had heard it was nearby, but right across the street? I wonder if I'm the only person who didn't know how close it was. Don't get me wrong, I have been enjoying my clinical over at the Legal Services Center immensely, but if I had known as a 1L (who lived on campus and considered walking from Hastings to Dane a long, cold walk) that the Legal Aid Bureau was that close to campus, I would have given it a second and third look. Don't get me wrong about this either: the Legal Aid Bureau does valuable work, as I learned from the conversations I overheard at the dinner.
Last semester's Public Interest Potluck was at the home of the director of the Bernard Koteen Office of Public Interest Advising, Alexa Shabecoff. Alexa showed everyone around her home, which to my tiny apartment and dorm-acclimated eyes looked enormous. "Look around everyone," she said to us, sweeping her hand to include the addition to the house, "This is what you can buy with two public interest salaries." As gratifying as it was to see what financial planning can do, it was much easier to walk across the street, than to venture into the suburbs via the convoluted streets of Boston. (I should add, however, that Alexa does have the cutest dog in the whole world.)
But I digress. What struck me at this latest public interest potluck was the diversity of faces and experiences. It's easy to start feeling lonely as a student who would like to do public interest work. That might sound strange to many PI types reading this column. It undoubtedly sounds even stranger to that cohort of students who saw the public interest office dismantled in 1989, only to have Dean Clark reinstate it after a negative publicity campaign led by the students. You may even think me completely loony when I say that I'm working at the Legal Services Center (LSC) this semester, so I spend two days a week literally surrounded by people doing public interest work.
Last semester's Public Interest Potluck was at the home of the director of the Bernard Koteen Office of Public Interest Advising, Alexa Shabecoff. Alexa showed everyone around her home, which to my tiny apartment and dorm-acclimated eyes looked enormous. "Look around everyone," she said to us, sweeping her hand to include the addition to the house, "This is what you can buy with two public interest salaries." As gratifying as it was to see what financial planning can do, it was much easier to walk across the street, than to venture into the suburbs via the convoluted streets of Boston. (I should add, however, that Alexa does have the cutest dog in the whole world.)
But I digress. What struck me at this latest public interest potluck was the diversity of faces and experiences. It's easy to start feeling lonely as a student who would like to do public interest work. That might sound strange to many PI types reading this column. It undoubtedly sounds even stranger to that cohort of students who saw the public interest office dismantled in 1989, only to have Dean Clark reinstate it after a negative publicity campaign led by the students. You may even think me completely loony when I say that I'm working at the Legal Services Center (LSC) this semester, so I spend two days a week literally surrounded by people doing public interest work.
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