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SKILL SHARPENER
A Public Interest Vocation [by Erica Winter] The Harvard Legal Aid Bureau is the oldest student-run law practice in the country, celebrating its 90th anniversary this year. Third-year Harvard Law student Jennifer Cannistra is in her second year with the Bureau, and, as far as public interest law goes, she’s just getting started.
After graduating from Princeton in 2001,
While the work at Harvard Legal Aid fulfills
in so she could talk about her problems.
Cannistra deferred Harvard Law for a year to
the pro bono service requirement, the ap-
Because of the progress the client made
go to Oxford University on a Rotary Am-
plication process for the positions there does
after receiving these services, she passed
bassadorial Fellowship and study for her
not go through the Pro Bono Service office.
her probationary period and can stay in her
master’s degree in Education. M.A. in hand,
Students are required to apply for positions
apartment. “I like the social service part of
she returned to the United States and started
directly to the Harvard Legal Aid Bureau in
the work,” says Cannistra.
at Harvard Law, already knowing that she
the spring of their first year, and they must
wanted to pursue a career in public interest
commit to two years of working there if they
law focusing on educational issues and law.
are accepted.
At Harvard Law, there are “lots of opportunities to be involved,” says Cannistra. She credits the favorable public-service atmo-
“I’ve always wanted to do public inter-
Cannistra’s work often involves elderly
sphere in part to the new Dean, Elena Kagan,
est law,” says Cannistra, who is one of 45
clients facing eviction from their homes. She
who became the first woman to be Dean of
second- and third-year Harvard Law students
often argues for clients’ rights under the
Harvard Law School in July of 2003. Kagan
currently working at the Bureau. Harvard Le-
Massachusetts Fair Housing Act, arguing
has spent much of her career in public ser-
gal Aid’s practice areas do not include edu-
a reasonable-accommodation defense for
vice, including a clerkship with U.S. Supreme
cational issues, so Cannistra has been work-
landlords to allow her clients to become bet-
Court Justice Thurgood Marshall and a stint
ing on housing cases for indigent clients.
ter tenants before trying to kick them out.
in the Clinton White House, helping to shape national domestic policy.
Since she has put in so many hours there--20 per week, on top of her regular class load--
One case Cannistra worked on last year
Cannistra has been able to specialize in her
stands out in her mind. An elderly woman
The new pro bono service requirement “gives
pro bono work by assisting elderly clients in
who could hardly walk and was “disheveled”
a broader, public-interest feel to the school,”
need of legal help with housing problems.
had lived in her apartment for years. The
Cannistra says. In addition to the positions at
neighbors complained to the landlord that
Harvard Legal Aid, there are many direct-
Cases on housing law, family law, and ben-
the woman was disturbing the peace, and the
service organizations where students can
efits law are the types that are accepted at
landlord wanted to evict her.
volunteer. In her first year, Cannistra joined a campus group working as mediators in small
the Legal Aid Bureau. The students there do not handle criminal cases, personal injury
Cannistra argued the legal points of the
claims court. Other students volunteer to
cases, or bankruptcy and workers compen-
issue, including arguments that her client’s
write briefs for the Recording Artists Project
sation issues. They also do not represent
problems were related to her disability.
or advocate for international human rights.
other students, unless those students are on
The client was given a probationary period
welfare.
in which to change her behavior and avoid
Cannistra also values having a school of
eviction.
education at Harvard to help her stay directly connected to that field. This semester, she is
Harvard Legal Aid has six staff attorneys who supervise the student work part time. One of
Cannistra also contacted Boston Elder
a Teaching Fellow for the class, “Schools and
these supervisors also does administration of
Services on behalf of her client. The elderly
the Law.”
the program part time. The law students do
woman then received Meals on Wheels, got
everything from answering the phones, office
into a physical therapy program, had a com-
When she leaves Harvard Law, Cannistra
work, legal work, and case-intake decisions.
panion come to cook meals and help to clean
will go to work at the Washington, DC, firm
the apartment, and had a counselor come
Hogan & Hartson for one year. The firm has
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