Via: HLS News
While some Harvard students use the break between semesters to relax and recharge, others go for something a little more intense, like the chance to work on a legal case with sweeping implications.
For the past several years, Harvard Law School students have spent their break time in Washington, D.C., parsing reams of heady data and crafting nuanced legal arguments to cases headed for the U.S. Supreme Court.
“The idea of the clinic is to get students exposure to working on actual Supreme Court cases at various stages,” said Kevin Russell, a lecturer on law at HLS and a partner in Goldstein & Russell, P.C., a small Washington firm that focuses on practicing before the Supreme Court.
Russell and his partner, Harvard Lecturer Tom Goldstein, run the annual HLS Supreme Court Clinic that pairs small groups of students with the firm’s lawyers. For three weeks, the teams draft certiorari petitions — documents asking the Supreme Court to review cases — or briefs in opposition to certiorari. The students also work on merit and amicus briefs in support of a case, and on preparations for oral arguments.