Getting Acquainted With Harvard Law School

Among the many law schools in the United States, Harvard Law School stands out for being one of the extremely selective legal education institutions in the country. Moreover, it is also one of the oldest law schools as it was established in 1817. In terms of age, the law school is second only to the Marshall-Whyte School of Law at the College of St. William and Mary, which was founded in 1779. Harvard Law School also prides itself for having the largest law library in the world. Located in Cambridge in the state of Massachusetts, the law school has an endowment of $840 million.

Harvard Law School is one of the professional graduate schools of the Harvard University. It has earned the reputation for being one of the law schools that are very difficult to get into. Most of its accepted applicants obtained Law School Admission Test (LSAT) scores ranging from 170 to 175 out of 180. Moreover, only about ten percent of applicants are admitted into its freshmen curriculum. Its admissions process is very strict and includes telephone interviews, which are unusual among law schools.

As one of the oldest law schools in the nation, Harvard Law School is credited for coming up with the standard first-year curriculum for law schools all over the United States. The areas of study commonly covered in a freshman law curriculum are contracts, property, torts, criminal law and civil procedure. A typical freshman class in the law school is made up of an estimated 550 students, which are divided into seven smaller groups. Harvard Law School dean, Christopher Columbus Langdell, also pioneered the case method of law education, which is a common teaching model in many United States law schools. Lecture halls had been built back in the 1870s to accommodate this Socratic method of teaching law. The campus of the law school is located in the northern part of the Harvard Yard, which is at the center of the university. The largest building in the Harvard Law School, the Langdell Hall, was named after its former dean and is home to its extensive law library.

The Harvard Law School also has implemented various programs under its name. The Harvard Legal Aid Bureau is among these. It is one of the oldest legal services offices in the country and is managed by law students. It was founded to provide legal services to the community and was meant to provide law students with the chance to improve their professional skill. Seven supervising lawyers manage the Bureau and twenty student members handle its cases. Usually these cases involve housing law, family law, government benefits, unemployment benefits and wages.

Another program implemented by the Harvard Law School is the Labor and Worklife Program that focus on researching the implications of work on society. As part of this program, experts and scholars are gathered to discuss labor issues that impact the law, economy and society, as a whole. Moreover, through this program, labor leaders are provided extensive education on labor issues through its training program labeled as the Harvard Trade Union Program.

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