The Global Presence of Harvard Law School

It's hard to miss the presence and influence of Harvard Law School, or HLS, in all things educational. The school consistently launches new initiatives and programs that affect our culture in ways no other organized body can. From the Harvard Library Laboratory Blog to the HLS Green Living Program, it's clear that this is far more than a campus that teaches the legal profession.

Every year, approximately 12% of the applicants wishing to get accepted actually receive the letter that invites them to become a part of the HLS family. Those who do get accepted prepare themselves for a rigorous test of the human condition, yet they thrive on it. The faculty, award winning, brilliant and dedicated, works to make the HLS experience everything it should be: challenging, trying and extraordinary. The campus, located in one of the most historically rich areas in the country, Cambridge, Massachusetts, is its own community. Students attend seminars, join reading groups and research efforts and become a part of the many clinical programs while never having to leave the campus. The work done on the massive campus has ''altered the course of political events, improved the lives of individual clients and produced some of the most admired and intelligent lawyers in our contemporary society''.


Harvard Law School is the oldest in the United States and boasts a law library that is unmatched anywhere in the world. Currently headed by Dean Marth Minow, the school enjoys close to $2 billion in private endowments and has an enrollment of around 2,000. Tuition hovers close to $43,000 annually and the bar pass rate is near 95%. More than 140 federal judges received their degrees from Harvard Law School, including the ''majority of the Supreme Court''. Congress members include Russell Feingold and Charles Schumer, among others and its impressive number of luminaries include President Barack Obama.

And if you're wondering just what doors open for Harvard Law School graduates, more than 560 received judicial clerkships since 2006 and more than 120 over the past five graduating classes now possess tenure-track law teaching positions. Other well known and respected business leaders who possess a JD from HLS, but do their good works in other fields, include Sumner Redstone, owner of National Amusements; Toys ''R'' Us Chairman Gerald L. Storch and former Delta Airlines CEO Gerald Grinstein.

Despite the sometimes critical analysis of the school, including a 1980s political dispute between faculty newcomers and those who'd been a part of the HLS family for some time, this school remains as dedicated now to its student body as it was when it first opened its doors in 1817. Whether or not it is too competitive is an almost moot argument, since the graduates who leave HLS become such influential and dedicated world leaders and of course, incredible attorneys. The school more than meets its challenge each year and the proof is found in boardrooms and courtrooms around the world.
 

• See Law Schools That Send the Most Attorneys to United States Supreme Court Clerkships for more information about getting a clerkship in the US Supreme Court.