Law Students Protest Recruiting Interviews

Approximately 175 law students carrying signs reading, "Law firms stop discrimination in your city," rallied in front of the Charles Hotel yesterday to protest a visit by recruiters from the law firm of Baker & McKenzie.

The students said they were protesting both the presence of the firm, whose recruiters have been accused of sexism, and the Law School's interview complaint procedures, which many said were unsatisfactory.

Last fall, a Michigan law school student interviewed by representatives of Baker & McKenzie accused the firm of asking her irrelevant and sexist questions. A Michigan investigative committee later supported the student's allegations.

The firm denied that its recruiters had acted inappropriately, but discontinued its visits to Michigan, saying that it wanted to avoid student protests.

Law students protesting at the Charles yesterday said that Baker & McKenzie had shown a blatant disrespect for Michigan's impartial grievance procedure.

"The complaint process is the only means of redress a student has when a firm makes racist remarks," said Nyria Melchor, a second year law student.

And protestors said that the episode illustrated the need for a better grievance procedure at Harvard.

Steven R. Donziger, a third-year students, said that he has spoken to "dozens of people, all of whom had complaints" about their interviews with several of the law firms that have come to the campus.

But "very few of them had confidence in the complaint process," Donziger said, and as a result did not communicate their experiences with Law School officials.

But N. June Thompson, the director of the office of career services at the LawSchool, said yesterday that there were, in fact,several student complaints each year. But she saidthat because the complaints are handledconfidentially, they have gone unpublicized.

Among the protestors were representatives of LaAlianza, a Hispanic law student organization, theBlack Law Students Association and the Committeeon Gay and Lesbian Legal Issues.

Skirmishes

During the protest, the group became involvedin several skirmishes and disputes with policeofficers who were located outside of the CharlesHotel. The entire rally was eventually moved bypolice officers from an interior courtyard of thehotel to an exterior courtyard near the street.

One student, Peter M. Cicchino, reported thathe was assaulted by two men claiming to be policeofficers. The two men would not submit badges orother means of identification when asked, Cicchinosaid. Neither the Cambridge or Harvard policedepartments had received a report of this incidentas of late yesterday afternoon, according tospokespersons for the departments.

Joshua A. Gerstein contributed to thereporting of this article.