HLS Auction Raises Money, Entertains

The accustomed setting for the polite interchanges of moot court got a slightly different sound at the Law School yesterday: an auctioneer's "Going once, going twice, sold."

Last night, the First Annual Harvard law School student public Interest Auction took place in Austin Hall--and raised more than $25,000.

A group of mostly first-year law students organized the event to benefit law students seeking to work in public interest jobs over the summer.

"I came to law school with the goal of becoming more involved in public interest," said first-year law student Shannon Liss '90, an organizer of the auction. "The purpose [of this event] is to send a message to the Harvard community that public interest work should be made a higher priority since so many students care about the issue."

Liss was among 180 students who were unable to get funding from the law school's Wasserstein/Andres grant for public interest work.

Auction organizers said students volunteering over the summer need funding to cover expenses and to help pay off tuition loans. The auction aimed to provide funding to students overlooked for grants.

"Many students, particularly ones who have loans feel a pressure to take high-paying law firm jobs," said first year law student Kim Parker, a volunteer for the event.

The event, modelled after the successful public interest auctions at Stanford Law School and the Kennedy School of Government, included both a highly charged live auction and a silent auction.

The live auction was conducted by Professor of Law Charles J. Ogletree Jr., director of the Criminal Justice Institute, and Abbe L. Smith, deputy director of the Institute.

The auctioneers were greeted by a large, lively crowd of mostly law school students and faculty members who vied for items such as a set of four Boston Red Sox tickets, which went for $240, and a chance to spend a week in a villa in Florence, Italy.

The winner of the Italian villa stay, first-year law student James Berman '90, paid $1000 for the villa. He said he paid the large sum "so that [he] could drink cheap Chianti in an appropriate place, and help a good cause."

The highlight of the live auction came when a bidding war began between Law School Dean Robert C. Clark and Weld Professor of Law Charles R. Nesson over the opportunity to be serenaded by "Scales of Justice," a law School a capella group.

As the bidding proceeded, law school students chanted "Charlie, Charlie" for the popular Nesson, who supports raising the law school curve from a B-minus.

Finally the two worked out a compromise so the both would be serenaded by the group for $300 each.

The silent auction offered an array of items donated by Harvard faculty members and law firms, corporation, alumni, and businesses in Cambridge and Boston.