Law Students Pit Legal Education Against School

BOSTON--Two Harvard Law School students put their legal education to use yesterday, confronting their own school in the courtroom of the state's highest court.

Arguing on behalf of the school's Coalition for Civil Rights (CCR) in its suit, third-year students Caroline C. Wittcoff and Laura E. Hankins squared off against a Harvard attorney in front of the Supreme Judicial Court.

Whether or not they convinced the court that CCR should have the right to sue the University over its faculty hiring practices, they impressed observers--including family, friends and legal colleagues--who packed the courtroom.

Presenting their case under the protection of the 1990 Massachusetts Civil Right Act, Wittcoff and Hankins handled a constant flow of pointed questions from Chief Justice Paul J. Liacos.

And the parents of the students said they couldn't have been prouder of there daughters.

Hankins' parents made the trip up from Baltimore and Wittcoff's mother came, armed with a video recorder, from Los Angeles.

"I thought it was a good case," said William Hankins. "And it does harm the students not to have [the law] come to them from someone they identify with."

In the case, Hankins, who is Black, frequently made passionate personal appeals to the justices.

"That discrimination continues to hurt me," she said.

The discrimination issue intensified when Liacos grilled Hankins about the amount of evidence CCR has to back up the specific discrimination charges.

With Hankins looking visibly stunned by the Justice's Socratic style, Liacos offered a life-line. "So you're saying you haven't gotten to that point procedurally?"

"Say yes, say yes," begged several will-wishers in stage whispers form their seats in the courtroom. Hankins quickly complied.

But the crowd turned silent as Liacos challenged Wittcoff's sense of legal precedent. Wittcoff called the case "The Brown v. Board of Education of the 1990s" in the introduction to her argument.

"Does that [the similarities with the Brown case] make a difference in regards to your standing in this case?" Liacos asked in a patronizing tone.

University Attorney Allan A. Ryan also attacked the students' argument, which he said has changed since a hearing in Middlesex Superior court last May. The judicial body ruled that the students had no standing to sue.

"These students have tried to re-tool their case and say minorities are hurt more than others," Ryan said.

Still, Liacos emerged from his encounter with the law students with complimentary words.

"You're going to have to work hard to meet their standard," Liacos told Ryan as he stepped up to the podium and Hankins sat down.

"I'll try, your honor," replied Ryan.

The law students also appeared to have won respect from their legal elders for their style, though not for the substance of their case.

"I thought the students presented their case well," said Daniel Steiner '54, vice-president and general counsel.

"But it's hard to see in a law school with such a diverse faculty and student body how they can claim discrimination," Steiner said.

Associate Dean of the Law School Daniel J. Meltzer '72 said, "I was pleased with the quality of the student's performance. But I don't think their arguments have merit."