Community Life

 

The Bureau is not only an amazing place to work, it is a wonderful opportunity to make friends and find professional colleagues. Most members find they welcome the opportunity to go to the Bureau every day to get work done and hang out with friends. In addition, the Bureau offers excellent informal opportunities for socializing (hanging out in our lounge, holiday dinners, movie nights, pot lucks, parties, tv show evenings, and so much more). Most members feel that the Bureau has transformed their law school experience and "can’t imagine law school without it!”

Along with the casual events mentioned above, there are traditional events organized annually. Each year, the Bureau organizes two retreats for the Bureau membership: a weekend retreat in the autumn that focuses on building community within the Bureau and a day-long retreat in the spring aimed at discussing important Bureau policies. The Fall Retreat usually occurs in October and takes place at a bed-and-breakfast location away from Cambridge. The retreat consists of activities that facilitate bonding amongst Bureau members, help first-year members to become more involved with and invested in the Bureau, and create a diverse and productive community. The spring retreat gives the Bureau membership an opportunity to address important academic, litigation, and institutional policies and consider potential improvements. Additionally, the Bureau sponsors at least one pub crawl each semester, when members explore the different bars in Cambridge and Boston. There is a banquet at the end of each academic year, and there are Staff-Student Socials each semester to foster social relationships between students and clinical instructors.

Even after the two-year commitment, members remained connected to the Bureau through alumni networking opportunities. Alums of the Bureau; which include a long list of distinguished judges such as Supreme Court Justice William Brennan, renowned constitutional scholars Professors Laurence Tribe and Erwin Chemerinsky, and numerous partners at prestigious law firms; participate in the Bureau in many ways. In addition to fundraising, alums participate on the Alumni Advisory Board that advises the Board on major policy decisions and assists with large projects; speak at and attend Bureau events such as our recent panels on post-Katrina poverty law challenges and the importance of clinical education; and through less formal methods. For example, in January, several students were treated to an unusual experience when former Bureau president Deval Patrick, ‘82, was elected Governor of Massachusetts and invited Bureau members to attend his inauguration ball. The event proved an opportunity to take part in a discussion of the Deval administration’s social agenda for the current term. Later that month Bureau student attorney Julie Park and Managing Director Dave Grossman spoke before a Patrick – Murray Housing Commission.