Over the weekend of March 4, 2011, Mary Hutton '11, Elizabeth Alfred ’12, Adelina Janiak '12, and Astrid Paniagua '12 traveled to the Sargent Center in Peterborough, NH, for the annual Robert M. Cover Public Interest Law Retreat. The retreat is held each year in late February with the goal of bringing together law practitioners, professors, and students from across the country who share a common passion for public interest law.
The Cover Retreat hosted workshops, panels, and speakers covering issues and topics in public interest law, as well as networking, socializing, and recreational opportunities. Hutton noted, “attending the retreat was a wonderful experience. My only complaint is that there was simply not enough time to attend all the workshops on topics ranging from immigration law to educational equality to starting your own legal nonprofit.”
The overall tone was informal, fostering learning and collaboration with the various students and practitioners. Alfred explained, "the advantage of being at retreat with the speakers is the opportunity to follow up on what they said. It was a privilege to be able to sit, at a meal or during recreational time, with lawyers who are actively succeeding at making the law work for everyone, including the most disadvantaged, and talk about how these lawyers got to where they are and how they view the world. It was inspiring to hear other law students and recent graduates talk about the projects happening at their schools. Probably my favorite part was getting to know the other four New England Law students so well, and talking about how we can bring what we learned at the retreat back to NELB.”
Additionally, Hutton noted the importance of the collaboration between students at the Retreat: "I also very much enjoyed meeting so many different law students who are committed to public interest. Many of these students have already achieved amazing things, from starting their own non-profits (funded by teaching salsa lessons), to forming the first public interest law groups in sometimes hostile academic environments. Spending time in this environment was a good reminder of the reasons I went to law school in the first place."
The CLSR intends to promote and support similar student opportunities in the future.
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