Apsara A. Iyer, a second-year legislation pupil at Harvard Legislation College, was elected the 137th president of the Harvard Legislation Assessment, turning into the primary Indian American lady to carry the place.
The Legislation Assessment, based in 1887, is among the many oldest student-run authorized scholarship publications. Earlier editors of the group embrace Supreme Court docket Justices Stephen Breyer, Ketanji Brown Jackson ’92, and Ruth Bader Ginsburg, in addition to former President Barack Obama, who served because the assessment’s 104th chief.
Within the Legislation College’s Jan. 30 press launch, Priscila E. Coronado, Iyer’s predecessor, mentioned the publication is “extraordinarily fortunate” to have Iyer on the helm.
“Apsara has modified the lives of many editors for the higher, and I do know she is going to proceed to take action,” Coronado wrote. “From the beginning, she has impressed her fellow editors together with her exceptional intelligence, thoughtfulness, heat, and fierce advocacy.”
“I can’t wait to see what Quantity 137 will obtain underneath her management,” she added.
Iyer grew up in Indiana and attended Phillips Academy in Andover, Massachusetts. She graduated from Yale in 2016, receiving a bachelor’s diploma in Economics and Math in addition to Spanish.
In an interview with The Crimson, Iyer mentioned her curiosity in “the connection between communities residing round archaeological websites and the administration of cultural heritage,” which started in highschool and continued all through school.
Her curiosity in understanding the “worth of cultural heritage” led her to work within the Manhattan District Legal professional’s Antiquities Trafficking Unit, which tracks stolen artworks and different artifacts. She started working within the workplace in 2018 earlier than attending the Legislation College, and he or she took a depart of absence after her first yr learning legislation to return to the position.
Iyer joined the Harvard Legislation Assessment following a aggressive course of referred to as “write-on,” the place HLS college students rigorously fact-check a doc and supply commentary on a current State or Supreme Court docket Case.
Iyer spoke extremely of her expertise and friends on the Legislation Assessment.
“What’s been so significant to me is that the Legislation Assessment has been a tremendous neighborhood of extremely proficient, passionate individuals,” Iyer mentioned. “And I really feel like I’ve been in a position to be welcomed into this group that’s stuffed with people who’re so clever and so concerned about completely different components of the legislation.”
Iyer mentioned that as Legislation Assessment president, she goals to incorporate extra editors within the strategy of reviewing and deciding on articles and upholding the publication’s repute for “high-quality” work.
“I feel that proper now I’m simply centered on ensuring we preserve the lights on and every thing going,” Iyer mentioned.
Exterior of the Legislation Assessment, Iyer has beforehand been concerned within the Legislation College’s Harvard Human Rights Journal and the Nationwide Safety Journal. She can be a member of the South Asian Legislation College students Affiliation. As well as, she serves on the advisory committee for the Peabody Institute of Archaeology in Andover, Massachusetts.
Iyer is engaged on an impartial paper with Legislation College professor Jacob E. Gersen on the destruction of cultural heritage as a sort of tort — a category of civil wrongs involving damage or hurt.
Iyer mentioned she is a “nontraditional pupil” and is uncertain of her plans after graduating from HLS.
“I hope to make use of the remainder of my 2L and 3L years to determine what components of the legislation curiosity me extra and do actually good work there,” she mentioned.
—Workers author Jo B. Lemann may be reached at [email protected] Comply with her on Twitter @Jo_Lemann.
—Workers author Neil H. Shah may be reached at [email protected] Comply with him on Twitter @neilhshah15.