Murthy Attends Harvard Law School Visiting Committee Meeting

Noted immigration lawyer, Sheela Murthy, returned to Cambridge, Massachusetts, March 6th and 7th, as a member of the Harvard Law School Visiting Committee, also known as the Dean’s Advisory Council. A 1987 alumna of Harvard’s Masters of Laws (LL.M.) program, Murthy went on to become the founder and president of the Murthy Law Firm, building an immigration practice of world renown: her firm now has more than 80 employees in Owings Mills, Maryland, 20 at its affiliate offices in Chennai and Hyderabad, India, and recently opened Murthy West, its new presence in Bellevue, Washington.

Together with her colleagues on the Visiting Committee, Murthy met with Harvard Law School students and faculty to assess the current state of the curriculum and the methods used to teach it, and to focus on innovative ideas that will stimulate an even higher degree of pedagogical creativity. Of particular interest to Ms. Murthy and her visiting board colleagues: Harvard’s clinical law programs, which provide an opportunity for students to gain firsthand, real-world experience in legal practice, applying what they’ve learned in the classroom. The goal is to push Harvard students and faculty to new heights of innovation.

Murthy commented, “This is all about helping Harvard maintain its position of leadership, at the very frontiers of knowledge. It’s always exciting to see how much Harvard Law School has grown since I was there – how it’s continuing to develop in new directions. Clinical and pro bono programs are relatively new in the history of legal education, but they are incredibly important: they fuse theoretical training and practical application, and help develop well-rounded students who can lead organizations at the highest level. We already have brilliant students, but we need to give them the tools to hit the ground running, as soon as they graduate.”

Murthy further remarked, “I feel a responsibility to give back to Harvard for all it’s given me. I also couldn’t be more pleased to serve on the Alumni Board of Visitors with a fellow Marylander – the former Mayor of Baltimore, the Honorable Kurt Schmoke. He graduated eleven years before me, in 1976. All of us have the same goal in mind: giving back to our alma mater, and paying it forward for the next generation.”

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