I’ve thought a lot about law student community throughout my career, but that focus took on new meaning during the pandemic. One of my favorite professional activities in 2021-22 has been Language Corner.

Language Corner has been a place for our multilingual J.D. and LL.M. students to come together and has already evolved since our first meeting. I highly encourage other law schools to consider similar activities. Language Corner has focused on four things.

1. Helping J.D. and LL.M. students looking to enhance their language skills connect with native speakers.
2. Bringing together students who speak a specific language to hear from alumni who speak that language (conversations not in English).
3. Bringing together students interested in practicing abroad to hear from alumni who practice abroad (conversations in English).
4. A social club for multilingual J.D. and LL.M. students to meet one another, form friendships, and eat food.

I started Language Corner as a way to assist foreign-educated LL.M. students with meeting J.D. students. But it has grown to be even more beneficial to all participants than I could have imagined. Some of the ways:

1. We’ve seen our Sub-Corners (i.e., Corners for specific languages) grow. One Corner in particular helped a group of students who did not know one another come together and see their strength in numbers. I’ve been proud as they’ve formed a student organization and have planned multiple activities. This will also help future J.D. and LL.M. students at the school as there is now more infrastructure in place. Each Sub-Corner has taken on its own personality, and seeing the ways that they’re now growing has been one of my prouder moments this year.
2. The four focus areas of Language Corner have complemented one another to build a large group of internationally focused J.D. and LL.M. students. My hope is that this will lead to connections that last longer than the time students spend on campus. In the short term, I hope it leads to more J.D. students considering working abroad. In the long term, I hope Language Corner participants will be calling each other up as they work in new markets, seek counsel in other jurisdictions, and have positions that require understanding other cultures and countries.
3. As we’ve tried to think about student activities and engagement during the pandemic, I have seen Language Corner as a really simple way to show students that I’m invested in their overall student experience. Law school is stressful in the best of circumstances, and we have not been in the best of circumstances since early 2020. Conversations with some of the Language Corner students have helped me internalize just how difficult the last few years have been on the student side and I’ve gotten a bit teary-eyed reading some of the messages and hearing from some of the students who have participated in Language Corner about what the overall program has meant to them.
4. Language Corner is poised to be even more successful in 2022-23. With a great group of returning 1Ls and 2Ls, as well as a few LLMs who started in January, Language Corner is going to continue to expand even after I depart, and I could not be happier. We’ll have our final 2021-22 meeting next week as the group plans out its goals for 2022-23. With 3Ls and LLMs graduating, I know that the alumni focus areas will grow next year. And with more incoming multilingual JDs and another great group of foreign-educated LLMs, they’ll have more students joining them in August.

Many thanks to all the Language Corner participants!