More than 20 years ago, when she was still a lecturer in law on the campus north of Harvard Yard, Elizabeth Bartholet left the confines of Cambridge for the muggy warmth of Lima, Peru.

It was the fall of 1985, and she wanted to adopt a child. With little more than 40 $100 bills tucked into the bottom of her shoes, she boarded the airplane.

But after she landed, Bartholet discovered over her three-month stay that many laws designed to help children were actually hurting them.

Today, her first adopted son, Christopher, is 21 years old. But the laws handicapping the adoption process in Peru remain in place.

That’s why Bartholet, who is now the Wasserstein public interest professor of law, created the Harvard Law School Child Advocacy Program (CAP), tailored to draw students to less glamorous—or lucrative—legal niches.

Though only three years old, the program has already established courses in the new field and persuaded some up-and-comers to follow in Bartholet’s steps.

“A lot of students come to law school full of ideals, but most students wake up in a few months thinking that ‘my only choice’ is to work at a commercial law firm,” Bartholet says. “I think that’s a waste of talent.”

BUREAUCRATIC BARRIERS

Adopting Christopher was an eye-opener for Bartholet. She recalls that the system in place for international adoption was incredibly bureaucratic, each step shrouded in layers of difficulty. Bartholet was forced to wait in Peru for over three months before she could finally take her child home.

Two and a half years later, after returning from Peru, Bartholet headed back to adopt her second child, Michael. Though two decades have passed since she first endured the frustration of waiting to adopt her children, the memories remain her mind as fresh as ever.

“I had a lot of time to think that 99-plus percent of the people who wanted to make similar adoptions couldn’t because of the way that the law was structured,” Bartholet says. “It opened my eyes to a world of child needs that I had completely been unaware of.”

THE ROAD LESS TRAVELED

While Bartholet is devoting the rest of her life to fight for children’s rights— publishing numerous books and scholarly articles over the years focusing on issues such as child abuse and neglect—she is considered to be one of the few who took the road less traveled.

When most students enter law school, the child advocacy field typically draws very little interest. Lacking the allure and pay of jobs at major corporations or law firms, the field loses some of the brightest minds.

According to Rhoda E. Schneider, general counsel of the Massachusetts Department of Education, law schools perpetuate this cycle by placing a heavy emphasis on corporate law positions. And even for students interested in the public sector, there is a tendency to turn to higher-level government positions.

“In a place like Harvard Law School, it is very common for people who really care about issues affecting children and families to feel like they are swimming against the tide,” Schneider says.

Bartholet adds that limited opportunities preclude students from developing the skills needed to become effective child advocates.

“In general, top-tier law schools are sending students to work for the richest and most prestigious members of society,” she says.

“There is no systematic training to teach students to go out and correct injustice.”

Judith S. Kaye, chief judge of New York, agrees. With many law students from schools like Harvard overlooking careers in child advocacy for positions in Washington or on Wall Street, children will remain one of the most underserved groups in the United States, she says.

“For so long, we’ve sidelined children’s issues,” Kaye says. “Too many lives are being lost, and as lawyers, we can all begin working together.”

KEEPING IDEALSIM ALIVE

Three years ago, Bartholet set out to capture this idealism.

With the help of HLS, Bartholet founded the CAP, the first multi-faceted program in the nation to train students in the field.

Based in Pound Hall, CAP offers a policy workshop that brings leading child welfare advocates into the classroom, an academic course to educate students on the legal issues relating to children, and a clinical course where students gain first-hand experience in the field.

Recently it hosted a film series on the lives of children and teenagers growing up in prison.

Though other top-tier law schools, including those at Yale University and the University of Michigan, boast well-respected child advocacy clinics, they lack the depth that Harvard’s program provides, Bartholet says.

Nicholas W. Rose, a third-year law student, took a course arranged by CAP.

“Given all these resources and tools, this is an area where not enough people go into,” he says. “I think there were a lot of people who’d be willing, but there wasn’t a vehicle at the school to do that.”

Not only does the program provide courses that bring child advocacy experts into the classroom, but it also sends students to gain first-hand experience.

“It’s made it more real,” says third-year law student Elisa Poncz, who worked in a Philadelphia juvenile law center through CAP. “You can see what real-life child advocates are doing.”

Though CAP has not completely convinced all of its participants to pursue a career in child advocacy, it has nonetheless exposed many students to a new field of law.

Carlos A.L. Aqui, a second-year law student who took CAP’s clinical course, worked in the Philippines with young women forced to labor as domestic workers.

Though Aqui says he isn’t ready to commit his career to this area, the program exposed him to an area that he predicts will impassion him even after graduation.

Bartholet sees Aqui’s newfound sentiments toward child advocacy as a testament to the CAP’s accomplishments.

“It’s a program that can inspire,” she says, “but also can keep idealism alive.”

—Staff writer Kevin Zhou can be reached at kzhou@fas.harvard.edu.