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Harry Reis
J.D. Candidate at Columbia Law School
Harry Reis is a third-year law student at Columbia Law School and serves as a Research Assistant to Eric Schmidt, the Founder of Schmidt Futures, at the Institute for Global Politics. In this role, he focuses on emerging technologies and international law.
Reis has a diverse background in law and public policy. Before attending law school, he was the Director of Policy at the New Israel Fund, where he worked on civil and human rights issues in Israel-Palestine. He has also contributed to diplomatic efforts as a research associate for Ambassador Dennis Ross, supporting negotiations related to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
At Columbia, he has engaged in significant legal research, including efforts to hold drug manufacturers accountable for the opioid crisis and litigation against spyware manufacturers for violations of First Amendment rights. Reis holds a BA in history from Brown University and has received various honors, including being named a James Kent Scholar and a Salzburg Global Cutler Fellow.12
Highlights
Of the many projects I undertook during my three years at Columbia Law School, this podcast is among those I am proudest of. I was deeply grateful to have been part of Professors Kendall Thomas and Flores Forbes' seminar on Critical Race Theory, which in addition to exposing students to the vital body of scholarship was a shock of fresh air. Profs. Thomas and Forbes walked the walk in their pedagogy, inviting members of the community who had themselves been impacted by the criminal punishment system into the law school classroom. This podcast episode, building on my own experience at the NY Attorney General's Office working to stop out-of-state gun manufacturers from unlawfully selling "ghost guns" in New York during a summer when the Supreme Court upended New York's gun safety laws through its decision in Bruen, deepened and widened the scope of how I understand the meaning of safety. It afforded me a rare opportunity to collaborate with truly brilliant colleagues, Elias Passas and Drew Brazer, and to speak with some of the most incredible people thinking deeply about these issues, including my friend Meghna Philip, Dean of the Columbia University - Graduate School of Journalism Jelani Cobb, preeminent historian (and exhilarating interlocutor), Professor of African American Studies at Emory Carol Anderson, Alice Ristroph, law professor at Brooklyn Law, and Jarrell Daniels, Founder of Justice Ambassadors Youth Council, a remarkable young leader who grew up in the South Bronx and was from an early age exposed not only to gun violence, but to the many intersecting systems of inequality which produce gun violence and insecurity. Please give it a listen.
Proud to join the Association for Civil Rights in Israel as a legal fellow next year with the support of the Columbia Law School J.D. Pathways fellowship and to be among such stellar and dedicated classmates pursuing post-graduate careers in the public interest.
