The Harvard Law Review has selected Apsara Iyer as its 137th leader, making her the first Indian-American woman to hold the position in the 136-year history of the prestigious publication. Iyer, a 29-year-old Harvard Law School student, succeeds Priscila Coronado. Iyer earned her undergraduate degree in Economics and Math, Spanish from Yale in 2016, and her passion for archaeology and indigenous communities prompted her to pursue an MPhil at Oxford. She later joined the Manhattan District Attorney's Antiquities Trafficking Unit, where she coordinated with law enforcement authorities to repatriate stolen works of art to 15 different countries.
Iyer enrolled at Harvard Law School in 2020 and is a member of the International Human Rights Clinic and the South Asian Law Students Association. She took a leave of absence from Harvard Law School in 2021-2022 to work on an international antiquities trafficking investigation and rose to become the deputy of the ATU. Iyer is dedicated to fighting illicit antiquities trafficking.
The Harvard Law Review, founded in 1887 by future Supreme Court Justice Louis D. Brandeis, is a student-edited journal with the largest circulation of any law journal in the world. The publication has a rich history, with former President Barack Obama being its first Black president. Coronado praised Iyer for her intelligence, thoughtfulness, warmth, and advocacy skills and expressed confidence that she will continue to make a positive impact on the lives of the editors.
