Neighborhood Fights Law School Club

Wedged between the Cambridge Common, the Radcliffe Quadrangle and the Law School is a short residential street lined with trees--the sort of place where children ride big wheels and parents rake the lawns on Saturday afternoons.

Judging from all outward appearances, Follen St. could be any residential roadway in any suburban neighborhood in the U.S. But area residents say that they have had one constant reminder this year that Follen St. is not just anywhere, that it is right next-door to the nation's oldest institution of higher education.

For several months now, the Lincoln's Inn, a social club for some 135 law students has been disturbing the otherwise peaceful street, neighbors say. They say that monthly parties thrown by the group has created excessive noise, public drunkeness, and that garbage around the inn has become a neighborhood eyesore.

The parties, they say, have got to go somewhere else.

"This is not against Harvard Law School--we like students," says Mark A. Rodwin, a resident of 50 Follen St., the apartment building next to the club. "We are just objecting to antisocial behavior. If you want to have a party there are better places to have it."

Rodwin's apartment does not face the club--it looks instead onto the Cambridge Common. But he says that on some nights, he can hear noise from the club's parties and people exiting onto the street afterward as late as 3 a.m.

The Licensing Commission held a hearing on the club on November 13, and is expected to announce its decision on what action to take today. Although the neighbors have produced letters of complaint going back several decades, the commission says that it is the first full complaint they have received and the first hearing on the inn.

"Any kind of license is a privilege and not a right," said Richard V. Scali, executive director of the Licensing Commision. "Any time a licensee is causing a nusiance that is general cause to bring them in for a hearing."

Scali said the commission could go so far as to suspend the inn's lodging license, either temporarily or permanently. He cautioned, however, that such a scenario is unlikely.

"Most likely the license will not be revoked," said Scali. "My feeling is that there will be very stringent conditions [placed on the license.]"

The Lincoln's Inn members say the situation is under control. Since the current wave of complaints began earlier this fall, they say, the club has instituted a "management plan." Club members say they are installing storm windows, changing the entryway to the club and instructing the incoming executive board about neighborhood concerns.

"I'm hoping the commission will allow the club to put the plan into effect," said David A. Wylie, the attorney for the inn and a former city councillor. While Wylie acknowledges that some of the neighborhood complaints were legitimate, he says the new management plan will address them.

"We have made a huge amount of changes," said Kenneth B. Mehlman, chair of the Lincoln's Inn and a third-year law student. "People here want to work with the neighbors. I have no animosity [towards them.]"

But both Scali and the club's neighbors say they are skeptical about the new plan's effectiveness, arguing that club representatives told them in a meeting at Harvard's office of community relations that the plan was already in effect. To date, Scali said, nothing has changed.

"The very next weekend all hell broke loose," Scali said.

Rodwin said that he hopes the licensing commission takes action to solves the problem but would like to see the University take a stand on the controversy. Sarah Wald, dean of students at the Law School, could not be reached for comment on the inn's problems yesterday.

"We don't think Harvard has done its share. Harvard has said it's a private club and they can't do anything," Rodwin said. "If the Lincoln's Inn was next to the dean of the Law School, this problem would have been solved years ago."