Legal Aid Bureau Counsels Needy, Neurotics, Convicts

Even before they graduates and pass their bar examinations, Law students are getting practical count room experience through the Harvard Legal Aid Bureau, an organization of high ranking second and third-year men which acts as counsel for those who cannot afford professional lawyers.

The neophyte attorneys take civil cases of all types, ranging from libel and slander to illegitimacy, with marital difficulties furnishing the large part of the work.

One Full Fledged Lawyer

Edward J. LeCam, of the Boston Legal Aid Bureau, is the only member of the bar in the office. The students are permitted to appear in court by a provision in the Massachusetts General Laws allowing "any person of good moral character" to "manage a suit if he is especially authorized by the party for whom he appears."

Clients for the Bureau usually have heard of it by word-of-month, and come to the Massachusetts Avenue office to present their problems and receive advice. Two of the more interesting cases, however, came through the mails from a man serving a life sentence and from a woman in an insane asylum.

The lifer had a technical inheritance problem, but the woman, after assailing the "non-intelligent and nefarious nature" of her confinement, went on to proclaim that "I am perfectly cognizant of my right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness." She has tried to escape often enough to convince her of the futility of this plan, and now wants to get out legally. One of the students will investigate her case.

Begun in 1913

Founded in 1913 by the Law School Society of Phillips Brooks House, the Bureau long ago outgrew its P. B. H. headquarters, and now occupies Kendall House. The 38 members took care of over 1000 cases in 1940-41, as contrasted with 200 the first year.

Most of the Bureau's cases are decided out of court, and over 90% of these which come to trial are won. The most aburpt out-of-court settlement was a double murder last spring.

It began like the usual divorce case--the husband habitually beat this wife, but she decided to get a divorce when he tried to strangle her. She went to live with her aunt, and the first two nights she took care to lock the door. On the third night she forget, and the aggrieved spouse came with a gun and shot his wife and her aunt. The Bureau is now handling adoption proceedings for their child.