The following article was written by S. L. Rosenberry 3L., President of the Legal Aid Society of the Harvard Law School.

The Harvard Legal Aid Bureau has just marked the beginning of its fourteenth year with the reopening of its offices at 763 Massachusetts Ave.

In the last decade of the nineteenth century, Professor Emeritus Eugene Wambaugh '76 conceived the idea of having students of the Law School serve the needy members of the public by establishing a law office to which people could go without charge. Before this time the various members of the Bar had been able to see that the rights of the lower classes were protected, but with increasing specialization among lawyers, this has become impossible.

Professor Wambaugh, therefore, gathered four or five men from the third year class of the Law School, hired an office in Central Square and waited. Clients flocked to the office, but unfortunately they did not bring the legal problems for which he had hoped. Instead of wage disputes, and landlord and tenant cases, the clients wished advice concerning their marital obligations and disputes. He felt that the social agencies were better equipped to handle this sort of case than were students of the Law School, and after about two years the experiment was given up.

In 1913 the Chairman and Secretary of the Law School Society of the Phillips Brooks House decided to extend the scope of the Phillips Brooks House Association by renewing the Legal Aid Bureau. In the spring of 1914 they secured a desk at the Prospect Union where they met clients and carried on the work of a small law office.

The experiment this time was a great success, and in the following year, under the direction of C. B. Rugg L. '14, the Bureau became firmly established it was granted a corporate charter by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and received financial aid from the Law School Society at Phillips Brooks House. Recently it has also received support from the Law School.

The Bureau itself is composed of 30 members, chosen from the second and third year men, on the basis of scholarship. Third year men are elected from those who were members the previous year if their records in Law School and at the Bureau have remained satisfaltory.

Board Divided into Two Sections

The board is divided into two sections one each for Cambridge and Boston. Those men who are assigned to the Boston division work in the office of the Boston Legal Aid Society, doing much the same type of work which they will meet when they graduate from Law School. The ten men who are assigned to the Boston division are divided into two groups, five of them serving before Christmas and five after that date. Each man is on duty one afternoon a week from 2 until 6 o'clock. It is customary for him to work with a member of the Boston Legal Aid Society who is interviewing clients on that day.

At the Cambridge offices, however, each man takes complete charge of the office for one afternoon or evening every other week, the office hours being from 4 to 6 o'clock and 7 to 9 o'clock every day except Saturday and Sunday. Each new client that comes in during that time is the client of the man then on duty and it is his office to follow up the case until it is settled. Each week the board of directors meets to discuss all cases which have come up, and to offer advice.

As set forth in the charter the purpose of the Bureau is to render legal aid and assistance to those who cannot afford it. No fees are charged, but the client must advance the actual court costs.

It has been the practice of the Bureau to handle all cases brought by students of Harvard University. This custom no doubt arose early in the history of the organization and can be traced back to the time when the Bureau was an integral part of the Phillips Brooks House Association.

Last year the Bureau handled about 102 new cases. Of these, nine were won in court and the rest were decided outside of court. The Bureau collected $1117.43 for its clients and in addition secured some $718 in judgments which have not yet been collected. There were but four cases which had to be refused, and three which were sent to other agencies