The Harvard Legal Aid Bureau ("HLAB") is the oldest student-run legal services office in the United States, founded in 1913. The bureau is one of three honors societies at the law school, along with the ''

Harvard Law Review The ''Harvard Law Review'' is a law review published by an independent student group at Harvard Law School. According to the ''Journal Citation Reports'', the ''Harvard Law Review''s 2015 impact factor of 4.979 placed the journal first out of 143 ...

'' and the Board of Student Advisers. Students who are selected for more than one of these three organizations may only join one. The Harvard Legal Aid Bureau is a student-run law firm serving clients in

housing law Legal scholars and practitioners generally discuss laws that affect housing within the context of real property, landlord–tenant law, mortgage law, laws that forbid housing discrimination, laws that attempt to preserve affordable housing, etc ...

( landlord–tenant relations,

public housing Public housing is a form of housing tenure in which the property is usually owned by a government authority, either central or local. Although the common goal of public housing is to provide affordable housing, the details, terminology, def ...

subsidized housing Subsidized housing is government sponsored economic assistance aimed towards alleviating housing costs and expenses for impoverished people with low to moderate incomes. In the United States, subsidized housing is often called "affordable housin ...

, foreclosure defense), family law (

divorce Divorce (also known as dissolution of marriage) is the process of terminating a marriage or marital union. Divorce usually entails the canceling or reorganizing of the legal duties and responsibilities of marriage, thus dissolving the ...

, custody,

paternity Paternity may refer to: *Father, the male parent of a (human) child *Paternity (law), fatherhood as a matter of law * ''Paternity'' (film), a 1981 comedy film starring Burt Reynolds * "Paternity" (''House''), a 2004 episode of the television seri ...

child support Child support (or child maintenance) is an ongoing, periodic payment made by a parent for the financial benefit of a child (or parent, caregiver, guardian) following the end of a marriage or other similar relationship. Child maintenance is paid d ...

), government benefits (

Social Security Welfare, or commonly social welfare, is a type of government support intended to ensure that members of a society can meet basic human needs such as food and shelter. Social security may either be synonymous with welfare, or refer specificall ...

unemployment benefits Unemployment benefits, also called unemployment insurance, unemployment payment, unemployment compensation, or simply unemployment, are payments made by authorized bodies to unemployment, unemployed people. In the United States, benefits are fun ...

), and wage and hour cases (unpaid or underpaid wages, benefits, and overtime). The bureau employs nine supervising attorneys and selects approximately twenty-five student members annually. Students practice under the supervision of admitted attorneys; however, students are the primary case handlers on all matters. As a result, students gain firsthand experience appearing in court, negotiating with opposing attorneys, and working directly with clients. Students receive both classroom and clinical credits for their work at the bureau. Unlike most clinical programs at Harvard, the bureau is a two-year commitment. This gives students a chance to have a much more sustained and in-depth academic experience. In addition to the substantive legal experience, students gain practical experience managing a law firm. The student board of directors makes all decisions regarding case intake, budget management, and office administration. Notable members include Supreme Court Justice

William J. Brennan William Joseph "Bill" Brennan Jr. (April 25, 1906 – July 24, 1997) was an American lawyer and jurist who served as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States from 1956 to 1990. He was the seventh-longest serving justice ...

, Massachusetts Governor

Deval Patrick Deval Laurdine Patrick (born July 31, 1956) is an American politician, civil rights lawyer, author, and businessman who served as the 71st governor of Massachusetts from 2007 to 2015. He was first elected in 2006, succeeding Mitt Romney, who ...

, activist and First Lady

Michelle Obama Michelle LaVaughn Robinson Obama (born January 17, 1964) is an American attorney and author who served as first lady of the United States from 2009 to 2017. She was the first African-American woman to serve in this position. She is married t ...

, Attorney General

Loretta Lynch Loretta Elizabeth Lynch (born May 21, 1959) is an American lawyer who served as the 83rd attorney general of the United States from 2015 to 2017. She was appointed by President Barack Obama to succeed Eric Holder and previously served as the Un ...

Berkshire Hathaway Berkshire Hathaway Inc. () is an American Multinational corporation, multinational conglomerate (company), conglomerate holding company headquartered in Omaha, Nebraska, United States. Its main business and source of capital is insurance, from ...

Charlie Munger Charles Thomas Munger (born January 1, 1924) is an American billionaire investor, businessman, and former real estate attorney. He is vice chairman of Berkshire Hathaway, the conglomerate controlled by Warren Buffett; Buffett has described Mun ...

and law professors

Erwin Chemerinsky Erwin Chemerinsky (born May 14, 1953) is an American legal scholar known for his studies of United States constitutional law and federal civil procedure. Since 2017, Chemerinsky has been the dean of the UC Berkeley School of Law. Previously, he a ...

and

Laurence Tribe Laurence Henry Tribe (born October 10, 1941) is an American legal scholar who is a University Professor Emeritus at Harvard University. He previously served as the Carl M. Loeb University Professor at Harvard Law School. A constitutional law sc ...

Overview

Members of the Harvard Legal Aid Bureau on their spring retreat

The bureau is composed of approximately fifty second- and third-year student attorneys at

Harvard Law School Harvard Law School (Harvard Law or HLS) is the law school of Harvard University, a private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1817, it is the oldest continuously operating law school in the United States. Each class ...

who provide free

legal services In its most general sense, the practice of law involves giving legal advice to clients, drafting legal documents for clients, and representing clients in legal negotiations and court proceedings such as lawsuits, and is applied to the professi ...

to a diverse population of low-income clients in the Greater Boston area. It is Boston's second largest legal services provider. Members of the bureau practice under Rule 3:03Rules of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court
/ref> of the

Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court (SJC) is the court of last resort, highest court in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Although the claim is disputed by the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, the SJC claims the di ...

, which allows them to appear in court as counsel of record for low-income clients. The bureau currently employs nine practicing attorneys who train and supervise members. Bureau members practice in the following general practice areas: housing law, family law, government benefits, and employment law. Students usually focus primarily on housing or family law. Within these practices, students work on matters such as eviction defense, domestic violence, child custody and support, divorce, social security benefits, wage and hour violations, and employment discrimination cases.

Alumni

Prominent alumni of the Harvard Legal Aid Bureau include: * Hon.

, Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court *

, First Lady of the United States *

, United States Attorney General *

, constitutional law scholar and founding Dean of the

University of California, Irvine School of Law The University of California, Irvine School of Law is the law school at the University of California, Irvine. It is the fifth law school in the UC system. In September 2007, Erwin Chemerinsky was named as the law school's first dean. Chemerinsky ...

* Hon.

Ojetta Rogeriee Thompson Ojetta Rogeriee Thompson (born August 8, 1951), known commonly as O. Rogeriee Thompson, is an American lawyer who serves as a Senior United States circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit and a former Rhode Islan ...

, United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit * Hon. Frank M. Coffin, United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit * Hon.

Matthew Kennelly Matthew F. Kennelly (born October 6, 1956) is a senior United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois. Education and career Kennelly was born in 1956 in Marion, Indiana. He graduated fro ...

, United States District Judge for the Northern District of Illinois * Hon.

William Schwarzer William W. Schwarzer (April 30, 1925 – January 28, 2017) was a United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Northern District of California. Education and career Born in Berlin, Germany, Schwarzer emigrated with h ...

, senior United States District Judge for the Northern District of California * Hon.

Jed Rakoff Jed Saul Rakoff (born August 1, 1943) is a Senior United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York. Education Rakoff was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on August 1, 1943. He grew up in ...

, United States District Judge for the Southern District of New York * Hon.

Emily C. Hewitt Emily Clark Hewitt (born May 26, 1944) is a former judge and chief judge of the United States Court of Federal Claims. Early life Hewitt was born in Baltimore, Maryland. She graduated from the Roland Park Country School in Baltimore and in 1966, ...

, Chief Judge of the United States Court of Federal Claims * Hon. Fernande R.V. Duffly, Justice of the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts * Hon. Daniel Joseph O'Hern, Justice on the New Jersey Supreme Court * Stephen W. Preston, General Counsel, Central Intelligence Agency and former General Counsel of the Navy * Will A. Gunn, General Counsel, U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs *

Charles Munger Charles Thomas Munger (born January 1, 1924) is an American billionaire investor, businessman, and former real estate attorney. He is vice chairman of Berkshire Hathaway, the conglomerate controlled by Warren Buffett; Buffett has described Mung ...

, Vice-Chairman of Berkshire Hathaway and business partner of Warren Buffett *

Alan Khazei Alan Khazei (; born May 28, 1961) is an American social entrepreneur. He served as chief executive officer of City Year, an AmeriCorps national service program he co-founded with Michael Brown, his friend and roommate at Harvard College and Har ...

, CEO of Be the Change, U.S. Senate candidate *

Raj Goyle Rajeev Kumar Goyle (born June 9, 1975) is a Democratic politician from Kansas, who represented the 87th District in the Kansas House of Representatives from 2007 to 2011. He was the 2010 Democratic nominee for . Early life, education and caree ...

, State Congressman representing the 87th district of Kansas. *

Joseph P. Kennedy III Joseph Patrick Kennedy III (born October 4, 1980) is an American lawyer, politician and diplomat who currently serves as United States Special Envoy for Northern Ireland since 2022. Prior to this, Kennedy served as the U.S. representative for fr ...

, U.S. Representative for Massachusetts 4th Congressional District. * Joseph Anthony Califano, Jr, 12th United States Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare * David L. Kirp, Professor of Public Policy, University of California, Berkeley *

Jeffrey Steingarten Jeffrey L. Steingarten (born May 31, 1942) is a leading food writer in the United States. He has been the food critic at ''Vogue'' magazine since 1989. Career His 1997 book of humorous food essays, titled ''The Man Who Ate Everything,'' was a ...

, author and food editor of Vogue Magazine * Prof. Peter Murray, Harvard Law School Professor * Ruthzee Louijeune, Boston City Councilor At-Large

References

External links

* {{Official website, http://www.harvardlegalaid.org/ Harvard Law School Housing in Massachusetts