Twelve Law Students Aid ABCD Roxbury Program

Twelve Harvard Law School students are participating in one of the most ambitious and experimental aspects of the "war on poverty" providing legal aid for the poor.

The 12 volunteers work out of a "neighborhood law office" in Roxbury, helping full-time lawyers there. One special task handled by the students is the preparation of pamphlets on legal problems faced by the poor. A brochure on credit buying may be the first product of their efforts; the booklet would be distributed throughout Roxbury.

The Boston Legal Aid Society is supervising the program at the request of ABCD (Action for Boston Community Development), the agency that has overall responsibility for the city's anti-poverty program.

According to Frank E. A. Sander '49, professor of Law and an organizer of the program, the problems faced by lawyers at the center will cover a wide range: from divorce procedure to violations of housing codes; from complaints on credit buying to interpretation of welfare laws and regulations.

More Students

Last spring the 12 students underwent an informal training program. Nineteen more students are now in the program and will soon join the Roxbury effort.

Harvard Law students may become involved in another program of legal aid to the poor. The Office of Economic Opportunity has suggested that a group of students study legal education of the poor. Eight volunteers are now working on the problem. Their research in this area of "preventive law" may be used in establishing a pilot project next summer. They are working on two basic problems: compiling a list of precedents likely to be relevant in cases raised by the poor; and exploring methods of communicating legal concepts to the poor.

Although a federal study of practices of the Boston poverty program has delayed approval of any new projects, the current legal aid program has not been disrupted. It is also expected that the current investigation will not have the effect of permanently halting federal funds to Boston.