Word: clao
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Unlike the Legal Aid Society and Voluntary Defenders--the traditional legal aid bureaus of the school--CLAO seeks to minimize its open ties with Harvard in favor of active participation in the neighborhood. Its cramped offices are located in a low-income neighborhood in East Cambridge, not in what the local poor regard as the "other Cambridge" around Harvard...
Student response to CLAO has amazed even its director, John M. Ferren '59. He had expected 50 or 60 students to appear at an introductory meeting last fall--more than 200 came. Today 75 of these second-and third year students work from five to ten hours a week under the supervision of licensed staff attorney Paul Garrity...
...attract clients, CLAO papered neighborhood churches, grocery stores, and pool halls with posters informing residents of its legal services. And clients began to come in, either on their own initiative, or on the advice of social agencies. As the caseload grew from an October average of 16 per week to 25 per week in February, word of mouth became CLAO's best advertisement. "We've been getting a lot of clients," Garrity says, "who just say they've heard somewhere that those fellows at 245 Broadway are a pretty good bunch of lawyers...
...CLAO tries to preserve a normal lawyer-client relationship. No paupers oath is required; financial eligibility is determined in casual conversation. Clients fill out no forms; they discuss their cases and the staff member takes notes on the traditional yellow pad. One student works on each case until its final disposition, sometimes doing 100 to 150 hours of research...
During the fall term, CLAO restricted court appearances to the staff attorney, in order to give students a chance to work on case research. Since February, Garrity has permitted third year students to appear in court for small civil suits. Their record, he feels, has been quite satisfactory--both to him and to their clients, some of whom have given their "lawyers" neckties in appreciation...