A young woman entered the office of the Harvard Legal Aid Bureau. She had heard of this student organization, whose 41 members act as consultants in civil cases for people who cannot afford a lawyer's fee.

Upon entering the bureau office in Gannett House, the prospective client gave her name and address to the secretary at the reception desk. The secretary requested the 25-cent registration fee, which each client pays if able. Then the woman was introduced to one of the students on duty that day, and was shown to a conference room for the initial consultation session.

The woman told the Legal Aid counsel that she had been married for four years and was living in a housing project in Lynn. Six months before, her husband had left her and their young son; now she wanted assistance in filing suit for divorce.

Determining Eligibility

As with any new client, the first task was to determine whether the woman was financially eligible for the free services of the bureau. Eligibility is based on income, number of dependents, and pressing financial obligations. If the counsel decides that an applicant can afford professional legal advice, he suggests lawyers in the Boston area who are on the bureau's referral list.

In the case of the Lynn woman, financial need was found. The next step was to consult a local welfare agency; this is done in all domestic cases. The agency investigates the situation to determine whether divorce is the wisest course of action.

With the go-ahead from the welfare agency, the client signed the necessary forms, and the papers were filed in court. Except in cases of extreme poverty, the client pays the court costs.

The sheriff served the citation on the woman's husband, a Massachusetts resident. After the required 21-day wait, the counsel requested a date for trial at Essex County Court. The date was assigned, and preparation of the case commenced.

On the day of the trial, the law student appeared in court with the client, an identifying witness, and a corroborating witness. The student pleaded the case before the court. Divorce was granted, and the bureau received a copy of the decree for the client.

Students Present Cases

Warren G. Miller 3L, president of the Legal Aid Bureau, emphasizes that the Harvard organization is, as far as he knows, the only one in America in which students can actually present their cases before the courts. "We find we get along pretty well with the courts around here," Miller said.

Membership in the Legal Aid Bureau is based on academic achievement. After the Law Review and Board of Student Advisers have selected their members from the second year class, the next 19 students on the rank list are invited to join Legal Aid.

On the other hand, any second-year law student may apply for membership in the Voluntary Defenders. Founded in 1949 by two students who broke off from the Legal Aid Bureau, the Voluntary Defenders group handles criminal cases. Each year the third-year members select 13 new members from over 70 applicants on the basis of written material submitted and oral interviews. "This way," explained Richard C. Kohls 3L, president of the Voluntary Defenders, "we get people who are really interested in helping indigents, rather than students who simply get good grades."

The Harvard Defenders work in close conjunction with the Boston Voluntary Defenders. The Boston organization leaves cards at the local jails, on which prisoners can indicate a need for legal aid.

Defenders Visit Jails

Because criminal clients are not generally free to visit the office, the student Defenders send a representative each day to the Charles Street jail and another to the East Cambridge jail. They interview prospective clients for the Boston Voluntary Defenders, and send reports to the office of that association.

If the Boston Defenders decides that an indigent prisoner has a case worth handling, one of its lawyers will accept it. The Harvard student will act as the attorney's assistant in investigating and trying the case. Unlike students in the civil organization, the Harvard Defenders can only go to the courts as consultants to Boston practicing lawyers, who plead the cases.

While most of the jail visits turn up such routine cases as breaking and entering, assault and battery, and larceny, occasionally the student counsel encounters something as dramatic as murder.

Murder Case

A year ago last May, at the request of the Boston bureau, a student interviewed an indigent at the Charles Street jail accused of second-degree murder. The prisoner claimed he had acted in self-defense.

The victim, just before his death, told the police that the prisoner had approached him with an ice pick and stabbed him without justification. The defendant, however, said the victim had come at him first with a knife. It was only to defend, himself, the prisoner insited, that he picked up an ice pick from behind the bar.

The representative of the Voluntary Defenders believed the prisoner. He convinced the Boston lawyer who was handling the case to approve further investigation. The problem was to find a living witness. The defendant thought that there had been another man drinking at the bar where the murder had occurred. He didn't know his name--only the general area which the man frequented.

Although exams were a week away and the bureau had almost closed down for the summer, the student and a co-worker from the Harvard Defenders spent six days tramping the part of Boston where the murder had occurred. Two days before their first exam, they turned up with the man.

The witness later testified, and his testimony was instrumental in clearing the defendant. The Boston lawyer made the actual appearance before the court, but the law student sat with him at the counsel table and suggested lines of cross-examination.

"Cases like this happen once a year or less," Kohls said, "but they make us feel that all our tramping is worth-while."

Whereas most Voluntary Defenders cases originate at the Charles Street and East Cambridge jails, clients are frequently referred to the organization from other penal institutions.

Requests from Alcatraz

The Defenders often receive requests for help through the mail from inmates of Sing Sing, Alcatraz, and other out-of-state institutions.

"Once one prisoner in an institution knows about us, others do too," Kohls said. "They think it's kind of fun to write letters."

And the student lawyers enjoy helping to answer them.