Founded 75 years ago as the first student-run legal service organization in the country, the Harvard Law School Legal Aid Bureau occupies the first floor of an unimposing white house in a corner of the Law School campus.

But behind the doors of Gannet House lies one of the most active law student organizations both on campus and in the community.

In 1913, the Law School created the Bureau to provide legal assistance to the poor and disadvantaged. Since that time the Bureau staff has grown from fewer than 25 people to more than 60 second- and third-year law students.

As the Bureau prepares to celebrate its diamond jubilee this weekend, President Steve Sulentic says the Bureau closely resemebles a full-fledged legal practice. The all-volunteer staff provides free legal service to the poor throughout the Boston area. Their jurisdiction includes matters ranging from divorces to harassment charges, handling 383 cases last year.

We provide legal services in several different areas to people who cannot otherwise afford lawyers," says Sulentic, a second-year law student. "We cover pretty much the whole area, although for divorce cases, for instance, we're restricted to Middlesex County."

Past participants in the program include Professor of Law Gary Bellow and Supreme Court Justice William J. Brennan.

Sulentic says most students average 20 hours of work each week, but that the requirements of the job often bump that number up. "The tradition is we say 20 hours a week, but if you are at a particularly busy time you could easily go over that," Sulentic says.

The Bureau has always been funded by the Law School, although it occasionally receives private donations. "We get a budget through the Law School and we assess the membership every year," Sulentic says. "We also have donations coming in." Last year's budget was $165,852.49.

The Law School's money has funded an constantly growing set of programs. "Over the course of 75 years, it's changed quite a bit," Sulentic says, adding that the Bureau's growth has come largely because of "a move in the last decade toward a considerably greater variety of casework."

Impact Advocacy

The Bureau in recent years has entered the realm of impact advocacy programs," in which students from the Bureau go into the community rather than waiting for members of the community come to them.

One such impact advocacy project led the Bureau to file a class action suit on behalf of 1000 tenants at the Fresh Pond Apartments in Cambridge three years ago. The Rindge class action suit, as it is called, charges the building management with harassing and unfairly evicting tenants. The Bureau filed the suit after several building tenants brought in separate complaints and the case is set for trial this summer.

"This was pretty unusual case for the Bureau, since we usually only handle individual cases," says second-year law student Ken Schmetterer, who is working on the case. "Three years ago we got a preliminary injunction, and now we're going in for a permanent injunction to get damages for the tenants who were harassed."

The staffers working on the class action suit have volunteered to put in extra time in order to complete the case, Schmetterer says. "Four or five of us are going to be sticking around after finals working with witnesses and conducting the actual litigation in court," Schmetterer says.

As in all cases the Bureau handles, the students working on the Rindge case will be working with one of six supervisors who serve at the Bureau. The supervisors are private attorneys who work with the students and give them legal advice.