Massachusetts law allows qualified students to offer free legal services to the poor, but according to third-year student Kenneth H. Zimmerman, a Bureau staffer, the students need supervisors because "realistically we don't know enough about how to go to court."

In addition to more community advocacy programs, the Bureau recently began a pro-se--"do-it-yourself"--divorce clinic for couples who are filing uncontested divorces. The clinic teaches them to file and complete the case without official legal help, thus avoiding drawn-out litigation.

Not only have the Bureau's programs changed over the years, the type of students who join the Bureau has also undergone an evolution.

Until 1969, the Bureau selected its members by their academic standing and was considered one of the top three activities for students with high grade point averages. Now first-year law students apply to the Bureau during the spring, and the Bureau selects its members by random lottery.

"We hold a series of informational sessions every spring for the 1Ls [first year law students]," Sulentic says. "There's a clincial fair we take part in. We do a big marketing campaign. Then people sign up, and we have a lottery."

"If you didn't make Law Review you would go on to the Bureau," says Bureau Vice President Miichael Agoglia, a second-year student. "That changed to a voluntary basis for a number of reasons."

Bureau staffers as a whole are now more interested in hands-on experience and working with disadvantaged people than they were in the past, students say.

"Until 1969, [the Bureau] was very status oriented," Zimmerman says. "People who joined were not necessarily interested in legal services."

Now students join the Bureau for a number of different motives, according to Sulentic. For many, he says, "the opportunity to serve the disadvantaged in the community" is the most important reason.

"I feel very strongly that lawyers should be in legal service," says staff member Susan Haire, a third-year student.

But for others, the appeal of hands-on legal experience, which is the basis for the wealth of clinical studies programs at the Law School, makes the Bureau a good alternative to the Law Review or other non-clinical organizations.

"There's the whole educational component," Sulentic says. "It's a clinical program where you're dealing with real people and real problems in the real world. That's the whole idea behind clinical studies."

"I decided to do it because I wanted the practical experience for cases," Haire says. "It's less prestigious. It's a basic decision on what you want to do. If you want nuts-and-bolts lawyering you don't get at the Law Review, you can do the Bureau. It's a guess where your talents and interests lie."

"I wanted something different than the straight academics after the first year," Agoglia says. "The opportunity to do top quality clinical work in legal services appealed to me."

Unlike some Law School activities, the Bureau has not had problems attracting minority students, Sulentic says.