Post Date: October 23, 2003
First opened in 1979, today the Legal Services Center serves more than 2,000 low-income clients each year in the greater Boston area and provides Harvard Law students with valuable clinical legal experience. In 1993, following a gift from Hale and Dorr, the center moved into its own building and receives significant pro bono support from Hale and Dorr attorneys.
“At the Hale and Dorr Legal Services Center everybody wins,” said Kagan. “People from the greater Boston area receive superb legal assistance and Harvard Law students gain valuable clinical experience. We are grateful to Hale and Dorr for its unwavering support over the past 10 years.”
Students work in the following areas: community economic development, housing law and litigation, family law, estate planning, social security disability, unemployment, employment and fair housing discrimination, real estate, entertainment law, nonprofit and business law.
“The experiences of the past 10 years have proven that this formula works to provide students with excellent hands-on legal experience under the careful supervision of the center’s staff and lawyers engaged in the private practice,” said Vincent P. McCarthy, senior partner at Hale and Dorr LLP and visiting clinical instructor at the center. “Students are also exposed to the professional responsibilities they will assume as practitioners in a private law firm and lawyers currently practicing in a private law firm are provided with fulfilling opportunities to serve the Boston community.”