taken seriously. Such a staff is able to turn out good work; it is equipped and qualified to prosecute cases from the lowest through the highest courts. In the last six months it has argued one case before the United States circuit court of appeals, and three before the supreme judicial court of Massachusetts. It has earned the respect of the community and the confidence of judges and public officials. In 1916, over five hundred cases were sent to the society by judicial and administrative officers.

Like the large private offices, the Legal Aid Society has specialized. The cases presented by the poor tend to fall into well-defined groups, and these fields of law have been allotted to members of this staff. It is no exaggeration to state that in certain types of cases the society is able to render a more efficient service than any other office in the city. For example, it is obvious that the attorney who has for four years handled all the cases coming within the probate jurisdiction (chiefly separate support and custody of children), and who has each year had about five hundred cases of that sort, should become expert in their conduct.

It has been the realization of this fact which has led the various Boston charity organizations more and more to discard their outworn system of honorary counsel and to turn to the Legal Aid attorneys for guidance in their cases which present legal problems. Thus the society is rapidly becoming an essential link in the chain of organized social effort in the community, and the importance of the contribution which it can make is beginning to be grasped.

If one were dropped into the Legal Aid Society's office, it would be difficult to detect any difference between it and a modest private law office. The fact would be betrayed only by the large number of clients steadily coming and going. Every effort is made to have the applicants feel that they are in a law office, their law office.

When a client applies at the office, he is received by a clerk and at once taken to any member of the staff who is not engaged. There are no intermediate steps, no recorders or interviewers; the

client is neither labeled, numbered, nor ticketed with vari- and multi-colored cards. As in a private office he is received directly by a lawyer who thereupon becomes his attorney and is the only one to hear the story of the client's difficulty, or his trouble, sorrow, or even disgrace.

Professional confidence is religiously observed. Many a strange story is related, many tragedies are revealed within the four walls of the Legal Aid office. There is much material which would make "good copy" for the press, and which would furnish fine advertising material for the organization. But the lawyer's conviction with regard to the impropriety of such conduct is unalterable. No case is on record where any confidence, even of the humblest client, has been violated. This is the great reason why the work of the Legal Aid Society goes forward so quietly, and it explains why even to-day there are many persons in the community who are ignorant of its existence.

After the facts of the matter have been ascertained and recorded by the attorney, the client is advised as to his rights; they consult together as to what steps ought to be taken, and the client then leaves to await a letter notifying him of the developments in the case.

The attorney then takes the case record to the case bookkeeper, who makes the proper entries in the society's "record of cases received," typewrites the index cards, gives the case its file number, and puts the papers in a folder (the standard flat filing system is used). This has consumed possibly two minutes, and the folder is thereupon immediately returned to the attorney, who sets the case in motion by personal visit, telephone call, or letter.

No mimeographed or form letters are used. It has been felt that such a course smacked too much of collection agency methods. Every letter is individual, and dictated in the manner best calculated to set forth the particular facts and to carry the proper appeal or conviction to the opposite party or his attorney. The succeeding steps are in no respect different from the manner in which any practising attorney conducts his cases.

From outside sources the objection has sometimes been raised that this course involved waste of time and effort. The reason for this modus operandi is clear in the light of the society's history. Those responsible for its direction, being lawyers, have felt that the organization of the best private offices represented the experience of the bar as to the method best suited to the conduct of a law practice, so that the Legal Aid office should be conducted in a similar manner. It may be that the analogy is unsound. Which method is, in the long run, best calculated to secure the ends for which the society exists, is an open question.

In the matter of records and reports the society has from the outset maintained a high standard. This again was the result of the lawyer's training, which recognized how indispensable good records are if accurate thinking is to be done. The purpose of records is to enable the society itself and the community in general to appraise its work. From accurate statistics it is possible to reason with assurance, and on the basis of known facts it is possible to build with. confidence.

Each year the society has printed and published annual reports. In one respect these reports have been more complete than the records of other societies. They have set out in the form of a table for the twelve months the results of the society's work stated in terms of how the cases intrusted to it have been disposed of. Thus it appears from the sixteenth annual report that 2,608 new cases were received, and 2,602 cases carried to completion; that in 167 relief was obtained through court proceedings, in 453 settlement or adjustment secured the desired result, in 433 the law afforded no redress, in 43 cases proceedings were blocked because the clients were unable to defray the expenses required by the necessary litigation, and so on. A priori it would seem that a record of what the society has accomplished in its cases was as essential as the disbursements side of a cash book. In any event, it has always been the society's policy to make public the facts as to how far it has been successful and how far it has not.

Careful records as to the internal condition of the society are likewise kept. At the end of each month a report is submitted by the case bookkeeper to the counsel-in-chief showing the number of cases received, the number received by each attorney, and their classification, the number of cases disposed of, the dispositions of each attorney, and the reason for every such disposition. A second record shows the exact number and amount of all fees charged. A third, from the financial bookkeeper, displays the trial balance, the itemized expenses for the month, the amounts held in trust for clients, and the society's own bal

ance.

From these reports the counsel-inchief makes up his monthly report to the board of directors. His statement gives all the figures as to cases and finances for the month, compares the month in 1917 with the same month in 1916, 1915, and 1914, and also shows in a cumulative table (beginning with the society's fiscal year on November 1) the cost to date and the work to date, and compares in parallel columns such figures with the figures for the same period during the three preceding years. In this way the staff is held up to the full measure of its responsibility, and the directors are kept intelligently informed as to the condition of the society.

With regard to finances, the society is scrupulously careful. Lawyers naturally think of clients' moneys in terms of trust funds, and accept as a matter of course the obligation of that relationship to keep such accounts as to be able to render to any client at any time a detailed statement of his account. The system is double entry bookkeeping, with ledger accounts for every person with whom the society has any financial dealings.

At the same time the books record and display the operating expenses of the society in such manner as to permit of cost accounting, thereby making possible the budget system of controlling finances and rigid economy in the expenditure of the society's funds. All finances are reported monthly to the board of directors. In addition, the annual report contains itemized accounts showing to the members of the society

just what has been done with their subscriptions. Each year an accounting is given to the State Board of Charity, which publishes the statement in its own report to the legislature. Finally, the counsel-in-chief, who alone has the power to draw checks against the account in which the funds for current expenses and trust funds are kept, is required to give a surety company fidelity bond in the sum of $5,000.

The gradual process of experimentation and of development of ideas brought to the society last year a new conception of latent possibilities in its work. It became clear that the Legal Aid Society might render to the community a hitherto unperformed service by engaging in what may be called (for lack of better terminology) constructive and_preventive work in the field of law. The careful thinking which necessarily preceded and made possible this development was done by Richard W. Hale, Esq., and William H. Pear, Esq., two of the socjety's directors, who gave freely of their time and guidance in starting the society aright in this new course.

The significance of the movement is thus outlined in the report of the board of directors for 1916:

We can best understand the possibilities of this new position by analyzing the work of the society with respect to but one of its recent achievements,-its successful fight on behalf of the borrowers of small loans in Massachusetts. In this connection the society rendered four distinct services. The number and kind of small loans cases finding their way to the society automatically registered a breakdown of the existing laws. The society's files then furnished the necessary material upon which to formulate new legislation. Because of its semipublic and authoritative position, the society was then called upon to so organize public sentiment that the proposed legislation was enacted into law. And, finally, the society has proved a most powerful weapon for preventing evasion of the new laws and assisting in their proper administration.

Of these four functions, the first two are probably the most significant. To be militant in placing needed laws on the books, and vigilant in securing their enforcement, are undoubtedly great services to the community, easily comprehended because of their dramatic appeal. What is even more sorely needed, however, is a sensitive instrument with which to detect the failures

of our legal system, and a fund of social experience out of which to build anew.

of justice is in the process of undergoing

The present system of the administration

great and far-reaching changes by reason of the attempt to reshape its antique framework to meet the needs of modern society. This great task is bringing about experimentation with new methods of administering justice, elimination of unnecessary cost and complicated procedure, and the recasting of the powers of the various courts. The rapid spread of administrative boards, the instituting of small claims courts in which court costs are eliminated, together with the lawyer, the project of a domestic relations court combining the present jurisdiction in that field of the divorce, probate, criminal, and juvenile courts, are all parts of the process of reconstruction. It is the readiness and ability to serve the community in this great task that has so suddenly thrust the society into its present unique position.

The Legal Aid Society is often the only agent for collecting the needed data. How many people are denied justice because they cannot afford to advance the costs of court? Even the most systematically kept court records can disclose, at best, the number of small suits actually begun, but not those which were never brought because of poverty. The answer lies written in the files of the society. What are the most common abuses in the legal profession, and can they be lessened or eliminated? How is the Workmen's Compensation Act working out in practice from the employee's point of view? How far is the neglected wife, child, or parent prevented, by defects in the laws, from securing the support which those very laws attempted to guarantee? These and many other vital questions can be answered in whole, or in part, only by an analysis of the material which is continually pouring into the offices of the Legal Aid Society.

A piece of work done in January, 1917, is illuminating and serves to make the foregoing general propositions more specific and concrete. Although the society had been closely identified with the reform which gave to Massachusetts its new "loan shark" law, reducing interest rates from 15 per cent to 3 per cent per month (Acts of 1916, chap. 224), the lenders recognized that the society's position was independent and impartial. They therefore permitted the society to employ accountants to inspect their books in order to determine operating expenses, losses, the business turnover, and similar basic facts. The investigation was made and the reports are

O A VERY large degree it is a gift from

T the state, through

the Commission of Immigration and Housing of the state of California. From another point of view, it is clearly a gift

from the bench and bar of the city and county of San Francisco. It is a partnership between state and local, social and civic, organizations, both public and private, philanthropic and economic, to carry on a business of vital importance to the community and commonwealth, and a business which requires specialization in the administration of justice by the courts.

Such an institution does not arise overnight nor full-fledged, nor can it be successfully framed or operated either blindly ignoring or following the organization or work of similar instrumentalities.

Individuals and local conditions must play a large part, yet there must be a high degree of that type of education which consists of the development of the power to work with others for the common good.

The history of many so-called legal aid offices and societies has been a pitiful admixture of inefficient philanthropy and more or less secret advertisement for selfish purposes, but there have also been plenty of great and soul-inspiring models. In California, the marvelous social and professional efficiency in the work of the Public Defender as a part of the freeholders' charter government of the county of Los Angeles has been an inspiring

incentive, and the long and wonderful history of the Legal Aid Society in the city of New York, and similar organizations, a reliable guide in many respects. Yet, from the very beginning there has been an earnest effort at San Francisco to add something worth while to such inheritance, and this is illustrated somewhat, we trust, in the organization of our law committee in three divisions, the first known as senior counselors, the second as associate counselors, and the third as assistant attorneys. It may therefore be that a brief statement as to our origin, organization, and affairs will prove of service elsewhere. It seems most appropriate at this point to refer to the article appearing in the issue of November, 1914, of CASE AND COMMENT, which was perhaps the first adequate, though brief, presentation to the legal profession at large of the work of the Public Defender at Los Angeles. It follows naturally to quote from the "Recorder" editorial of September 11, 1915, a message all the more significant because that paper is the official organ of our courts at San Francisco, and what we so quote had been for some time pressing very hard upon our state commission above referred to, and which is expressly charged with the duty of encouraging the establishment of legal aid societies.

"The difficulties that confront the necessitous, the ignorant, and the foreigner in securing justice are well known.

This work might well be undertaken here under the auspices and direction of the Commonwealth Club, the Associated Charities, the Bar Association, and kindred organizations, through a legal aid bureau to be established and maintained by them, under the direction