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Biographies

GARY BELLOW (1935-2000) WAS A PIONEERING PUBLIC SERVICE LAWYER and founder of Harvard Law School's Clinical Education programs. He received an A.B. from Yale University in 1957, a LL.B. in 1960 from Harvard Law School, and a L.L. M from Northwestern University School of Law in 1961. After graduation, he enlisted in the army, serving from 1961 to 1962. From 1962 to 1965, he was a public defender in the District of Columbia where, with his colleagues, he built the D.C. Public Defender Service into one of the premier programs in the country. In 1965, he left to become Deputy Director of United Planning Organization in Washington D.C., the agency that implemented anti-poverty programs for the District. During these years, Gary was instrumental, along with Jean and Edgar Cahn, American Bar Association leaders and others, in persuading Sargent Shriver, Director of the Office of Economic Opportunity (O.E.O) in the Johnson Administration, to create a federally funded legal services program for the poor as part of Lyndon Johnson's War on Poverty.
   With O.E.O. Legal Services for the Poor in place, Gary went to work for one of the new programs. In 1967 he became deputy director to Jim Lorenz at California Rural Legal Assistance (CRLA). The program represented migrant farm-workers who were organizing a union under the leadership of Cesar Chavez. Gary was one of the key players in making CRLA a model of how skilled, aggressive legal advocacy could benefit the poor. At one point during Gary's tenure, CRLA's litigation budget was larger than the combined litigation budgets of all other O.E.O legal service programs in the country. The effectiveness of CRLA produced conflict with the then Governor of California Ronald Reagan and his administration. Reagan tried to shut down CRLA but an on-site Congressional investigation exonerated the program at the same time that the National Legal Aid and Defender Association named Gary Bellow the outstanding poverty lawyer in the country.      
   In 1969, in part at the request of Cesar Chavez, who wanted outreach to urban Chicanos, Gary went to Los Angeles as law professor at the University of Southern California. At USC, Gary collaborated with his life long friend and colleague, Earl Johnson (the second President of OEO Legal Services), in the development of a "clinical semester," one of the most ambitious and successful early clinical education efforts. Bellow's classes drew hundreds of enthusiastic students and twice students chose him as the outstanding teacher at the law school. In addition to his teaching duties, Gary continued to carry a large pro bono caseload, representing poor Chicanos and African Americans in the city. At the end of his years in California, Gary tried and won a felony murder case involving a young Black Panther who had been present during a shoot out between the L.A. Police and members of the L.A. Black Panther Party.    
   Gary Bellow joined the Harvard faculty in 1971 as Visiting Professor of Law. He became Professor of Law in 1972 and Louis D. Brandeis Professor of Law in 1993. He served as Faculty Director of the Clinical Programs from 1992 to 1996. Under his leadership, the law school's clinical program developed from two courses, both taught by Gary and three clinical supervisors, Jeanne Charn and Gary Bellow to over 30 courses with more than 35 Clinical Instructors at Harvard and many placements in government and public service law offices in Greater Boston. Gary's interest in clinical education was centered on, first, the need to better prepare law school graduates for practice, particularly for practice in legal services, public defender and similar law offices. Second, he was interested in the extent to which quality clinical education for law students was consistent with quality service to large numbers of clients. These two issues dominated his work over nearly thirty years at Harvard Law School. His collaborator in these efforts at Harvard was his colleague and later his wife, Jeanne Charn, who came to Harvard Law School as Assistant Dean for Clinical Programs in the 1972-1973 academic year. The culmination of their efforts is what is now the Hale and Dorr Legal Services Center of Harvard Law School, the school's major legal civil practice clinic. The predecessor of the Center opened in the Jamaica Plain neighborhood of Boston in January, 1979 and grew to a full fledged teaching law office with over twenty lawyers and paralegals and as many as 80 students working and learning together every academic year. In 1993, the Law School dedicated a permanent home for Center. The spacious, four story building was purchased and renovated with support from a $2 million gift from the firm of Hale and Dorr, and its partners who were graduates of HLS.    
   Gary Bellow's publications include: (with Bea Moulton) The Lawyering Process: Materials for Clinical Instruction in Advocacy in 1978, (with Martha Minnow) Law Stories in 1996, and many articles in law journals and other publications.  He was a member of many boards and organizations. Gary was a consultant to the Council on Legal Education and Professional Responsibility, The United Planning Organization Legal Defender Project and Neighborhood Legal Program in Washington D.C., the Children's Defense Fund, and the National Legal Services Corporation. He was a member of the American Bar Association's Standing Committee on Legal Aid and Indigent Defendants and he was on the Executive Committee of the Association of American Law Schools. He was a board member of Community Justice Center, Rural Development Corporation, Vera Institute of Justice, and the Massachusetts Advocacy Center.    
   Gary's numerous awards include: Common Cause 1997 Public Achievement Award; the Alliance for Justice Access to Justice Award in 1966; the Massachusetts Bar Association's Lifetime Legal Services Award in 1966; the CRCLLR Award for Outstanding Clinical Legal Teaching in 1995; the Association of American Law Schools Award for Outstanding Clinical Teaching in 1985; The National Legal Aid and Defender Association Reginald Herber Smith Award for Outstanding Contribution to the Legal Aid Movement in the United States in 1968; and the District of Columbia Bar Association Young Lawyers of the Year award in 1964.