Student Practice Organizations

Harvard Defenders

www.law.harvard.edu/academics/clinical/defenders
The Harvard Defenders is a student-run student practice organization founded for the purpose of providing free legal assistance to indigent persons accused of crimes, primarily in show-cause hearings. Show-cause hearings are held in local district courts to determine whether there is "probable cause" to issue a criminal complaint. Harvard Defenders has provided legal services to people accused of criminal offenses since 1949. The group is made up of approximately 75 first-year, second-year, and third-year students enrolled at Harvard Law School. All students are supervised by a practicing criminal defense attorney. Harvard Defenders is committed to ensuring that people with low income have representation in criminal legal proceedings and are aware of their legal rights and responsibilities. Harvard Defenders is committed to maintaining a high level of professional conduct and work extensively with our clients in preparing for cases. Ultimately, the organization's goal is to work closely with their clients to find the best solutions for their cases. Several defenders also participate in the Suffolk Lawyers for Justice Program. Through this program, Boston area law students can work with public defenders. Participating students will assist a local public defender on one case.

Harvard Legal Aid Bureau

hlab@law.harvard.edu
www.law.harvard.edu/students/orgs/hlab
The Harvard Legal Aid Bureau is the oldest student-run legal services office in the country, providing free legal services to low-income people in Middlesex and Suffolk counties. The Bureau handles cases involving a broad range of civil legal issues, including landlord-tenant disputes, domestic relations, and public benefits law.

The Harvard Legal Aid Bureau was established in 1913 and chartered as a Massachusetts charitable corporation in the following year. Practicing under the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court Rule 3:03, student attorneys at the Bureau provide free legal services involving a broad range of civil legal issues, including landlord/tenant disputes, domestic relations, public benefits law, and wage and hour workplace violations. The Bureau provides an important community service while giving its members the opportunity to develop professional skills as part of the clinical programs of Harvard Law School.

Harvard Mediation Program (HMP)

www.law.harvard.edu/students/orgs/hmp
The Harvard Mediation Program serves the greater Boston community by providing volunteer mediators in six area district courts, resulting in almost 400 mediated cases per year. Mediations are conducted in the areas of small claims, landlord-tenant, criminal, civil and parent-child cases. HMP works collaboratively with other community mediation programs such as Metropolitan Mediation Services in Brookline.

Prison Legal Assistance Project (PLAP)

www.law.harvard.edu/academics/clinical/plap
Prison Legal Assistance Project students represent inmates in Massachusetts's state prisons. PLAP student attorneys argue at disciplinary hearings on behalf of prisoners charged with violating prison regulations before the Massachusetts Parole Board for prisoners facing parole revocation or rescission. PLAP provides inmates with legal research assistance in matters ranging from civil rights violations to confiscated property. Student attorneys testify at prison regulation notice-and-comment sessions and address inmate support groups. Occasionally, PLAP students even litigate cases in state and federal court.

Tenant Advocacy Program

www.law.harvard.edu/academics/clinical/tap
The Harvard Tenant Advocacy Project (TAP) is dedicated to representing residents of publicly subsidized housing before local housing authorities. TAP provides badly needed assistance to low- and moderate-income tenants who are facing eviction or who have been denied admission to public housing or a subsidy program. TAP also provides advice on general landlord-tenant questions. Through varied interactions with tenants and local housing authorities, TAP members develop a wide range of important advocacy skills, including client interviewing, witness examination, oral argument, and negotiations. TAP is one of the few clinical organizations that offer 1L members the invaluable opportunity to do hands-on lawyering by handling every aspect of their cases from the initial client interview to the trial-like hearing. TAP's advising attorneys and more experienced students work with new TAP members, giving them plenty of advice and feedback. Students volunteer during the school year and three students are employed during the summer.