Stanford Law School - Yearbook (Palo Alto, CA)

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In the past year the Legal Aid Society has greatly expanded the scope of its activities to provide a broad spectrum of services to the community and an interesting selection of opportunities for students. Programs initiated this year include: CD the Santa Clara County Defender-Prosecutor program, financed for two years by the National Legal Aid and Defender Association and the County of Santa Clara, in which students work with senior staff attorneys in the District Attorney and Public Defender offices who have been relieved of their normal duties to enable them to supervise and guide the students, QD the San Mateo County Juvenile program in which one group of students interviews juveniles being held at the Hillcrest detention center, obtains their version of the facts and names of possible witnesses, reviews available police and probation reports, and prepares a file for the attorney outlining the facts, the law, and suggested strategies, and in which another group is making an intensive study of disposition alternatives and results, Q31 a Ghetto Criminal Law project involving study and recommendations for reform in criminal law administration, particularly the possibility of neighborhood courts, minority area police autonomy, increased use of release on own recognizance, and non-detentional juvenile sentencing, Q41 the Business Assistance Committee, providing non-legal advice and counseling to small businessmen, particularly minority businessmen, and research and other assistance for their attorneys on matters which constitute f'practicinglaw , CSD the Housing Committee which does research on various aspects of housing law and finance, especially federally subsidized programs, and works with several community organizations in housing law and projects, and C61 the Law Reform group which provides research on test cases, major litigation, and statutory and regulatory proposals for the law reform divisions of the two county legal aid organizations. Existing programs were continued, except for the bail bond frelease on own recognizancej program which was taken over by VISTA, and improved where possible. These inclued: flj general civil offices in East Palo Alto, Redwood City, Sunnyvale, and San Jose, in which students work on bankruptcy, welfare, debtor-creditor, landlord-tenant, domestic relations, and miscellaneous civil cases, usually following the cases from start to Hnish, drafting pleadings, negotiating settlements, etc. under the supervision of an attorney, C25 the San Mateo Assistant Defender program in which students assist court-appointed attorneys in adult criminal cases in several courts in San Mateo County, doing investigation, research, and drafting motions and other documents, C35 the Criminal Appeals program in which students answer letters and do legal research for inmates of state and federal prisons throughout the United States, f4j the Community Education and Community Relations Project involved in Black and Mexican-American problems both at Stanford, as either students or employees, and in the community, and CSD the Student Practice Statute Committee which continued its campaign for a statutory change to allow students to represent indigents in court and in negotiations under the supervision of an attorney, and has been so successful that the statute should be enacted within a year. The Legal Aid Society has encouraged and supported other student activities and projects not formally within the organization, including a LSCCRC-CLRA study of the possible use of para-legal personnel in poverty law offices and student support of the United Farm Workers' grape boycott. The wide variety of interesting, educational, meaningful opportunities has attracted an increasing number of students, about one-fourth of the law students participated actively in one or more of the programs. The high levels of dedication and competance have earned the respect and admiration of the community and the Stanford Legal Aid Society has become known in many parts of the nation as a leader in its field, bringing prestige to the members and to the school. The functioning of each of the programs depends primarily on the dedicated leadership of the program chairmen: Clyde Christofferson, Santa Clara County Defender-Prosecutor and Ghetto Criminal Law, Perry Popovich, j Juvenile, Ken Kaye, Business Assistance, J an Pauw, Housing, Bob Stern and Steve Sussman, East Palo Alto, Rand Shulman, Redwood City, Dick Crockett, Santa Clara County Civil offices, Roger La Brucherie and Dave DeWeese, San Mateo Assistant Defenders, George Russill, Criminal Appeals, Leroy Bobbitt and Luis Nogales, Community Education and Community Relations, and Dick Williams, Student Practice Statute. There are more than one hundred others who gave their time and talent, and only lack of space requires that, as too often happens, those who did the real work remain anonymous. The president was J an Pauw.

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LEGAL AID LEGAL AID SOCIETY. HORIZONTAL: C. Hoover. ,FIRST ROW: K. Kaye, S. Sussman, P. Popovich, C. Christofferson, J. Pauw. ROW 2: J. Platt, D. Clark, R. Morningstar, G. Buffington, G. Halligan, J. Mclntosh. ROW 3: P. Nicholson, R. Baker, R. Jacobson, R. Williams, J. Hoak, L. Bobbitt, J. Rowles, R. McAulay. ROW 4: R. LaBrucherie, R. Etienne, D. DeWeese, P. Schilla, G Russill. Steve Sussman, Bob Etienne, Jan Pauw and Al Pick work at a leisurely pace in the main office. Chris Hoover types a memo.

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Dave DeWeese verifies the facts of a case As part of the Business Assistance Program, Ken Kaye discusses problems with an East Palo Alto businessman. Pat Cutler and Bobbi Miracle find the law a seamy web of paperwork. Jeff Jennings interviews a client while Ann Castro looks on.