YMCA Night Law School - Triangle Yearbook (Cincinnati, OH)

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inimi eww- X as was XQXZXJ New Opportunities for the Law Student and the Young Lawyer By WALTER A. KNIGHT, '99 President of the Legal Aid Society OR twenty years Cincinnati has maintained a Legal Aid Society for the purpose of providing legal advice and legal services generally in or out of Court, to those who were too poor to hire a lawyer. The people of Cincinnati are socially minded and try to care for the unfortunate persons of the community no matter what the cause of their misfortune. The Legal Aid Society was formed to care for those who would be unjustly dealth with and who would not know and could not enforce their legal rights but for such charitable help. The organigation has been a most useful instif tution from its start, and its usefulness has been greatly ex' tended during the last few years. It maintains its office in the Community Chest Building, 312 W. 9th St., Cincinnati, where it may cooperate most ad' vantageously with other institutions engaged in the work of human helpfulness Almost every kind of legal problem is encountered in the WALTER A. KNIGHT work of the Legal Aid Society as Mr. George H. Silverman, who has been Chief Counsel for fifteen years or more, will tell you. The work grew to such an extent that an Assistant Attorney was necessary and Miss Sarah E. Grogan was employed to fill that position. About a year ago a new idea came to the Board of Trustees of the Legal Aid Society, and that was to offer to some attorney just admitted to the Bar, an opportunity similar to the one a young Doctor would have, who had just been admitted to his prof fession in our City,-that is, an interneship for one year, participating as a fullffledged professional man in the work of the Legal Aid Society under the guidance and direcf tion of its legal staff. Frank T. Bartlett, a 1927 graduate of the Y. M. C. A. Law School was the first person appointed to this position, and so far as we know, is the first Legal Interne in the world. He began his work immediately after having been sworn in at Columbus in July, 1927, and has been diligently at work since then in the Office of the Legal Aid Society. This experience brings him in contact with a very large number of clients, 2689 having been served by the Society in the year 1927. Not only does he ac' quire valuable experience by coming into first hand contact with clients and their legal problems, but the range of their troubles in and out of court is much wider than that of any private law ofhce. Every Attorney of the Legal Aid Society also feels that he or she is engaged in a peculiarly valuable piece of social work, benefitting those desperf ately in need of such service. 3' 9 f I X QIMQQQ Z Sjfgi irgztg-f K. F ' A,,, V 'VT 4, 12,7 ll I ii fists +1 we kfhfs - ' - U .J-Q62 if if fe 'sgy

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6 Q11-ifoed-f-X627-if 45 ,2513 serv Eyfrywwexni MI Acclaim the Aliumnil, fudith Tuxngblut '29 T has been the fashion on occasions such as this to use them shamelessly to minister to our own pride and self consciousness. We have used them to prove the standing of our school, while declaiming against invidious com' parisons, we have been inclined to build comparisons of our own upon their uncomf plaining shoulders. So, we have said, our Alumni is better than your Alumnig and we have proceeded to deduce from this fact many very comforting things. This satisfying procedure may have swelled our own selffesteem, and inflated our pride, I question whether it did as much for the Alumni. I acclaim the Alumni for their own sake, and out of a spirit of grattitude. I do not wish to make them perform in public. I shall not single out some and say Beloved!, and others and say Mark and marvel! The Y. M. C. A. waited years for us. Lean and hungry years, some of them must have been, too, years of impatience, wan hope fighting eager despair, years of yearing for the fullment of a dream. How was it ever to feel any assurance that we would come along? How could it know? Yet it persisted and kept busy. Obviously there had to be grist for the mill during those years. Hence the Alumni, and our gratitude. Seriously, I like to think of the Alumni as that great body of pioneers who made the way easier for us. They have earned our gratitude because they showed us how. In the days when the vision was not so clear, they determined to carve out of a busy life's too limited leisure, the foundation of a professional career. And they did it. 'To them we owe our School in a very true sense, to some of them we owe the personal service by which they have guided our own efforts, and to all of them we owe the comf forting assurance that the thing can be done. We who follow them are not likely to forget their service. We would not be woof ing the Law if we were not earnestly striving for the things that they strove for. And the assurance of their example, and the knowledge of their accomplishment is the chief source of our confidence. The Alumni, looking back at the days of their preparation, will be indulgent with us if we boast about them, they will smile if we single out some and say l'Behold! They will understand our feeling of kinship, and best of all, they will be sympathetic when we use the thought of them to bolster up our courage. I never knew an Alumnus who laughed at our perplexities. I never knew an Alumnus who failed to extend a helping hand when we struck the rough places. I never knew an Alumnus, successful or otherwise, through whose words the common goal we have before us did not take on a new lustre and seem somehow more nearly within reach. And I suspect that if the Alumni knew that we, while appreciating their accomf plishments, nevertheless secretly feel that as soon as we have entered the profession those accomplishments will dim and fade beside our own, their instant and whole' hearted response would be: L'More power to you, students, and the best of luckln I acclaim the Alumni. J up 1 gp NZ X de GQ fp Y lfx ' fl' 'fX,,f TiSs. 6' 3 V- ag. fQ'14 ' 'ts X f?gs E? TQ?-'Qlrg, Q ' UZDQMQ 515 X

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gig-sff t i1-,Q f-Y-- --l ' ' 9 , X ' LQT I ' ' f T1iQie?f,.lsl'TAi' ' agiffii N 2 it ' ,ff We ' fr 'I Me W 5115 5 T XXXQF-fg,'fc7' Nifrvsv Last Fall the Legal Aid Society decided that it would start a Legal Clinic and offer to all senior year 'law students in Cincinnati, an opportunity to participate under the direction of the Attorneys in charge, in the legal services rendered by the Legal Aid Society to its clients. After careful investigation of similar work done at Northf western University at Chicago, an invitation was issued to the members of the Senior Class of both Law Schools to enroll and begin their work. Eleven enrolled and seven of these continued the work throughout the term, took their examination and passed with very creditable grades. John H. Wigmore, Dean of the Northwestern Law School was furnished a copy of the examination questions and in a letter to the President of the Cincinnati Legal Aid Society, stated that he considered these questions fully as hard as those given their students. The Y. M. C. A. law students who completed this Legal Clinic work were Gilbert Shaver, Bennett R. Knight and M. M. Sigler. Heretofore the young lawyer just admitted to the bar, unless he was one of the few who had experience in a good law office while a law student, found himself without practical knowledge of legal procedure and generally did not know where ref cords he must consult were to be found or how to go about using them. His handicap for the first few months of his practice was therefore serious and embarrassing. But still worse he knew nothing of interviewing clients or witnesses and legal ethics had little concrete meaning for him. The Legal Clinic student sees service enough to learn where the offices of public officials are located, what these records are and how to use themg he learns something of the art of interviewing clients and witnesses and how to begin looking up the law relating to a concrete case. The practice of all attorneys connected with the Legal Aid Society must at all times be strictly in accord with the code of ethics adopted by the American Bar Association, and the same careful attention is given to the work of these poor helpless clients that would be given in the service of the most valued client of the best law firms. Therfore, to the extent that their short and intermittent service will permit, the practical training the student receives in the Legal Clinic is precisely what is needed for his best development. Inevitably a student who has taken the Legal Clinic work becomes a better citizen and a better lawyer. But the favored few who serve as Legal Internes, with a year of full time service at the Legal Aid Society, are fortunate indeed. We expect to see those who have had this exceptional opportunity and taken full advantage of it, render distinguished service to their community, whether they practice in Cincinnati or elsewhere. Some of these should become leaders of the bar and the community. These Legal Internes will not have to go to the gallery of the Library of Congress at Washington to learn that Of Law there can be no less acknowledged than that her voice is the harmony of the world. X Y- . LZI-Elrglxlxl -L -,525 ,I F ci i pf