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BarJournal FEATuRE

JULY/AUGUST 2015
ExTrA legal legacy

The Legal Aid Society

of Cleveland

BY COLLEEN M. COTTER

he Legal Aid Society of Cleveland months, but this set a precedent for the Legal Foundation allowed Legal Aid to establish a
was a pioneer in a national Aid’s expansion into criminal defense work in public defender office to represent indigents
movement whose leaders held to the 1960s. charged with crimes. (Eventually, all public
a simple but profound principle: As Cleveland’s residents faced the realities defender work would transfer to the County,
T that rich and poor alike are of economic distress caused by the Great but it began under Legal Aid’s nonprofit
entitled to equal treatment under the law. Depression, the demands on Legal Aid organization.) Merle M. McCurdy, the first
Founded in 1905, Cleveland was the fifth city increased. By 1932, it served the greatest number African-American to work for Legal Aid
in the United States to have an organization that of needy persons in its history — 19,716 — who was later appointed by President John F.
provides legal services for the poor— following a number nearly equivalent with its 2018 impact. Kennedy to US Attorney, became director of
Chicago (1888), New York (1896), Boston As America entered World War II, there was the criminal division.
(1900), and Philadelphia (1902). a decline in legal aid cases due to a revitalized In 1964, Congress created the Office of
Isador Grossman was the first lead attorney. wartime economy and stable employment. Economic Opportunity (OEO), directing
In its first year, Legal Aid handled 456 cases Servicemen, veterans, and their dependents massive amounts of federal money toward
and organized a legislative committee to began to make up a larger share of the client the eradication of poverty as part of President
work to reform laws that adversely affected population of Legal Aid. Cooperation with the Lyndon B. Johnson’s War on Poverty. By 1966,
the poor. Chaired by Manuel Levine, this Red Cross, draft boards, and departments of Legal Aid hired Burt W. Griffin to guide the
committee investigated and published reports the armed forces became customary. expansion following receipt of federal grant
on abuses within Ohio’s courts and drafted a In 1959, led by Fred J. Ball, the board of funding. This included expanding the board
bill establishing Cleveland Municipal Court. trustees reorganized Legal Aid so that it would to include residents from poor neighborhoods
In 1910, the Ohio General Assembly approved acquire its own office and legal staff instead and opening seven new offices in Hough,
the bill and Cleveland Municipal Court was of contracting solely with private attorneys. Central, Kinsman, Tremont, Glenville and the
opened in 1912, thanks to Legal Aid advocacy. That same year, a grant from The Cleveland near West Side neighborhoods.
As Cleveland’s population continued to
grow, Legal Aid worked closely with other
organizations serving the needs of the
community. It began to engage more attorneys
to handle the increasing caseload, and it
employed student volunteers from Western
Reserve University Law School.
By 1917, Legal Aid handled 6,580 cases.
Forty-two nationalities were represented
among Legal Aid’s clients at this time. In 1921,
the law firm of Claude E. Clark and J. Milton
Costello began to handle the majority of Legal
Aid’s cases (a position it held the next four
decades). In 1922, Walter T. Dunmore, dean
of the Western Reserve University School
of Law, was named president of the board of
trustees. Marie Wing, the first woman elected
to Cleveland City Council, joined the board in
1923. The organization briefly experimented
in 1924 with representing the poor charged
with misdemeanors in police court. The Claude E. Clarke, 1919
practice area was discontinued after six
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