We are entirely student-operated, and the direction of the organization depends on the preference and commitment of the membership. The Defenders provides students with the unique educational opportunity to put their classroom learning to practical use, helping clients who, in many cases, will depend upon you for their future liberty. Working with the Defenders will also acquaint you with a part of the local community that remains invisible to most law students. We handle a wide range of criminal matters at the show -cause level and assist in full bench or jury trials of alleged misdemeanors and minor felonies. Typical offenses include larceny, breaking and entering, assault and battery, welfare fraud, drug and weapons offenses, and motor vehicle offenses such as larceny of a motor vehicle and drunk driving.
Defenders provides a number of opportunities for first -year students.
The litigation experience you gain at the Defenders will stand you in good stead for the rest of your career and for many it will be your only chance as a young lawyer to handle your own case. Please stop by our table at the Student Organizations Fair in September. Providing these opportunities to practice law, participating in the policy and operational decision -making of a bustling law office, and providing legal representation for people who would otherwise go without are some of the reasons the Bureau is such a unique institution. Since 1913, the Bureau has been serving clients who live throughout greater Boston communities, who come from diverse ethnic and cultural backgrounds, and who come to the Bureau with a myriad of legal problems. Much responsibility is placed on Bureau members as they regularly argue motions and conduct their own trials on behalf of their clients in state trial and appellate courts, administrative agencies, and occasionally in federal court.