The Legal Aid Agency history

Around 1885, a "New York Legal Aid Society" began advertising its "free" services in the city's German newspapers.

America's second legal aid society was established in Chicago in 1888 as the Ethical Culture Society, the first to offer legal assistance regardless of nationality, race, or sex.

In 1889, Salomon was succeeded by patent attorney Arthur von Briesen, who during the first year of his presidency oversaw a change in the Society's constitution that eliminated the restriction of clients to those of German heritage.

In 1900, a Seaman's Branch was opened, which became instrumental in the elimination of the lucrative practice of shanghaiing sailors.

1901: Rosalie Loew is named Attorney-in-Chief.

Incorporated on May 10, 1905, it is the fifth-oldest legal aid society in the world.

Judge Manuel Levine, a Legal Aid trustee for 32 years, was the principal author of the bill which in 1910 created the first municipal court in Ohio.

1920: Criminal practice added to the Society's services.

Because the Society could only help the indigent, in 1948 it established Legal Referral Services, which connected clients with a marginal ability to pay, or those with unusual cases, to a list of volunteer lawyers who had been recruited by the bar association.

Economic development activities of Legal Aid helped result in formation of the Hough Area Development Corporation in the 1960's.

It would be nearly a century before any national structure is developed by the federal government, first with the creation of the Office of Economic Opportunity's Legal Services in 1965, and eventually with the establishment of the independent Legal Service Corporation.

In 1966, under the leadership of then director and later Common Pleas Court Judge Burt Griffin, the Society established five offices in low-income Cleveland neighborhoods.

To supplement the Society's staff of lawyers, a formal internship program was established in 1967.

By 1970, some 30,000 low-income residents were being serviced by 66 Legal Aid attorneys in civil, criminal and juvenile cases.

In 1978, the Volunteer Division was created to facilitate a partnership with members of the private bar.

Despite the cuts in city funding, however, the Society established a Capital Division in 1995 in order to address cases affected by the state's new death penalty law.