Do you need help?

If you are looking for representation from the Harvard Legal Aid Bureau,
please call (617) 495-4408, Monday – Friday, 9 am to 5 pm.

Harvard Legal Aid Bureau clients are assigned to a student attorney who will represent the client in matters relating to the client’s legal problem under the direct supervision of an experienced, licensed attorney. The Bureau represents people with no or low incomes who live in Suffolk County, and parts of Middlesex County, on cases in housing, family, and wage & hour law. See below for the kinds of cases we can accept.

If your legal issue is not in one of these fields, please continue to our Pro Se and Community Resources page for information about other legal assistance organizations and resources.

Do you need a lawyer and can not afford one?

We might be able to help.

The Bureau is an entirely student-run non-profit law firm currently composed of approximately 50 second and third year Harvard Law School students who provide free civil legal services to a diverse population of low-income clients in the Greater Boston area. The Bureau employs seven practicing attorneys, each with extensive public interest and private practice experience, who train students, accompany them in court, provide strategic advice, and assist in case management. The Bureau also has a managing attorney and faculty director, who supervises the ongoing activities of the organization and serves as a liaison between the Bureau and the Law School, and an administrative director, who oversees office operations.

What we can do

  • We represent tenants facing evictions and housing subsidy terminations. We also participate in community lawyering through our Answer and Discovery Clinic, Attorney for the Day at housing court, and our partnership with City Life / Vida Urbana.

    For eviction cases, we only accept cases after a Notice to Quit and Summons & Complaint have been issued. 

    If you have received a Notice to Quit but not yet received a Summons & Complaint, we refer you to City Life / Vida Urbana to learn more about your rights as a tenant and how you can best fight to stay in your home.

    We also provide legal representation for tenant associations and are involved in supporting community organizers in their action planning. 

  • The Family Practice represents clients in a variety of family law matters, including:   

    • Family Defense: We represent parents, families, and caregiving professionals who are facing Department of Children and Families (“DCF”) in their lives. If you have had an allegation of neglect or abuse filed against you, we may be able to help you navigate the DCF investigation. If there has already been a finding made against you, we may be able to help you appeal it in a Fair Hearing with DCF.  

    • Special Juvenile Immigrant Status (SIJS): We partner with immigration attorneys to help children under the age of 21 who have been abandoned, neglected, or abused by one or more parents secure a pathway to legal status. We handle obtaining special findings in Probate and Family Court and pass it on to an immigration organization who can file the immigration application.  

    • Probate and Family Court: We represent clients in matters involving divorce, parentage, and custody. 

  • We represent clients who have been denied adequate compensation for their work. Some of the issues we can help with include:

    • Minimum wage violations (earning less than $15/hour)

    • Overtime violations (not earning 1.5x your hourly rate for overtime hours)

    • Nonpayment or late payment of wages

    • Compensation for earned sick time or vacation days

    We represent both individuals and small groups of individuals who seek to recover unpaid or underpaid wages or benefits from their employers. We will negotiate with former employers and/or file state and federal claims on our clients’ behalf in order to recover wages that were promised and never paid, or wages and benefits that were paid but that did not meet federal and state requirements such as the employer’s obligation to pay the minimum fair wage, overtime pay, or vacation pay.

    For more information about other wage and hour violations we may be able to assist with, please see here.

  • We also represent clients whose applications for unemployment insurance (UI) benefits have been denied by the Department of Unemployment Assistance (DUA).

    We are currently doing community outreach with local organizations to solicit new cases for our growing Wage & Hour practice and to better develop our service in this area.

FAQs

  • A member of the Bureau will answer the phone and ask some basic questions about you and your case.

    All conversations during the intake process are completely confidential, and information shared during the process will not be disclosed to anyone outside of the Bureau.

    Because we are only able to serve clients in certain areas and on certain matters of law, we may need to refer you if you do not meet our requirements. Should you meet the requirements, you will schedule an appointment to come to our office for an intake interview. Generally intake interviews take an hour, but they may be shorter or longer depending on the case.

  • The Harvard Legal Aid Bureau reviews all potential clients weekly after both the telephone and intake interview have been completed. You can expect to hear if the Bureau has accepted your case approximately 7 to 10 days after the intake interview has been conducted.

  • The Harvard Legal Aid Bureau is capable of expediting the intake process if you meet certain requirements. Should the Bureau be unable to accept your case, Bureau members will refer you to organizations and resources where help may be found.

  • The Bureau will keep information it receives during the intake process confidential to the extent permitted by law.

  • If your legal issue does not fit within our practice areas or we are unable to help you due to geographic or income limitations, please continue to our Pro se resources and referrals page for information about other legal assistance organizations and resources.