BY LEA SEVCIK
The Legal Aid Bureau will no longer be sharing the cramped confines of Gannett House with the Law Review.
On August 16, the Bureau moved into new offices at Baker House, located between Pound and the Hark. It was a bittersweet move for the Bureau after 77 years of residence in Gannett House, the oldest surviving Harvard Law School building. Nonetheless, the Bureau badly needed the change.
Three-L Dan Gluck, current Chair of the Bureau, said that the main reason for the move was the need for more space. “Gannett House was our home for a long time and we loved it there, but considering that we have clients coming in all the time, we needed a space that was a little more professional, that looked more like a law office, and where we could talk with our clients in confidence,” he said.
Baker House, the former home of the Alumni Office, provides the Bureau with 40 percent more space than their old offices. Gluck said that Gannett House had only five doors that would close, and required the Bureau to share two offices with the Review. The Baker House location provides 12 offices, nearly doubling the Bureau’s capacity for meetings and private discussions with clients. The layout and renovations, including new carpeting, give the offices a clean, bright and spacious look much lacking from the old location.
Although the Bureau now has the space to expand its staff of 47 students, 5 half-time clinical instructors and one full-time managing attorney, Gluck said no expansion is planned in the near future. Any expansion that did take place would begin with the addition of supervising attorneys, who are already overworked, rather than with student staff.
Gluck said that although their new offices are “fabulous,” Bureau members will look fondly on their Gannett House experience. “It was a home away from home for Bureau members,” he said. “We enjoyed hanging out with the Law Review people — they were kind enough to share their bagels with us.”
Taking the Bureau’s place is the much-touted new Pro Bono office, headed up by former LIPP administrator Lisa Dealy. And for its part, the Law Review is likely to stay put.