MS JEANNE CHARN

Ms Jeanne Charn is a Lecturer in Law, Harvard Law School; Director of the Bellow-Sacks Access to Civil Legal Services Project; Director and Co-founder of the Hale and Dorr Legal Services Center of Harvard Law School. B.A, U. of Michigan, 1967; J.D. Harvard Law School, 1970.

During law school, Ms. Charn was a student practitioner at Community Legal Assistance Office (CLAO). One of the first OEO funded legal service projects, CLAO relied on large numbers of law students to provide service. Upon graduation from law school, Ms. Charn joined CLAO as a staff attorney and represented tenant organizations, welfare rights groups as well as individuals in a general poverty law practice. From 1971 to 1973, Ms. Charn was a staff attorney at Mass Law Reform Institute representing statewide and local public housing tenant groups and providing training and support for legal services advocates in the state.

In 1973, Ms. Charn was appointed Assistant Dean for Clinical Programs at Harvard Law School. She arranged for and monitored the educational quality of all course related student placements and worked with Professor Gary Bellow to develop Harvard's clinical program. In 1975, she was appointed Lecturer in Law and continues to teach "The Lawyering Process", an introduction to professional ethics and civil practice for low and moderate income clients; "Delivery of Legal Services" a course that explores approaches to making legal services more widely available in the US; and, with Professor Duncan Kennedy, "Housing Law and Policy".

In 1978, Gary Bellow and Jeanne conceived of a Harvard Law School supported "teaching law office" similar to the teaching hospital in medicine. The predecessor of the Hale and Dorr Legal Services Center opened in 1979. This academic year, the Center has a staff of over 20 attorneys and paralegals who both practice with and supervise 70 or more law students each semester. Center staff and students will provide brief advice and assistance to over 2000 clients in addition to closing 700 or more substantial representation matters.

In addition to directing the Hale and Dorr Center, Jeanne directs the Bellow-Sacks Access to Civil Legal Services Project. This project is supported by donations from Harvard Law classmates of her late husband, Gary Bellow, and honors both Bellow and Dean Albert Sacks, who brought Gary Bellow to Harvard Law to build it's clinical program. The project will produce a series of white papers aimed at expanding the US policy agenda for improving access of low and moderate income Americans to civil legal services. The Hale and Dorr Center has and will continue to be a primary site of experiments on approaches to improving both the quality and availability of services.

In the 1970s, Ms. Charn served as Chair of the AALS Section on Clinical Education and has been a consultant to the Legal Services Corporation.