By Jacquelynne Bowman, Ana Cruz, David Kluft, and Lauren Shryne
This year marks the 125th anniversary of Greater Boston Legal Services (“GBLS”), which provides free civil legal aid to residents of Boston and beyond. A review of its history at its quasquicentennial reveals much about how the city’s legal community has endeavored to answer a call to do justice for those in need of legal services, both then and now.
GBLS was founded in 1900 as the “Boston Legal Aid Society” (“BLAS”) by fifteen members of the private bar and one philanthropist. Originally modeled after the German Legal Aid Society, which had been founded in New York in 1876, and following a similar organization in Chicago formed in the 1880s, BLAS was only the third legal aid organization in the United States. It was conceived to protect the rights of people living in poverty, focusing its limited resources on helping to meet the legal needs of immigrants and indigent women with children. Its first office, opened in 1910, was located at 39 Court Street in Scollay Square, near the current site of the Steaming Kettle in Government Center.
In 1914, Reginald Heber Smith became Chief Council of the Boston Legal Aid Society. Smith would later write Justice and the Poor, a seminal work that argued in favor of the provision of free legal aid to people who could not afford to pay for representation. Without the assistance of counsel to fight for equal access to justice, Smith wrote, “the system not only robs the poor of their only protection, but places in the hands of their oppressors the most powerful and ruthless weapon ever invented.” Smith’s work led directly to the 1920 creation of the American Bar Association’s Standing Committee on Legal Aid and Indigent Defense, which is the ABA’s oldest standing committee.
By the 1920s, the Boston Legal Aid Society was already handling approximately 4,000 client matters per year. Some of the early published appellate opinions involving BLAS clients included The Mettacomet, 233 F. 261 (1st Cir. 1916), in which Smith represented a cook on a fishing vessel who had been deprived of fair wages, and In re Mathewson, 227 Mass. 470 (1917), a Workmen’s Compensation Act case before the Supreme Judicial Court. Perhaps the most notable early BLAS cases involved the representation of the victims of Charles Ponzi’s infamous 1920 “Ponzi scheme.” BLAS worked on that matter in collaboration with the Attorney General and served as a receiver in Ponzi’s bankruptcy case.
In the following years, BLAS attorneys responded to emerging areas of legal need due to national and world events. For example, by 1944, World War II had caused an influx of soldiers requesting legal aid in the Boston area. Consequently, 15% of BLAS’ caseload at that time consisted of legal services for veterans. See GBLS, Centennial Report (1900-2000), 7 (2000).
In 1975, BLAS merged with the Boston Legal Aid Project (founded in 1964 as part of the “War on Poverty”) to become Greater Boston Legal Services, and continued to prevail in important cases for its clients and people across the Commonwealth, including Rogers v. Okin, 634 F.2d 650 (1st Cir. 1980), which established the rights of psychiatric patients to make decisions about the course of their treatment, Perez v. Boston Housing Authority, 379 Mass. 703 (1980), which led to major living improvements for the 10,000 families in Boston public housing, and Massachusetts Coalition for the Homeless v. Secretary of Human Services, 400 Mass. 806 (1987), which enforced the right of unhoused families to access shelters until they could find permanent housing. And in 1978, with key support from GBLS, the Legislature enacted the Abuse Prevention Act, G.L. c. 209A, which provided a statutory mechanism to survivors of domestic abuse to prohibit their abuser from further abuse or contact.
In 1996, GBLS made the critical decision to relinquish $1,400,000 in Legal Services Corporation (LSC) funding due to major restrictions on that funding imposed by Congress, including bans on class-action work, representation of immigrants, and advocacy with state and federal agencies. Because GBLS determined that the organization could not fulfill its mission if it adhered to these restrictions, it chose to withdraw from receipt of these federal funds. This loss resulted in GBLS closing neighborhood offices and being forced to reduce staffing by 20%.
With a focused commitment to the work that the community needed most, GBLS entered the 21st century with renewed vigor. GBLS continues to be shaped by its legal community partnerships, including with local bar associations, Boston’s law firms and companies, and pro bono volunteers. Its key recent achievements reflect the breadth of its influence:
- GBLS clients prevailed in Perlera v. Vining Disposal Service, Inc., 47 Mass. App. Ct. 491 (1999), securing higher wages and overtime pay for municipal workers.
- In 2006, GBLS settled the federal class action suit, Daniels-Finegold v. Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority, 02-cv-11504, slip op. (D. Mass. July 25, 2002), resulting in improved access to public transportation for the 200,000 people with disabilities who live in the MBTA’s service area, as well as improvements for all riders.
- In 2008, GBLS participated in the representation of 320 immigrant workers after an ICE raid at a New Bedford factory, preventing deportations and restoring $850,000 in unpaid wages.
- In 2009, GBLS represented the Boston Center for Independent Living (“BCIL”) and several individuals with disabilities, reaching agreements with Massachusetts General Hospital and Brigham and Women’s Hospital to remove accessibility barriers and ensure compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act. The resulting Memorandum of Understanding improves access to Boston-area health care facilities for people with disabilities.
- In S. Bank National Assoc. v. Ibañez, 458 Mass. 637 (2011), GBLS attorneys challenged bank foreclosure rights, creating more safeguards for homeowners in the foreclosure process.
- In 2013, GBLS settled the landmark federal class action Harper v. Department of Transitional Assistance, 07-cv-2351, slip op. (D. Mass. Jan. 25, 2013), which increased access to benefits and services for persons with disabilities by improving readability and content of written notices and forms.
- In 2018, GBLS settled A. et al. v. Boston Public Schools, a Superior Court lawsuit that resulted in a change to school discipline policies to reduce suspensions, eliminate suspensions for very young children, and increase the use of non-exclusionary, alternative discipline. In the wake of the settlement, GBLS partnered with the Boston Bar Foundation and the BBA Public Interest Leadership Program to inform communities about their rights under the agreement.
- In 2023, GBLS settled Garcia v. Department of Housing and Community Development, No. SJC-12507, slip op. (Mass. Oct. 11, 2018), a Superior Court lawsuit that challenged the Commonwealth’s failure to place eligible unhoused families in emergency assistance shelter promptly and to place families close to their home communities to decrease disruption to work, school, and community.
- In 2024, GBLS and co-counsel reached a settlement with the Commonwealth in a landmark disability rights federal class action suit, Marsters v. Healey, 22-cv-11715, slip op. (D. Mass. June 18, 2024), on behalf of tens of thousands of individuals with disabilities, which expanded opportunities for individuals residing in nursing facilities to receive the services they needed to live in their communities of choice.
- Also in 2024, GBLS and partners settled Louis et al. v. SafeRent Solutions, LLC, 22-cv-10800, slip op. (D. Mass. Nov. 20, 2024), a federal class action that alleged the use of unfair tenant screening measures in subsidized housing, resulting in a nationwide settlement that ended these practices.
In addition to litigation, GBLS advocacy was also instrumental in the passage of the Massachusetts Earned Sick Time Law (2014), the Massachusetts Criminal Justice Reform Act (2018), and the Paid Family Medical Leave Act (2018). And in 2024, GBLS’ advocacy efforts in part led to the passage of Home Equity legislation that prevented municipalities and their private successors in interest from foreclosing on properties over small unpaid tax bills and keeping the difference between the taxes owed and the fair market value of the property.
In the early 20th century, when the Boston Legal Aid Society was founded, there was a debate about the purpose of the provision of free legal services to people who couldn’t afford representation, as summarized by Professor Mark Spiegel in The Boston Legal Aid Society: 1900-1925, 9 Mass. Legal History 17-48 (2003). Professor Spiegel explained that some felt that “the primary goal of legal services should be substantive social justice,” that is, services “aimed at alleviating poverty or changing specific social conditions.” Others had a “procedural justice” view, seeing the goal of legal services as “providing a lawyer to facilitate access to court” because “access, by this standard, is an end in itself.”
If the attorneys who founded BLAS did not adequately resolve this question, the GBLS of today has resoundingly pursued its mission with the goal of substantive justice. With a staff of nearly 100 attorneys and 30 paralegals, GBLS serves over 12,000 families and individuals annually, at no cost to clients, pushing for more just conditions and systems for clients and community members alike. The organization’s work over the past 125 years demonstrates its commitment to justice for all.
Jacquelynne Bowman, Executive Director of GBLS, is a family law attorney with 25+ years of experience and has held leadership roles in the BBA and MBA. She was honored with the Voice of Change Award at the 2025 Boston Bar Association Beacon Awards.
Ana Cruz is the Chief Development Officer and Director of Communications for GBLS.
David Kluft is a member of the GBLS Board of Directors and an Assistant Bar Counsel with the Massachusetts Office of Bar Counsel.
Lauren Shryne is the Annual Giving Officer at GBLS and a graduate of Boston University School of Law.
