The Social Law Library: An Illuminating Torch in Our Government of Laws
By Robert J. Brink, Executive Director
In 1804, the year when the Social Law Library convened its first annual meeting, John Adams wrote in his autobiography that as a young lawyer he had “suffered very much for the Want of Books.”
Only 33 law books had been printed in America prior to 1776. There had been no Court Reports other than case summaries that practicing lawyers compiled themselves and sometimes shared with the bar, most notably Josiah Quincy, Jr.’s famous reports of the Massachusetts Superior Court of Judicature between 1761-1772.
Lawrence M. Friedman’s History of American Law aptly characterized law in the colonial period as “the dark ages.” After Independence, it darkened even more when Tory lawyers fled the country with their extensive personal libraries of imported English law books.
But discouragement quickly turned to delight when leaders of the Boston bar formed the Social Law Library (the “Library”) in September, 1803 and, in October, dispatched an agent to London to facilitate the first of many shipments of English law books to build the Library’s collection. In March, 1804, the Massachusetts Legislature authorized the very first official court Reporter in the United States. A month later, the Supreme Judicial Court provided space in its courthouse for the Library so that both the bench and bar could share the same vital research materials.
In only eight months, the legal community put in place the essential elements that finally enabled lawyers and judges to study the law fully and effectively placed Massachusetts at the forefront of what jurist and educator Roscoe Pound called the “Formative Era of American Law.”
As the Columbian Centinel & Massachusetts Federalist reported, it was time to celebrate:
“On Wednesday, [June 13,1804] the first annual meeting of this new institution was held at Concert Hall. The Proprietors [of the Social Law Library] afterwards partook of an elegant dinner, which was honored by the attendance of numerous and select Law Characters, Members of the Legislature, and Brethren of the Bar from various parts of the Commonwealth. The entertainment was enlivened by a number of songs, and with the flow of wit and conviviality.”
Following these festivities, a former apprentice of Paul Revere engraved the Library’s logo. It featured the eternal “Torch of Knowledge” to illustrate the Library’s commitment to ensuring that the dark days of legal research would not return.
Today, the Social Law Library is perhaps the state’s most enduring and successful public/private partnership. With the pooled resources from the private bar (via membership dues) and the public (via an annual appropriation), it is widely recognized as one of the most comprehensive law libraries in the nation.
Integral to Equal Justice
Located in Boston’s John Adams Courthouse, with the Supreme Judicial Court and Appeals Court, the Library is officially designated by the U.S. Government Publishing Office as the Commonwealth’s highest appellate court library. Trial Court personnel state-wide also have unfettered use of the Library’s research services.
The Commonwealth’s Executive and Legislative branches depend on the Library as well. A 2016 study by the Division of Capital Asset Management and Maintenance included the observation that there is an “unmistakable and increasing trend whereby the Social Law Library is serving as the central law library of Massachusetts government,” noting that the number of Executive and Legislative branch entities that registered as members grew from 149 to 227 between FY2001 and FY2014.
Since then, the number of Executive and Legislative branch entities enrolled as members has grown to 256. Not counting all the routine queries to reference attorneys, usage logs tallied for the last annual count document that they used the Library 18,245 times—an average of 73 times every business day.
Registered users include the Office of the Governor, plus all eleven Executive Offices and a substantial majority of their 99 Departments, Divisions, Boards, and Bureaus, etc. The staffs of other Constitutional Officers also utilize the Library, such as those from the Secretary of the Commonwealth, the Auditor, the Treasurer, and, of course, the Attorney General.
Executive Branch users also include independent agencies that are well-known to the public, such as the Cannabis Control Commission, the Gaming Commission, the State Lottery, and the Health Connector.
The Legislature, too, relies on the Library. Counsels to both the House and Senate make use of the Library, as do various legislative committees, as well as numerous legislators and their staffs.
Dues-paying members from every segment of the private bar also value the services provided by the Library. Dozens of large firms listed in the AmLaw 100 and 200 are frequent users. Solo practitioners and smaller firms from 282 municipalities beyond Boston represent a sizable proportion of active members.
Similarly, legal services organizations throughout Massachusetts benefit from the Library’s courtesy memberships. They include major providers like Greater Boston Legal Services, MetroWest Legal Services, South Coastal Counties Legal Services, and the BBA’s Volunteer Legal Project. Other law-related nonprofits receive free memberships, such as the American Civil Liberties Union, the New England Innocence Project, the Massachusetts Law Reform Institute, GLBTQ Legal Advocates & Defenders, the New England Legal Foundation, and scores more.
The Library’s pro bono membership policy helps put public-interest organizations on “equal footing” with the state’s top-notch firms and government offices. Such equal access to premier research resources is integral to equal justice.
Comprehensive and Cutting-Edge Collection
If John Adams were practicing law today, he would not suffer for the want of books. Library members have access to nearly 600,000 volumes of practice materials for federal law and all 50 states (with an emphasis on Massachusetts), as well as international law. They also have 24/7 access to “e-Books” on hundreds of topics published by LexisNexis/Matthew Bender, WEST Academic, Law.com’s Law Journal Press, Nolo Legal Guides, and others.
Members can search 77 research databases, such as those published by Westlaw, Bloomberg Law, vLex Fastcase, VitalLaw, and AILALink—the increasingly relevant research platform of the American Immigration Lawyers Association.
To supplement such commercial products, the Library self-publishes research databases of Massachusetts primary and administrative law. These offerings include decisions of the Superior Court (including the Business Litigation Session), the Housing and Land Courts, plus the Appellate Decisions of the District Court and the Boston Municipal Court. There are also decisions from dozens of administrative agencies, such as Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination, Division of Administrative Law Appeals, and Contributory Retirement Appeal Board.
Several new databases deserve mention, such as the decisions of the Massachusetts Peace Officers Standards and Training Commission, commonly known as POST. The Library also recently partnered with LLMC-Digital to publish fully searchable databases of the entire 3rd Edition of the Code of Massachusetts Regulations (1987 to present) and its complement, the Massachusetts Register.
Reference and Research Services
Given the size, scope, and sophistication of the Library’s physical and digital collections, the Library’s Reference Attorneys work closely with all members when called on to refine issues, develop research strategies, and utilize the most suitable practice materials for their research projects. They also provide trainings tailored to the specific needs and practice areas of firms and government entities to help them make the most of the Library’s collection and services.
Compliant with copyright laws and publisher restrictions, the Library’s Document Delivery Service copies and delivers items from all physical and digital formats in the collection to members working off-site.
The Reference Attorneys provide various research services such as “bill tracking” that keeps patrons abreast of specific bills progressing through the Massachusetts legislative process. They can search trial dockets in 44 states (and Washington D.C.) to provide members useful status reports on cases and insights about judges and opposing counsel.
Members themselves can subscribe to email alerts for Massachusetts Judicial Assignments, Slip Opinions of the SJC and Appeals Court, new decisions of the Superior Court’s Business Litigation Session, as well as reports when notices are posted on the Massachusetts House and Senate Journals. For members interested in keeping abreast of new developments in their fields, the Library also offers timely title alerts for articles in more than 100 legal journals and new treatise alerts for 45 practice-specific categories.
Making Adams’s Constitutional Ideal a Reality
Since 1803, the Social Law Library has indeed been a torch of knowledge to help make real the ideal that John Adams penned into the Massachusetts Constitution of 1780 that we “may be a government of laws and not of men.”
For more information, consult the Library’s website at www.socialaw.com or contact the membership department at 617-226-1530.
Robert J. Brink, Esq., has served as Executive Director of the Social Law Library since 1998 and before that was the CEO of the Flaschner Judicial Institute.
