Efficiency of New York Legal Aid Society

Before an audience of about a hundred Law School men, Mr. Merrill E. Gates, head counsel of the New York Legal Aid Society, delivered an interesting address in Langdell Hall last night on the work of the society, which provides legal aid to the poor gratuitously, or at a charge of a few cents.

Besides the main office, there are five branches: the Sailors' branch in the Battery, the East Side branch, the West Side branch, and branches in Brooklyn and Harlem. The Sailors' branch deals with the impositions practiced upon seamen, and has done much in the last twenty years to raise the legal standard of the sailor. The East and West Side divisions both practice among foreigners and the lowest classes, and do much good in settling the petty cases of the neighborhood. With these objects in view, and partly to discourage the litigious spirit among the lower classes, the purpose of the society is primarily to keep cases out of court, an object in which they were successful last year in 8-9 of their cases.

There is a great opportunity for law students during the summer or just after graduation to gain practical experience by assisting in the work of the society.