The Leadership Problem in the Legal Services Program

Bibliographic Data

ID4085404
AuthorsPhilip J Hannon (corresponding author)
Year1969
Volume4
Issue2
Pages235-253
Publication date1969-11-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueLaw & Society Review (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0023-9216 • E-ISSN: 1540-5893
PublisherCambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.2307/3053064
OpenAlexW2319423209
LanguageEN
Citations received8
References cited2

Sargent Shriver, the first Director of the Office of Economic Opportunity, forecast at the outset that the lawyers in the legal services program would come to be recognized as the heavy artillery in the war on poverty (Shriver, 1966: 219). Shriver's success as a soothsayer was considerable. Poverty lawyers have proven to be among the most effective weapons in the war on poverty's arsenal. In practice it seems that many of the lawyer's skills and much of his legal training are helpful and even powerful when directed at the legal problems of the poor. Nevertheless, one wonders how much credit for the poverty lawyer's success can properly be attributed to OEO's leadership. There never really was reason to doubt the lawyer's fire power. But the record reveals much reason to doubt whether his potential power has been used efficiently and with maximum efficacy. An examination of OEO's belated efforts to orient the local legal services offices toward more meaningful targets leads to the belief that the strength of the program lies in the professional training and prodigious labors of the lawyers in the field and its weakness lies in the manner in which OEO has constructed and conducted the legal services program

Business · Law and economics · Legal service · Political science · Sociology · Economic, financial, and policy analysis · Law · Legal Education and Practice Innovations

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