Fellows created an oral history of the legal aid movement in Connecticut by interviewing 15 of the state's legal aid “pioneers” to capture its history and important milestones.
Project Background
In 2014, the Fellows partnered with Connecticut legal aid organizations throughout the state to host the symposium, “Justice for All: The History and Future of Legal Aid in Connecticut.” National leaders in the Access to Justice system, Connecticut’s legal aid pioneers, and the new generation of legal services leaders spoke about the past, present, and future of legal aid in Connecticut.
2014 marked several important milestones in the history of legal aid in our state. The first legal aid office in Connecticut began in Hartford in 1914. The first of the “modern” legal services programs, New Haven Legal Assistance Association, was incorporated fifty years later, in 1964. Those who served in Hartford in 1914 are no longer with us but many of those involved in New Haven and other communities that started legal aid programs soon thereafter still have stories to tell.
