Did You Know

Before the Massachusetts Bar Association was started in 1910, an attempt at forming a state bar association failed in 1849. The Massachusetts Bar Association held its first organizational meeting on Dec. 22, 1909 at the Hotel Somerset in Boston.

The MBA, which is credited with being one of the first bar associations to welcome women, admitted its first woman member, Mary A. Mahan of West Roxbury, in 1913. Portia Law School, which catered exclusively to teaching women, opened in 1908, but gains for women in the profession were slow to follow. By 1920, there were 47 women lawyers out of 4,850 total in Massachusetts.

For the MBA's third annual meeting, a group of 50 members symbolically recognized the association's statewide membership by traveling from Boston by "special train." The group was joined in Worcester, and was finally met in Springfield by a delegation of the Hampden County Bar. Within five years of its formation, 33 of the MBA's 55 members practiced law outside of Boston.

When the MBA was founded, judges in the commonwealth were not required to be lawyers. Considering the faultiness of the bench to be detrimental to justice, the MBA established a standing Committee of Judicial Appointments in 1910 and lobbied against an elective judiciary in order to maintain a high bench standard.

The MBA worked from its beginning to establish requirements key to ensuring an educated, skilled bar. "Not even a high school education was required of applicants for admission in 1909: unsupervised, haphazard studying sufficed." Applicants to the Board of Bar Examiners "merely had to be American citizens, twenty-one years of age, and able to pass the bar examination."

The Massachusetts Bar Association did not allow barriers against blacks, foreigners or first-generation Americans. Butler R. Wilson, who, along with compatriot William H. Lewis, challenged American Bar Association race requirements, was an MBA member from the beginning.

At its inception, the MBA decided only to issue recommendations on legal issues. Moved by court decisions that constitutionally disallowed compassionate efforts, however, members realized the organization could do more public good by supporting humanitarian causes, such as child labor reform.

The MBA has continually initiated legislation leading to improvements in the administration of justice. In 1913, the association lobbied to make the SJC an appellate court instead of a jury court and convinced the commonwealth to give the SJC a permanent seat in Boston, rather than rotating positions as a circuit court.

The MBA began publishing its annual legislative report in 1913 to help lawyers cope with that year's busy legislative session, when more than 2,000 proposals were considered. The detailed report included commentary, which also helped non-lawyer legislators understand possible consequences of proposed legislation.

The MBA started offering legal aid as a public service during World War I. Its members helped disseminate legal information and provide legal assistance to soldiers and sailors. One member in particular, Reginald Heber Smith, recognized that better legal aid would improve access to justice for the poor - and might prevent class uprisings.

As the MBA grew and matured, its presidents began to broaden its focus, taking aim at general trends in society instead of just at issues specifically relevant to lawyers. In 1960, MBA President Harold Horvitz founded the Committee on Juvenile Delinquency to examine a societal problem.

A woman, Colette Manoil, was the challenger in the first contested presidential election in MBA history. Though she lost the 1974 election to Raymond J. Kenney Jr., the Nominating Committee's choice, Manoil's efforts showed the increased willingness of the Massachusetts legal community to admit women into the upper tiers of leadership. She had gained experience and influence as a member of the Board of Delegates, a vice president of the MBA and a chair of the Committee on Prepaid Legal Services.

The McCarthy Era left few parts of the country untouched, as government officials hunted down "subversive" individuals. Massachusetts lawyers were required to cite a "loyalty pledge" to join or even remain a member of the bar. The MBA stood firmly against this new oath.

Eventually, however, under pressure from other bar associations and legislative figures, MBA members voted to exclude Communist Party members from membership in both the MBA and the bar itself. MBA President Samuel P. Sears wanted to take more proactive steps and insisted on educating the population about democracy and the law to avert growing Communist sentiment.

In the early 20th century, aspiring lawyers qualified for the bar by clerking with or shadowing practicing attorneys. However, the growth in importance of law schools changed the focus of lawyers to the mindset of the profession and away from strict memorization of the law. MBA President Mayo Shattuck aimed to solve the gap between theory and practice and to offer "refresher courses" for returning WWII veterans through the MBA's annual Massachusetts Law Institute.

From the 1930s through the early 1970s, MBA presidents usually held three-year terms. This concept was devised to allow each president to engage in long-term planning for the association, rather than to enact short-term personal goals. In 1973, members at the annual meeting recognized that to allow more lawyers an opportunity for MBA leadership, this term should once again be shortened to one year. To resolve the problem of continuity, the association decided to allow the new "president-elect" to learn about problems facing the organization before they assumed their leadership position.

In the 1960s, the MBA became a force on the frontlines defining and defending the boundaries of the legal profession. It helped form the Joint Committee of the Press and Bar, which resolved the conflict between the media's right to freedom of the press under the First Amendment, and lawyers' claims to their clients' right to a fair trial under the Sixth Amendment.

The Joint Committee issued a "Guide for the Bar and News Media," which gained the support of Massachusetts newspapers and became a model for efforts in other states. In addition, the MBA participated in the Joint Conference Committee on Physician-Lawyer Relationships to agree on certain courtesies and considerations for meetings both within and without trial.

In 1991, a state sales tax on professional and business services went into effect. This threatened both the stability of law firms and lawyers in small practice, as well as the ability of poorer clients to afford the total cost. A little more than 48 hours later, the Legislature repealed the tax. This represented a major legislative victory for the MBA, whose members had campaigned against the sales tax for two years.

In the 1940s, MBA President Mayo A. Shattuck recognized that to adequately represent the views of the Massachusetts bar, the MBA needed to include younger lawyers as well. In 1948, the MBA sponsored the Massachusetts Junior Bar Group - and in 1958, attendees of the annual meeting voted to guarantee at least one seat on each major MBA committee and board to a member of the Junior Bar.

The Junior Bar Group was expanded to become the Young Lawyers Section in December 1963 and was relaunched as the Young Lawyers Division in late 2006 at the direction of MBA Past President Mark Mason.

The MBA adopted "sections" in the mid-1970s to encourage more involvement by sorting members into areas of substantive law. Up until that point, committees and subcommittees were difficult for new members to join. The section model today enables members to enjoy special programs and events focused on their practice area, in addition to association-wide services and events.

In the early 20th century, aspiring lawyers qualified for the bar by clerking with or shadowing practicing attorneys. However, the growth in importance of law schools changed the focus of lawyers to the mindset of the profession and away from strict memorization of the law. MBA President Mayo Shattuck aimed to close the gap between theory and practice by offering refresher courses for returning WWII veterans through the MBA's annual Massachusetts Law Institute.

Robert Grant's Bench and Bar of Massachusetts: 1889-1929 reports that in 1880 there were only four women lawyers in Massachusetts from a total of 1,984. By 1920, this had barely improved, to 47 women lawyers from a state total of 4,897. Through equality efforts over the 20th century by the MBA, the Women's Bar Association and other groups, the female lawyer population in 2005 represented approximately one-third of the 38,143 active lawyers in Massachusetts.

In addition to its member-specific education, the MBA has tried to educate the public about the law as well. In the early 1990s, a radio segment entitled "It's Your Law" gave two-minute snippets of advice to listeners of 24 radio stations statewide. It covered topics such as sexual harassment in the workplace, workers' compensation, bankruptcy and AIDS discrimination. During the war in the Persian Gulf, special shows on the rights of reservists and the military were produced, earning the MBA program an award from the U.S. military.

As the MBA's scope widened to include issues such as judicial administration and social problems, its ability to help both the public and the profession expanded as well. In 1965, MBA President Livingston Hall initiated the creation of the Massachusetts Bar Foundation. In 1971, MBF President Joseph Schneider announced the beginning of scholarships to students at local law schools and his intention to expand the MBF to provide benefits to as many law students and local residents as possible.

Massachusetts was on the forefront of racial equality in the legal field in the mid-1800s, as home to the first black lawyer, the first black judge, the first black law school graduate, the first black admitted to practice before the U.S. Supreme Court and the first blacks to serve on a state legislature. Although racial problems rose again in Massachusetts during the busing riots and in simmering tensions, Wayne Budd was elected by the MBA to become the first black state bar association president in the nation.

In the early 20th century, aspiring lawyers qualified for the bar by clerking with or shadowing practicing attorneys. However, the growth in importance of law schools changed the focus of lawyers away from strict memorization of the law. MBA President Mayo Shattuck aimed to solve the gap between theory and practice and to offer "refresher courses" for returning World War II veterans through the MBA's annual Massachusetts Law Institute, which would become the Continuing Legal Education program.

In 1978, MBA President Roy A. Hammer announced his intention to pursue the foundation of Interest on Lawyers Trust Accounts (IOLTA) in Massachusetts, before Florida became the first state to implement the concept, in 1982.

A compromise between the MBA, Boston Bar Association and Massachusetts Legal Assistance Corp. established the IOLTA program in 1985, with the proceeds going both to legal services agencies and to programs that assist the judiciary and the courts.

As early MBA responsibilities like grievance hearings were delegated to organizations such as the Board of Bar Overseers, the MBA turned its efforts toward improving the impact of the law on the public.

The new MBA Legal Fee Arbitration Board allowed lawyers and clients to resolve fee arguments without resorting to the courts or to BBO grievance procedures.