Batlan, Felice, Introduction: Women and Justice for the Poor: A History of Legal Aid, 1863-1945 (2015). F. Batlan, Women and Justice for the Poor: A History of Legal Aid, 1863-1945, Cambridge University Press, 2015; Chicago-Kent College of Law Research Paper. Available for download at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=2605584

“Challenging our assumptions about the history of the legal profession and the development of free legal aid, this book reveals that 19th-century women’s organizations first offered legal assistance to poor women and that women lay lawyers provided such assistance. By the early 20th century, however, male lawyers founded their own legal aid societies, intentionally excluding women and narrowing the services provided. These different models of legal aid produced conflicting understandings of expertise, the rule of law, and the meaning of justice for the poor.”