National Legal Aid and Defender Association. National Defender Project

Variant names

Biographical notes:

The two-year (1969-1970) National Defender Project at the Northwestern University Law School was financed by a grant of $36,800 from the National Legal Aid and Defender Association. William J. Martin was appointed assistant professor of law (also known as the “defender professor”) for the two years of the project. He was joined later in 1969 by James B. Haddad, an assistant professor already on the Law School faculty.

The project was designed to build on the already well-known program in criminal law for undergraduate and graduate students at the school. The defender professor joined the panel of attorneys in the Federal Defender Program and coordinated the classroom teaching and legal experiences of the students involved. The students also visited the felony prisoners in the program at their penitentiaries.

Some twenty students took part in this project at the Law School and outside evaluators praised it highly. Details of the project are given in the Ninety-Day (Folder 2) and Final Reports (Folder 3).

From the guide to the Law School National Defender Project Records, 1968-1971, (Northwestern University Archives)