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52 A.B.A. J. 1138 (1966)
Reginald Heber Smith, 1889-1966

handle is hein.journals/abaj52 and id is 1140 raw text is: Reginald Heber Smith, 1889-1966 REGINALD HEBER SMITH, a law- yer whose conscience, deeds and pen prodded the Bar into action in many fields of service to the public, died October 23, 1966, at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston after a long illness. He was 76 years old. Reg Smith lived a long and useful life of service in the greatest traditions of the Bar, and he won the highest awards and earned the warmest esteem his brethren were capable of granting. When final services were held for him on October 26 at Emmanuel Church in Boston, the eight members of the House of Delegates from his beloved commonwealth formed the American Bar Association's official delegation. A native son of Massachusetts, Reg was born in Fall River on December 21, 1889, and went to Harvard, obtain- ing his A.B. degree in 1910 and his LL.B. in 1914. On his admission to the Massachusetts Bar in 1914, he became chief counsel of the Boston Legal Aid Society, commencing a connection with legal aid that was delightfully recounted by an early associate, Her- bert B. Ehrmann, in Annals of a Legal Aidist in the September, 1966, Jour- nal (page 846), which continued, al- though he left the staff of the Boston Legal Aid Society in 1918, until his death. His book, Justice and the Poor, published in 1919, established him as the principal keeper of the Bar's con- science in legal aid. The National Legal Aid and Defender Association in 1957 established the Reginald Heber Smith Medal, awarded annually for outstanding service to legal aid. In 1919 he joined ie Boston firm of Hale and Dorr as managing partner and began a long and fruitful career as a private practitioner. He was intensely interested in the development of sound law firm organization, practices and office procedures as a foundation from which the Bar could furnish better service to the public. In 1940 this Journal published a series of four articles by Reg on Law Office Organi- zation, which proved so popular that the articles were reprinted in pamphlet form in 1943 and offered for sale. Today, with the booklet in its eighth printing, the sale is still brisk. His services to the American Bar Association were prodigious. He served on the Board of Editors of the Journal from 1941 to 1954; on the Board of Directors of the American Bar Association Endowment from 1942 to 1955; as a member of the Committee on Legal Aid Work from 1921 to 1936; as Director of the Sur- vey of the Legal Profession; as a fel- low of the American Bar Foundation; and in 1951 he received the Asso- ciation's highest award-the American Bar Association Medal. He was also a vice president of the National Legal Aid Association and vice chairman of the Hoover Commission Task Force on Legal Services. Orison S. Marden, President of the Association, paid his tribute to Reg Smith in this fashion: His contributions were many. Hc was the first to awaken the Bar to the needs of the poor for legal advice and representation. His book Justice and the Poor (1919) was a landmark in the evolution of the legal aid move- ment. Along with Charles Evans Hughes, lie was one of the strong chairmen of the American Bar Asso- ciation Legal Aid Work Committee in its formative years. He saw the need for a parallel effort by the profession to bring legal services to persons of moderate means and be- came a pioneer in the development of the bar association lawyer referral services He was in the forefront of the client security fund movement, which now is established in twenty-six states, and was a strong advocate of vigorous professional discipline. When Arthur T. Vanderbilt resigned as Director of the Survey of the Legal Profession to become Chief Justice of New Jersey, Reginald Heber Smith was unanimous- ly chosen as his successor. Mr. Smith also was an authority on law office management and through his writings did much to improve the efficiency of practicing lawyers. He was one of the greatest leaders and humanitarians our profession has produced in this century. In addition to building a highly successful law practice, Mr. Smith gave a generous share of his talents to his profession. His name will live for all time in the annals of the organized Bar. No man ever lived who was more closely identified with the American Bar Association than Reg Smith., For years the suite he maintained at the Annual Meeting, sometimes with Ed- mund Beckwith, was the place where the top brass met and brought the distinguished guests to show off to them American lawyers at their best. Light-hearted as were the parties in that suite, it was nevertheless the place where plans were made for many of 1138 American Bar Association Journal

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