Prior to Opening: John Saeger Bradway conceived of clinical legal education and traveled the country establishing legal aid clinics in major cities. His interest in legal services began when he realized that:

"the guarantee in the Constitution of equal protection under the law was not self-executing and that the words were no more magical than any other words until someone came along to give them life. Of course, that somebody had to be a lawyer since it was against the law for anyone else to practice this profession."

Dean Justice Miller brought Mr. Bradway to the University of Southern California (USC) to establish the law school equivalent of clinical training in medical school. Because there was no existing legal aid society, Mr. Bradway had the clinic provide legal services to clients who had "meritorious legal claims but not much money in their pockets."

June, 1929: The Southern California Legal Aid Clinic Association, LAFLA's predecessor, incorporated.

September 15, 1929: The Legal Aid Clinic opened its doors. The first office was housed in the Law School building at USC with legal representation provided by Leon David, Edwin Franke, senior law students, and volunteer attorneys.

September, 1930: In just one year, 1,400 people applied for legal services. As well as the regular staff of attorneys and clerks, 72 students comprising the entire third-year class of the Law School of USC participated in the work. Already Legal Aid had achieved its mission of developing:

"a piece of legal machinery in the form of a law office or legal aid society which could handle, in Los Angeles and the vicinity, adequately, efficiently, speedily and with due consideration for the clients, a vast volume of legal business of poor persons."

1934: John O'Melveny was elected president of the Board of Directors.

1935: Because of the large volume of cases and huge need for legal services in Los Angeles, the University felt it could no longer carry the financial burden alone, so Legal Aid became a part of the Community Chest (now United Way). Having outgrown the space at USC, the Association moved to the Cotton Exchange Building at 106 W. 3rd St.

1937: The board voted to adopt a new name—Legal Aid Foundation of Los Angeles (LAFLA).

1941: The annual budget for the program was $13,244.

1950: Wanting to become more involved in their husbands' work as attorneys by providing useful service to the community, 24 women formed The Lawyers' Wives.

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