JD, Harvard Law School
BA, Yale University

Professor Russell Engler is the Director of Clinical Programs, responsible for overseeing the school's clinic and externship program and directing the school’s in-house clinic. He advises students on the Public Interest Law concentration. He also co-founded the law school’s Center for Law and Social Responsibility, where he directs the Public Service Project.

Before joining the New England Law | Boston faculty in 1993, Professor Engler was director of the Housing Law Unit for Brooklyn, NY, Legal Services. He clerked for the Honorable Francis D. Murnaghan, Jr., of the US Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit. During the 1999–2000 academic year, he was a lecturer on law at Harvard Law School.

Professor Engler served on the Massachusetts Access to Justice Commission for twelve years. He is a member of the Steering Committee for the National Coalition for a Civil Right to Counsel and serves on the Massachusetts Access to Counsel Committee. He previously served on the Boston Bar Association Statewide Task Force on Civil Legal Aid in Massachusetts and the Boston Bar Association Task Force on Expanding the Civil Right to Counsel.

The Emperor (Still) Has No Clothes: Reflection on Joan W. Howarth's Shaping the Bar, 57 New England Law Review (2024)

Access to Justice, Civil Right to Counsel, and the Role of the Judge, 56 COURT REVIEW 10 (2020)

When Does Representation Matter?, Beyond Elite Law: Access to Civil Justice in America (2016) Estreicher and Radice, Eds.

Limited Representation and Ethical Challenges, Beyond Elite Law: Access to Civil Justice in America (2016) Estreicher & Radice, Eds.

Access to Justice and the Role of the Private Practitioner, 24 Kansas Journal of Law & Public Policy (2015)

Turner v. Rogers and the Essential Role of the Courts in Delivering Access to Justice, 7 Harvard Law & Policy Review 31 (2013)

Examining the Civil Right to Counsel on the 50th Anniversary of Gideon v. Wainwright, Boston Bar Association Conference (2013)

A Law School Guide to Designing Experiential Courses Involving Real Lawyering, 56 New York University Law Review 517 (2012) (with Deborah Maranville, Mary A. Lynch, Susan L. Kay & Phyllis Goldfarb)

Opportunities and Challenges: Non-Lawyer Forms of Assistance In Providing Access to Justice for Middle-Income Earners, Middle Income Access to Justice 145 (2012) (Michael J. Trebilcock, Anthony J. Duggan and Lorne Mitchell Sossin eds.)

The Toughest Nut: Handling Cases Pitting Unrepresented Litigants Against Represented Ones, 62 National Council of Juvenile & Family Court Judges Journal 10 (2011)

When Must Counsel Be Appointed, and When Might Access to Justice Mean Less Assistance?, 9 Seattle Journal for Social Justice 97 (2011)

Integrating Public Service Legal Work Into Nonclinical Courses, Techniques for Teaching Law 2 (2011) (Friedland, Hess, Schwartz, and Sparrow eds.) (reprinted article)

Reflections on a Civil Right to Counsel and Drawing Lines: When Must Counsel Be Appointed, and When Might Access to Justice Mean Less Assistance?, 9 Seattle Journal for Social Justice 97 (2011)

Connecting Self-Representation to Civil Gideon: What Existing Data Reveal About When Counsel is Most Needed, 37 Fordham Urban Law Journal (2010)

The Twin Imperatives of Providing Access to Justice and Establishing a Civil Gideon, 93 Massachusetts Law Review 214 (2010)

Pursuing Access to Justice and Civil Right to Counsel in a Time of Economic Crisis, 15 Roger Williams University Law Review 472 (2010)

Approaching Ethical Issues Involving Unrepresented Litigants, 43 Clearinghouse Review 377 (2009)

Ethics in Transition: Unrepresented Litigants and the Changing Judical Role, 22 Notre Dame Journal of Law, Ethics & Public Policy 367 (2008)

Shaping a Context-Based Civil Gideon from the Dynamics of Social Change, Right to Counsel – Constitutional Perspectives (2008)

Towards a Context-Based Civil Gideon Through Access to Justice Initiatives, 40 Clearinghouse Review 196 (2006)

From the Margins to the Core: Integrating Public Service Legal Work into the Mainstream of Legal Education, 40 New England Law Review 479 (2006)

Shaping a Context-Based Civil Gideon from the Dynamics of Social Change, 15 Temple Political & Civil Rights Law Review 697 (2006)

Revising the Role of the Court-Connected Mediator To Achieve Fairness for Unrepresented Litigants, 11 NE-ACR Newsletter (2005)

The Legal Community’s Response to 9/11: Normalcy After 9/11: Public Service as the Crisis Fades, 31 Fordham Urban Law Journal 983 (2004)

From 10 to 20: A Guide to Utilizing the MacCrate Report Over the Next Decade, 23 Pace Law Review 519 (2003)

What Counts As Pro Bono/Public Service? One View, 2 The AALS Pro Bono and Public Service Section Newsletter (2002)

The MacCrate Report Turns 10: Assessing its Impact and Identifying Gaps we Should Seek to Narrow, 8 Clinical Law Review 109 (2002)

Integrating Public Service into Non-clinical Courses, The Law Teacher 13 (2001)

And Justice for All—Including the Unrepresented Poor: Revisiting the Roles of the Judges, Mediators and Clerks, 67 Fordham Law Review 1987 (1999)

Out of Sight and Out of Line: The Need for Regulation of Lawyers’ Negotiations with Unrepresented Poor Persons, 85 California Law Review 79 (1997)

SSRN Profile: https://ssrn.com/author=1500204