Richard H. Field papers

The Papers of Richard H. Field (1903-1978), attorney, educator, and legal scholar, span the years 1942 to 1978 (one item is dated 1932).

The collection includes correspondence; memoranda; minutes of meetings; reports; research notes; legal and legislative documents; holograph drafts and typed manuscripts of writings; lecture notes; lists; bound office files relating to day-to-day business of government agencies; and printed items including newspaper clippings.

The bulk of the material relates to Professor Field's professional life as a teacher and legal scholar. He was a member of the Harvard Law School faculty from 1946 to his retirement in 1973, and his major concentration in his teaching and research was in the fields of civil procedure, federal jurisdiction, and evidence. Although Professor Field retained a minimal amount of teaching notes, the Correspondence/Subject Series reflects his stature as an authority on civil procedure, evidence and professional ethics: from 1950 on he served on committees, organizations and official bodies which were charged with the drafting of new rules and codes such as the A.B.A.'s Code of Professional Responsibility, the Maine Advisory Committee's Rules of Evidence, Maine's Rules of Civil Procedure, Massachusetts' Rules Enabling Act, the Uniform Rules of Evidence of the National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws, and the U.S. Supreme Court Advisory Committee's Rules of Civil Procedure. Field also served as arbiter on grievance committees and professional ethics investigations nationally and regionally.

A later addition to the Field Papers, a partial draft of a work that he co-authored, Materials for a Course in Civil Procedure , also stems from his work as an academic. This printed, pasted-in, and typescript draft has some manuscript notations. Roughly a third of the entire text is included in this preliminary form.

Approximately one half of the Papers comprise Professor Field's work as chief reporter for the American Law Institute's study of the division of jurisdiction between state and federal courts, a project which was conceived in 1959, initiated in 1960, and completed in 1968 with the presentation of its final report at the annual meeting of the American Law Institute. This Series represents the working papers of Richard H. Field and reporters Paul J. Mishkin of the University of Pennsylvania Law School and Charles Alan Wright of the University of Texas Law School. These papers include correspondence and memos exchanged between these three, and with their assistant reporter David L. Shapiro, consultants David F. Cavers and Leavenworth Colby, and members of the American Law Institute Advisory Committee. Drafts of revisions of specific paragraphs of the existing Federal Code are included, but none are complete. The Series includes agenda of and notes on meetings of the reporters with members of their Advisory Committee and with the American Law Institute Council, comments on the six drafts and on specific paragraphs, subject-research files, and material relating to the legislative bills based on the Jurisdiction report, in particular Senate Bill 1876 (introduced May 23, 1973 by Senator Burdick). The report resulting from the Study was published by the American Law Institute in 1969 as: Study of the Division of Jurisdiction Between State and Federal Courts (xix, 587 p.).

Materials for a Basic Course in Civil Procedure. The draft is printed, with extensive manuscript annotations and corrections.

Additional professional material in the papers relate to Professor Field's stay at the Institute of Advanced Legal Studies at the University of London as Visiting American Professor during the academic year 1970/1971. While in England, he participated in workshops and colloquia held under the auspices of the Institute, and he served as an advisor in the drafting of the British "Legal Advice and Assistance Act" (1972). He also appeared in a West German versus East German law suit involving the Zeiss interests.

During and briefly after World War II Richard Field served in the Office of Price Administration: from 1942 to 1943 he was its regional counsel in Boston, and from 1943 to 1946 he was attached to the Office of Price Administration's headquarters in Washington, D.C., first as chief legal advisor and acting general counsel, and later as general counsel. The Papers include some correspondence, in particular with Chester Bowles, legal documents relating to cases that Richard Field argued, drafts of speeches which he prepared for President Harry S. Truman, and day-to-day working files of the Boston and Washington Offices, particularly orders and guidelines.

Of a personal-professional nature are the papers which Field kept on the Alger Hiss case. Field had been a classmate of Hiss at the Harvard Law School, and they had served on the Harvard Law Review together. During the legal proceedings against Hiss and the appeal following the second trial, Field served as treasurer for the funds contributed toward the defense of Alger Hiss (1949-1951). There is some correspondence regarding Hiss' reinstatement to the Bar of Massachusetts (reinstatement in August 1975). The Papers include correspondence (1946-1977), form letters, legal documents, lists, press releases, newspaper and other printed items.