Meticulous lawyer devoted to low-income clients
Frank Dineen, who spent nearly six decades representing low-income clients, was the longest-serving legal services lawyer in the country. Case by case, he revolutionized housing law in New Haven by holding landlords’ lawyers to the letter of the law. His insistence on strict adherence to the law allowed thousands of clients to avoid or delay eviction.
During his many years of teaching the rudiments of landlord tenant law and the many ways a careless lawyer could lose a case, he had one mantra: Read the statute.
Francis Xavier Dineen died Sept. 25 of cancer. He was 84 and a longtime resident of Hamden. “He was dedicated to helping poor people his whole life,” said David Lesser, who worked for Dineen as a law student.
His vocation was apparent from a young age; on his application to Yale Law School, Dineen wrote, “I hope to fulfill a responsibility to my fellow man.” He ran the Legal Aid and Defender Association at the law school, which provided free legal advice through the city’s Municipal Legal Aid bureau. After graduating in 1961, he was fortunate enough to be in New Haven at the time a pilot federal program provided funds to start a clinic under city auspices for low income clients.
New Haven was among the first recipients of money for “human renewal,” under President Lyndon Johnson’s Great Society program. Community Progress Inc., funded by the Ford Foundation, hired Dineen and Jean Camper Cahn as its lawyers. They started off with a small office in the Wooster Square neighborhood, learning about the problems faced by residents: juvenile arrests, people locked out of apartments because of failure to pay rent, predatory behavior by salespeople and welfare benefits withdrawn arbitrarily. They also realized that many problems were caused or exacerbated by city agencies.
When the program ended, Frank became the head of the city’s Legal Aid Bureau, which then merged with the newly created New Haven Legal Assistance Association, which celebrates its 55th anniversary this year. Dineen became the deputy director, under the leadership of Fred Danforth, its first director.
Lawyers evicting poor people — who were often living in substandard housing — rarely faced opposing counsel as tenants had no money to spare for legal representation. But as the Ford Foundation program grew, a cadre of young, idealistic lawyers began representing tenants. Under Dineen’s tutelage, they scrutinized every writ, summons and complaint, starting with the Notice to Quit, the opening salvo in an eviction case. Although the notice was formulaic, Dineen began pointing out the many ways a careless lawyer could fill it out improperly.
Judges, of course, had to take note of the errors highlighted by Dineen. If the wrong apartment number was used, the name spelled incorrectly, or the wrong reason given for an eviction, the landlord was forced to begin the eviction process again. Realizing that there would then be additional delay in achieving his goal, the landlord was often willing to negotiate terms, which resulted in the tenant remaining in the house or apartment a few months longer.
The landlord bar objected, vociferously and frequently, and some filed a complaint against the tenants’ lawyers with the bar’s ethics committee, which concluded that there were no violations. “The private bar hated him,” said Lesser. “Frank was not a diplomatic guy; if he found something wrong with an eviction writ, he’d make a lawyer go through four or five revisions — and the tenant was living rent free.”
Dineen’s desk was always buried under huge stacks of files only he could identify, but he presented a well-dressed, even dapper, appearance, although his manner was formal. “We called him Mr. Dineen.” Lesser said. Dineen was patient with students, slow to criticize, eager to help.
“His most basic message to his students and colleagues is that the law means what it says. Words matter,” recalled Jay Pottenger, a clinical professor of law at Yale, where Dineen taught for over 30 years. “That’s why almost every case, consultation or supervision with Frank began with him saying, ‘What does the statute say? Let’s take it out and read it together.’”
Dineen “loved teaching,” said Pottenger, and considered it an act of love. “He brought the message that poor tenant clients were as valued as corporate chief executives, and students needed to bring the same enthusiasm, dedication and creativity to representing someone in summary process as they would if they were writing a Supreme Court brief.”
Under rules that allow students to appear in court if they are supervised, the law students assumed full responsibility for a case, from interviewing the clients, often visiting their houses, to drafting pleadings and appearing in court. The experience was eye-opening for many.
Julia Greenfield, a 1998 Yale grad, praised Dineen’s “dogged pursuit of justice for his clients.” In a letter to his widow, she wrote, “I’ll never stop trying to reach that high bar.”
Dineen was “a priest in his own way; he had a vocation,” said Stephen Wizner, a clinical professor of law at Yale, where Dineen taught over 40 years.
“He was a role model. … ‘Be kind and compassionate to clients. Your obligations are important.’ You don’t ever learn that in a classroom.” At the same time, “There was nothing social-worky about it. Our clients’ legal problems are just as complex as the problems that rich people have.”
Dineen was born Jan. 6, 1935, to Edythe Sheehan Dineen and Francis Xavier Dineen Sr., a New York attorney, who died when Frank was a year old. His mother, a New York teacher, raised Frank and his younger brother James. Scholarships enabled him to attend private school, Dartmouth College and Yale Law School. After graduating from college in 1956, Dineen, enlisted in the Navy and served at the Pentagon.
Over his long career, Dineen received many honors and awards, including the Connecticut Bar Association’s Charles Parker Award for Legal Services and the Yale Distinguished Service Award. The Connecticut Bar Foundation also designated him as a James W. Cooper fellow in 1994.
Carl Schumann, now a Superior Court judge, argued a bankruptcy case against Dineen in the U.S. Supreme Court in 1986. The case involved a loophole in the law. “Justice White went back and forth. I sat there. It was like watching a tennis match,” Schumann said. “Frank was well-versed in the Bankruptcy Act and was vigorous in argument.” The court ruled 7-2 in favor of Schumann, who was representing the state of Connecticut. “He was a formidable opponent,” Schumann said.
“For Frank, the important thing about social justice is that it is not just an abstract intellectual concept,” said Wizner. “It was humanizing the idea of social justice, taking it out of the realm of ideas, and the role of lawyers it to try to act on it.”
“He treated law as a calling that he was put on this Earth to do,” said David Rosen, a New Haven attorney. “He did it all with a graciousness that went beyond courtesy.”
In addition to his wife Renee Goldstein Dineen, a paralegal at New Haven Legal Assistance, Dineen is survived by two children, Douglass and Julie McCannon, and three grandchildren.