The Neil Chayet collection of audio and transcripts from Looking at the Law, along with funding to digitize it, was donated to the Harvard Law School Library in July 2018 by Neil's wife, Martha Chayet. It is now publicly available and can be accessed through HOLLIS, Harvard Library’s main search interface: http://id.lib.harvard.edu/alma/99153687141903941/catalog
In addition to the finding aid, a research guide has been created to facilitate searching the collection.
Neil Lewis Chayet (1939-2017) received his J.D. from Harvard Law School in 1963 and in his legal career focused primarily on medical law. He began hosting his radio show, Looking at the Law, in 1976. In more than 10,000 shows broadcast over 40 years, Chayet covered a diverse range of topics, from “routine” legal cases on topics such as medical malpractice and divorce, to quirkier cases like a surfer suing a city over rough surfing conditions (there was a hurricane) and one in which the Devil was the defendant.
The breadth of the topics covered should appeal to a wide audience, including lawyers, students, and the general public—including anyone nostalgic for Chayet’s distinctive voice heard during evening radio over the past several decades. The collection was arranged, digitized, and made accessible by staff in HLSL's Historical & Special Collections and Digital Lab departments, as well as by Harvard Library Imaging Services and Media Preservation Services.