The Massachusetts Bar Association was started in 1910 and incorporated in 1911 as a way to both unify and make more effective the efforts of numerous smaller Massachusetts bar associations to improve the quality of justice. The association was one of the first to embrace gender and racial diversity, launch legal education programs, and create legal aid services to help the poor. The Massachusetts Bar Association is also the main association that represents the interests of lawyers and the legal profession to the Legislature – particularly when it comes to legal education in public schools, access to justice, auto insurance reform, unauthorized practice of law, and capital punishment.