during world war i, shorr was a partner of hale, nelles, and shorr, which "defended radicals." in 1920, hale wrote to tom mooney, "we are in a hot bed of repression here, with only a very few lawyers who are willing and able to handle the situation, and who are hopelessly overworked." his partners were swinburne hale and walter nelles. carlo tresca, a prominent italian anarchist, was well acquainted with them. shorr and nelles served as counsel to the american civil liberties union (aclu). the firm support legal investigations published in the 67-page "report upon the illegal practices of the united states department of justice" by the national popular government league (ngpl); swinburne hale did a majority of the work on the report.