The Illinois State Bar Association Standing Committee on Delivery of Legal Services is seeking nominations for the ISBA Joseph R. Bartylak Memorial Legal Services Award which honors the extraordinary commitment and dedication of a civil legal services attorney who has provided the highest caliber of compassionate legal representation and outstanding service to Illinois’ vulnerable and low-income population.

Nominations must be received by Friday, March 6, 2015. For more information on this award and how to nominate an individual, please visit the Joseph R. Bartylak homepage.

The Illinois State Bar Association’s Standing Committee on Delivery of Legal Services is also seeking nominations for the ISBA John C. McAndrews Pro Bono Service Award.

The ISBA has established the John C. McAndrews Award to honor the extraordinary commitment of individuals, bar associations, or law firm/corporate legal departments to providing free legal services to the income eligible in Illinois or expanding the availability of legal services to the income eligible in Illinois.

The Illinois State Bar Association Standing Committee on Delivery of Legal Services (DLS) is seeking nominations for the ISBA Joseph R. Bartylak Memorial Legal Services Award which honors the extraordinary commitment and dedication of a civil legal services attorney who has provided the highest caliber of compassionate legal representation and outstanding service to Illinois’ vulnerable and low-income population.

For more information on this award and how to nominate an individual, please visit the Joseph R. Bartylak homepage: http://www.isba.org/awards/bartylak. 

JOHN C. McANDREWS PRO BONO SERVICE AWARD

The Illinois State Bar Association’s Standing Committee on DLS is also seeking nominations for the ISBA John C. McAndrews Pro Bono Service Award honoring the extraordinary commitment of individuals, bar associations, or law firm/corporate legal departments to providing free legal services to the income eligible in Illinois or expanding the availability of legal services to the income eligible in Illinois.

For more information, please visit the John C. McAndrews homepage:http://www.isba.org/awards/mcandrews

All nominations must be received by Friday, March 7, 2014 for consideration.

John Lafond is one of those rare people who enjoys being slapped up side the head day after day with perspective.

"Every day I see people getting by with not very much at all. I'm grateful for every little bit of what I've got. It's just an added bonus when you can do something that brings spiritual satisfaction to the material comforts," he said.

Lafond is not a minister or a counselor. He's a lawyer practicing in a niche that few pursue: public service law.

The 52-year-old Urbana man has spent all of his 25-year career with Land of Lincoln Legal Assistance Foundation, advocating in civil matters for those who can't afford a lawyer. For that, he's being honored next month by the Illinois State Bar Association with the first annual Joseph Bartylak Memorial Legal Services Award.

Read the full feature story in the Champaign News-Gazette

Attorney Jim Lemonds was presented with the Land of Lincoln Joseph R. Bartylak Pro Bono Award on October 27, 2011, at a meeting of the St. Clair County Bar Association. Mr. Lemonds is lead trial attorney with Brown and Crouppen in St. Louis and has spent over 200 volunteer hours in the past six years assisting attorneys in the Central Regional Office of Land of Lincoln in East St. Louis. Mr. Lemonds has participated in multiple trial advocacy skills trainings held for Land of Lincoln attorneys, performed demonstrations, and provided critiques of individual staff performances during these intensive, multiple-day trainings.  In addition, he has also served as a consultant on a number of predatory lending cases in the Central Region, helping our attorneys to evaluate damage claims.

“Jim has dramatically improved the quality of our skills training, because of his vast deposition and trial experience,” states Richard Chase, Litigation and Training Specialist with Land of Lincoln. “He has handled more than 1,000 depositions and tried more than 100 jury trials to verdict. He is able to draw on this experience to give our attorneys invaluable advice on how to improve their litigation skills.”

“I very much appreciate the Board recognizing my work,” Jim Lemonds states. “But the real award goes to the lawyers and staff of Land of Lincoln who work their hearts out every day, just as Joe Bartylak did, to serve those among us who would otherwise be denied access to our justice system because of a lack of financial resources.”