By Andrew Sharp, Esq.
"You've always had the power, my dear. You've had it all along" - Glinda, the Good Witch (Wizard of Oz)
"The more I learn, the more I realize how much I don't know." - Albert Einstein
“Yeah, Al, but you know more than me!” - Apocryphal
Many attorneys shy away from pro bono work, not because they lack interest, but because they feel they don't have enough expertise (or time to gain the requisite knowledge) to truly make a difference.
By Michael G. Bermann, Executive Director of the Public Interest Law Initiative
By Abigail Causer, Managing Attorney at the Public Interest Law Initiative (PILI) & Nicole Massey, Veterans Attorney and Pro Bono Coordinator at Land of Lincoln Legal Aid
In Illinois, there are over 800,000 veterans, active service members, National Guard members, and dependents of deployed service members. For people in these groups, access to civil legal services is highly sought after, and many cannot afford it. The 2023 survey by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs' Project CHALENG (Community Homelessness Assessment, Local Education, and Networking Groups) identified several unmet needs for legal assistance in eight areas: credit issues and debt collection, expunging criminal records, family law and tax issues, child support issues, outstanding warrants and fines, discharge upgrade appeals, and financial guardianship.
By Sandra Crawford, JD, Mediator and Collaborative Lawyer
The Collaborative Divorce Process is a limited scope representation model of conflict resolution. It has been under development for the last 30 years and has been practiced in Illinois since 2002. In 2018, the Illinois Legislature and the Illinois Supreme Court adopted rules which govern the practice. While the model has applications to all areas of disputes where maintaining a future relationship is important, currently in Illinois, it is practiced primarily in family law.
By Kim Thielbar, Director of Pro Bono Services, Prairie State Legal Services and Laurie Bell, Pro Bono Coordinator, Prairie State Legal Services
by Tracy Simmons, Legal Content Manager, Illinois Legal Aid Online
If volunteering is on your list of New Year’s resolutions, Illinois Legal Aid Online (ILAO) can help. ILAO offers flexible, remote pro bono opportunities. As a Legal Content Volunteer (LCV), you can choose your own project and time commitment. Your work also helps increase access to justice.
By Michael G. Bergmann, Executive Director of the Public Interest Law Initiative
Save the date for another Pro Bono Week celebration! Coordinated by the American Bar Association’s Standing Committee on Pro Bono and Public Service, Pro Bono Week is intended to inspire even greater pro bono participation by lawyers throughout the nation. This initiative provides an opportunity for legal organizations across the country to collaboratively commemorate the vitally important contributions of America’s lawyers and to recruit and train the many additional volunteers required to meet the growing demand.
By Abigail Causer, Managing Attorney at the Public Interest Law Initiative (PILI)
Imagine being without legal guidance when you need it most. Now, imagine being the ray of hope that brightens that darkness- from the comfort of your home. Hosted by the ABA and Administered in Illinois by PILI through the incredible support of the Illinois Bar Foundation, the Illinois Access to Justice grant program, and the Illinois Equal Justice Foundation, Illinois Free Legal Answers is a secure website where lower income Illinois residents can ask a lawyer for help with a legal issue. Qualified users post questions about civil legal problems, then volunteer lawyers log onto the site - anytime and anywhere you can access the internet - and select questions to answer. It’s a virtual walk-in legal clinic and a great pro bono opportunity that you can engage with over your lunch or in your off hours in sweatpants.
by Karen Alice Kloppe
Free legal assistance is available to qualifying older adults in priority civil cases based on available funding allocated to each of the 13 Area Agencies on Aging in the Illinois Aging Network under the Older Americans Act (OAA) of 1965, as amended. (Public Law 89–73 as amended through Public Law 116–131.) The goal is “to assist older individuals in understanding their rights, exercising choices, benefiting from services and opportunities authorized by law, and maintaining the rights of older individuals at risk of guardianship. See 42 USC 3058j(5) and 42 USC 3002(33) (defining the term “legal assistance”).
By Clarissa Gaff, Executive Director of Land of Lincoln Legal Aid
East St. Louis, IL, has raised some remarkable Illinoisans—nay, some remarkable Americans: Katherine Dunham, Miles Davis, Jackie Joyner Kersee, Jimmy Connors, and Senator Dick Durbin, to name a few. It is a tight-knit community of nearly 20,000, with a rich history. It is also a community that is incredibly challenged, haunted by a race massacre, white flight, and industry abandonment and pollution from its heyday. More than a third of residents live in poverty. A full quarter of its residents live in aging subsidized housing.