The Illinois Bar Foundation (IBF), the charitable arm of the Illinois State Bar Association, has awarded its 2016 Post Graduate Legal Fellowship Program grants to law school clinics at DePaul University College of Law, Loyola University Chicago School of Law and Northern Illinois University College of Law.

Each law school has selected a 2016 graduate for the one-year fellowship, designed to increase access to civil legal aid, help new attorneys develop practical legal skills and build a network, and encourage the participants to use their skills to serve those in need throughout their career through public interest jobs or pro bono work.

The 2016 participants are Patricia Zimmerman, a graduate of Northern Illinois University College of Law; Caitlin M. Duane, DePaul University College of Law; and Victoria E. Dempsey, Loyola University Chicago School of Law. The IBF and law schools share the cost of the Fellowships which have been awarded annually since 2014.

Zimmerman will serve at NIU Law’s Zeke Giorgi Clinic in Rockford; Duane will work at DePaul’s Poverty Law Clinic; and Dempsey will be located at the Community Law Center Clinic at Loyola University Chicago.

Shawn Kasserman, a founding member of Tomasik Kotin Kasserman, LLC, and IBF president, noted that the need for public interest lawyers in civil cases far outweighs the number who are able to serve low-income residents. “The fellowship program provides on-the-job training for new lawyers while simultaneously helping fill the gap in legal aid services,” he said. “It also instill in young attorneys a spirit of public interest law so that they can continue their service to low-income clients throughout their career.

For more information on the legal aid fellowship program, contact David Anderson, IBF executive director, at (312) 726-6072. Further information about the foundation is available at www.illinoisbarfoundation.org.