Chicago Coalition for the Homeless (CCH) is proud to endorse the Chicago Bar Foundation’s Investing in Justice Campaign, which solicits donations from private attorneys to support grantmaking to legal aid programs across the city.
This year’s campaign is chaired by Emily Nicklin, a powerhouse Chicago attorney and partner at Kirkland & Ellis LLP. Ms. Nicklin spoke passionately about the importance of legal services to poor and disadvantaged people during a March 5 kickoff event that included CCH legal director Rene Heybach.
In 2009, Ms. Nicklin provided excellent pro bono representation to some of our neediest youth in Hill v. Erickson, a class action civil rights lawsuit filed on behalf of more than 1,300 pregnant and parenting teens in foster care. Critical services for the teens were threatened for elimination due to budget cuts in Illinois. Julie LaEace, a CCH board member and Kirkland pro bono manager, secured the assistance of Ms. Nicklin. A team of attorneys and legal professionals from Kirkland sought injunctive relief and worked with CCH to secure a mediated resolution that protected the state-funded services and strengthened the decree in the case.
Investing in Justice is a community-wide effort in which thousands of attorneys and legal professionals at law firms and corporate legal departments donate to the CBF’s grantmaking program. All funds raised go directly to grants to more than 35 pro bono and legal aid organizations. This includes the Law Project, which in 2011 served 286 clients, 88% of them homeless students and unaccompanied youth.
We encourage all members of the legal community to support Investing in Justice. For more information, see http://www.chicagobarfoundation.org/investing-in-justice-campaign
– Patricia Nix-Hodes, Associate Director, The Law Project