Welcome to the PILI Alumni Connection, the e-newsletter of the PILI Alumni Program.  The Alumni Connection is intended to provide you with information about the latest happenings at PILI and with the Alumni Program.  We will also spotlight a former Intern and Fellow as well as a PILI-affiliated agency in each edition.  We hope you find it interesting and that you will keep in touch with us here at PILI.

 

Yours truly,

Through its efforts, the Public Interest Law Initiative (PILI) cultivates a lifelong commitment to public interest law.  Regardless of whether attorneys ultimately choose to practice in a law firm, a corporation, a legal aid office, a unit of government, or in academia, they all have a role to play in serving the public interest.  For law students, PILI strives to encourage pro bono participation as well as law student involvement in law school-based legal clinics. PILI also offers a paid public interest law Internship program during the summer and academic semesters. For new law school graduates, we offer a public interest law Fellowship program. Together, these programs help to instill this critical public interest/pro bono ethic early in an attorney's career. To ensure that this public interest law ethic grows into a life-long participation in public interest law and pro bono work, PILI offers a pro bono program, the Pro Bono Initiative (PBI). Through PBI, we promote best practices for pro bono work, help ensure effective communication about available pro bono opportunities, and act as a clearinghouse and resource for pro bono issues.

Effective Immediately, PILI Has a New Zip Code
Effective July 1, 2008, PILI's zip code has changed to 60654.  Please update your contact information for PILI and its staff to reflect this change.

NEW DATE: PILI to Host Alumni Networking Reception and Program on Serving on a Board of Directors
On Wednesday, November 12, 2008, PILI will host its third alumni program of 2008.  This program will feature a panel presentation on the ins and outs of serving on a nonprofit board of directors.  The panelists for this program are all PILI Alumni.  PILI will also be distributing a listing of board service opportunities at all PILI-affiliated agencies.  The program will be held from 6-7 and followed by a reception from 7-8.  Advance registration is required by November 3rd.  Click here for additional details and to register for this program. 

PILI to Co-Host 14th Annual CBA Young Lawyers Section Pro Bono and Community Service Fair
PILI will co-sponsor The Chicago Bar Association Young Lawyers Section Pro Bono and Community Service Fair on Thursday, October 30, 2008.  The Fair is being held as part of the 2008 Pro Bono Week sponsored by The Chicago Bar Association and Chicago Bar Foundation.  The Fair will be held from 5:00 to 7:00 p.m. at the offices of Jenner & Block. The event is free and open to all members of the legal community interested in pro bono and community service.   Click here to view the flyer for this event.  You may contact PBI Director, Michael Bergmann, at 312-832-5129 or mbgermann@pili-law.org for additional details.

Illinois Supreme Court Chief Justice Thomas Fitzgerald to Deliver Keynote Address at 2008 PILI Annual Awards Luncheon
On Thursday, December 4th, more than 450 members of the legal community will gather  to celebrate the best aspects of the profession at the Public Interest Law Initiative's Annual Awards Luncheon. This event provides a forum to recognize those performing remarkable public interest and pro bono work. The Luncheon's theme is Celebrating Service: The Legal Profession at its Best, and features several awards to acknowledge important public interest legal work. The recipients of this years awards are:

• Distinguished Public Service Award: Honorable Mary Ann G. McMorrow, Former Chief Justice of the Illinois Supreme Court;
• Distinguished Alumni Awards: Laurie Wardell, Chicago Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under the Law and Charles Golbert, Cook County Office of the Public Guardian; and
• the Pro Bono Initiative Award: Caterpillar, Inc.
  

This year's Luncheon will be held  in the International Ballroom at the Fairmont Hotel in downtown Chicago.  To learn more about the Luncheon or sponsorship opportunities, contact PILI's Executive Director, Susan Curry, at scurry@pili-law.org or 312-832-5128.

PILI Now Accepting Applications for Summer 2009 Internships
As of October 15th, PILI began accepting applications for 2009 Summer Internships.  Since 2006, PILI has been using an online application process.  Visit the online application to learn more and feel free to forward this link to any law students who might be interested in applying.  The application process for Spring semester 2009 school-year Internships will open in November 2008.  Contact PILI Executive Director, Susan Curry, at 312-832-5128 or scurry@pili-law.org for additional details.

Join the New PILI Alumni Group on LinkedIn Today
PILI has established a PILI Alumni Program group on LinkedIn and you are encouraged to join today.  This group provides a great way for you to connect with PILI and your fellow alums.   Click here to join the PILI Alumni Group on LinkedIn today.  Or, if you'd like more information, contact Michael Bergmann at 312-832-5129 or mbergmann@pili-law.org.

Alumni and Their PILI Agencies: The Value of Staying Connected
PILI Internships and Fellowships provide formative legal experiences for law students and recent graduates. This is especially true when PILI alumni remain connected to their host agencies after their summers of service.  As one of over 50 host clinics for PILI Fellows, DePaul's Asylum & Immigration Law Clinic provides a microcosmic glimpse of the on-going benefits of such an allegiance.  

A 2008 PILI Fellow at the Clinic, John Tanagho joined Schiff Hardin LLP when his Fellowship ended, but continued working on an asylum matter with his firm's support:  "Staying connected with my PILI host agency is a no-brainer because it allows me to continue providing legal services that transform people's lives.  I really believe that the cases we will remember most as lawyers are the ones that mattered most to our client's lives."  John was also able to practice and develop skills that most young associates typically do not get to hone so early in their legal careers.  Christina Henk, a 2007 Fellow now practicing at Kirkland & Ellis LLP, concurs: "The skills and experiences I have gained through this work have distinguished me from my non-PILI colleagues. It was the perfect place to put what you learned in law school into practice.  Taking on an asylum case is running your own case --- something you would not otherwise get to do in your first few years at a law firm."   

As both a former PILI Intern and a current PILI supervisor at the clinic, Professor Sioban Albiol has a unique perspective on staying connected to one's host agency.  Her 1992 PILI Internship at Travelers and Immigrants Aid led to a career in immigration and asylum law: "PILI educated me about the different opportunities for public interest law work.  I doubt that I would have had the opportunity to do the work I am doing now without the inroad provided to me through my PILI internship."

Judicial Evaluations Now Available for General Election
The Chicago Bar Association's Judicial Evaluation Committee (JEC) has completed its non-partisan evaluations for the November 4, 2008, General Election.  You may bring it to the voting station with you.  Click here to see the CBA JEC ratings.  The Alliance of Bar Associations for Judicial Screening has also published their non-partisan recommendations.  Click here to see the Alliance ratings.

ABA Public Program: A Conversation with Joseph Margulies
On Tuesday, October 21st from 5:00 - 6:30 pm, the American Bar Association will launch its inaugural program in the new ABA public program series. The program will feature Joseph Margulies, lead counsel in Rasul v. Bush (2004), the landmark case in which the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that Guantanamo detainees could challenge the lawfulness of their detention in federal court.  A frequent speaker at PILI's Summer Educational Programs, Margulies is also the author of Guantanamo and the Abuse of Presidential Power, which received the 2007 ABA Silver Gavel Award Winner for Books and Assistant Director of the MacArthur Justice Center at Northwestern University Law School.  ABA Journal Editor and Publisher Edward Adams will be the program moderator and ABA Executive Director Henry F. White Jr. will introduce the program.   Click here to register and learn more.

As a PILI Intern at the National Center on Poverty Law (2002) and Legal Assistance Foundation (2003), Sarah Biehl assisted with an arbitration trial in a Cabrini Green public housing lawsuit and researched payday lending, education and children's law issues.  She also worked on a project to make food stamp information and applications more accessible to non-English speaking populations in Chicago and represented Cook County wards in school expulsion and special education cases.  After clerking for a federal judge in Ohio for a year, Sarah was awarded a prestigious Skadden Fellowship for which she designed and coordinated a legal clinic inside North Lawndale College Preparatory High School (NLCP) on the west side of Chicago.  At NLCP, she advised and represented students and their families in a wide variety of areas, including juvenile court abuse and neglect proceedings, utilities cases, landlord-tenant disputes, orders of protection, public benefits questions, and child custody disputes.  Upon completing her Skadden Fellowship, she joined LAF as a staff attorney.  In January 2008, Sarah moved back to her home state of Ohio and now works as a state support attorney at Ohio State Legal Services Association, providing support, resources, and leadership for all of Ohio's legal aid programs on education law issues.  She is currently engaged in several projects to reform Ohio's laws affecting foster children's education rights, establish connections between legal aid attorneys and the Ohio Department of Education, improve the education of children in juvenile justice facilities in the state, and improve procedural rights for children and parents in special education and school discipline situations.  Resolutely committed to a career of service, Sarah is also a past recipient of the Kimball R. and Karen Gatsis Anderson Public Interest Law Fellowship.

 

As a PILI Fellow at Business and Professional People for the Public Interest (BPI), Jay Readey analyzed drafts of state legislation concerning an affordable housing trust fund, as well as various national models of inclusionary zoning laws.  He also fondly recalls a unique opportunity in which legendary BPI attorney, Alex Polikoff, allowed him to read and critique a draft of the critical chapter in which Polikoff made the main argument of his now published book, Waiting for Gautreaux.  Following his PILI Fellowship, Jay practiced corporate law for two years at Jenner & Block, and then affordable housing and community development finance at Sonnenschein, Nath & Rosenthal for the last two years.  With Sonnenschein's support, Jay has moved to hourly status as a lawyer while founding a nonprofit organization, NeighborScapes, as a pro bono project of the firm.  NeighborScapes is a neighborhood services organization in Chicago's south suburbs, devoted to job training, entrepreneurship and leadership development for teen and young adults.  "From day one, I was interested in doing pro bono work at the firms, to continue what I had started in my PILI Fellowship and to validate the importance of pro bono work that I had learned there...As a newcomer to Chicago when I graduated from law school, PILI gave me a jump on mapping the civic side of Chicago's legal community; I gained an awareness of organizations, leadership and personalities that would have taken me two years to develop working with my head down and nose to the grindstone as a new associate; that mapping work now forms the foundation of the wider civic community that I consider to be at the heart of a network that is essential to my personal and professional advancement.  I don't think there's another experience that could have exposed me as fully to Chicago's public interest legal community in such a short time."
 

phone:  312-832-5127

web:  http://www.pili-law.org

 

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