LAF ATTORNEY RECEIVES LRAP AWARD

LAF Staff Attorney Sarah Baum was honored on October 14 at the DePaul University College of Law Loan Repayment Assistance Program reception, which seeks to recognize DePaul alumni working in Public Interest Law by assisting them with their law school debt. Sarah will receive $5,000 to put towards her law school debt.  Sarah is currently working at LAF's West Side Office.  Congratulations Sarah!

LAF ATTORNEY RECOGNIZED IN "40 UNDER 40"

 LAF Supervisory Attorney Alicia L. Aiken is featured in the Daily Law Bulletin's 2009 "40 Under 40" List!  Below is the write up that appeared in the print publication.  Congratulations, Alicia!

            At the Legal Assistance Foundation of Metropolitan Chicago, Alicia L. Aiken, 37, has spent more than a decade representing low-income Chicagoans in complex domestic relations, eviction, unemployment compensation, and consumer litigation.  For the last 5 years, Aiken has co-supervised a neighborhood service office of 12 lawyers, paralegals, and support staff.  Aiken also teaches widely, including as an adjunct professor at DePaul College of Law, an instructor for the Chicago Metropolitan Battered Women’s Network, and a trainer on lawyering skills at LAF.  Her particular commitment to serving domestic violence survivors dates back to her student days at the University of Michigan (A.B. 1992,  J.D. 1995.) 

              One nominator brands Aiken, "a gladiator for her client, a firm, but reasonable adversary, and an intellectually creative lawyer."  In 2003, Aiken was awarded LAF’s prestigious Equal Justice Award.  Aiken's talents earned her a seat on the Cook County Circuit Court Domestic Violence Courts Commission and an opportunity to testify before the Illinois House of Representatives' Family Law Study Committee on reform of the state's custody law.    

  Stacey Platt, associate director of Loyola University Chicago's Civitas ChildLaw Clinic, says Aiken is a model for young attorneys in representing survivors of domestic violence in custody disputes.  Aiken also excelled as a teacher in Loyola's ChildLaw Trial Practice Program and as a guest teacher in a clinic class. Platt says never in 13 years had a guest lecturer put so much time and thought into a presentation. "Alicia's balance of intensity and passion for her cause and openness to hearing other perspectives makes her a natural teacher," she adds.

  Jody Raphael, a senior research fellow at DePaul College of Law's Schiller DuCanto & Fleck Family Law Center, says Aiken's cases demand ingenuity and persistence and are "intricate and often stressful, involving disputes over child custody and even child kidnappings." Aiken's outstanding speaking, writing and advocacy are essential for clients, whose poverty and lack of English often inhibit their ability to speak out.  "By developing her skills and knowledge," says Raphael, "she not only is able to provide individual clients with high quality representation, but she has also involved herself in bar and civic activities that enable her to deploy those skills to help the broader society and to improve the court response for thousands of others."

  Aiken has represented many victims of domestic violence whose husbands have been violent and stolen all of the family’s assets, or kidnapped the children to foreign countries, or intentionally interfered with immigration and naturalization status.  Recently, Aiken fought to get a restraining order for someone who had been stalked by a former classmate for 6 years, but could not access the specialized domestic violence courts.  That client has been stalking free for 18 months as a direct result of Aiken’s work.

              Her pro bono activities are also impressive.  This year alone, Aiken is chairing the Chicago Bar Association's Domestic Relations Committee, serving on the Chicago Council of Lawyers' Children and Family Law Committee, and acting as Secretary of the Board for Chicago’s Center for Domestic Peace, an organization that works with men and women to change their abusive behaviors. 

              Aiken has also focused her energies on innovation.  In 2006, Chicago Foundation for Women awarded her their inaugural Founder’s Award, a $25,000 research and professional development grant given to one outstanding young advocate each year.  She used the funding to study model domestic violence courts throughout the United States and to study the principles of change management at Northwestern University’s School for Continuing Studies.  Since that time, she has been integrally involved in strategic planning and agency-wide improvements in training, supervision, and service delivery at LAF. 

               Aiken shares her commitment to social justice with her husband, John Whitcomb, a disability civil rights attorney at Equip for Equality.  They also share two engaging and energetic children, Joe (age 8) and Neva (age 2). 

LAF EVICTION CASE IN THE NEWS AGAIN

Earlier this month the Chicago Tribune ran a story on the Bledsoe children, who were being evicted from their Section 8 housing. 

This eviction case is getting more publicity as the hearing date nears, as well as strong community support.  Click here to read more, and find out what you can do to help the Bledsoe children keep their North side home.

PROTECT THE DISABLED – PRESERVE ACCESS TO SSI BENEFITS!

·        Disabled adults are legally entitled to SSI benefits, but a complicated bureaucratic system often means they must obtain legal assistance to get them.  Since 1988, the Legal Assistance Foundation of Metropolitan Chicago (LAF) has had a contract with the State to provide legal representation to disabled adults who are seeking SSI benefits.  Many of the clients referred to LAF by the State are homeless, mentally ill or illiterate.  Most of them are African-American or Latino.  Some of them speak no English.  The SSI Advocacy Project at LAF helps them to obtain the necessary medical and psychological evidence to support their SSI application, submit the completed application, and follow up if the application is denied.

·        Last year our grant was $897,000, which enabled us to help our clients obtain SSI benefits totaling $4,356,000.00. That is a 486% return on the State’s investment. 

·        Every client the State sends us was receiving State cash assistance when the State referred them, so that getting them on federally funded benefits saves the State money.  

·        Most of the clients the State sends us have been found not to be disabled in a state review process and therefore not eligible for Medicaid.  When LAF obtains SSI benefits for any of these clients, they receive comprehensive medical coverage and the State is able to capture its fair share of federal Medicaid dollars (60%).

·        Over its 20-year history, LAF has obtained SSI or SSDI benefits for 17,999 clients.

·        LAF’s contract is now scheduled to be cut by 75% to reduce the budget deficit.  It is a mistake to slash a program that saves the State money and provides over $4 million a year in tangible, enduring benefits for some of the most vulnerable people in our community and their families.  We need your support in urging Governor Quinn to restore the SSI Project funding to its full grant in the amount of $897,000.  You can email the Governor here .  

·        Contact your state representative and senator, and tell them you support a state budget that fully funds the Adult SSI Advocacy Project.  You can find your local representatives here . 

LAF EVICTION CASE FEATURED IN CHICAGO TRIBUNE

 Orphaned Chicago kids try to keep their subsidized apartment

After grandma dies, building owner tells 3 children they cannot stay in unit on Far North Side

 By Oscar Avila

Tribune reporter

September 4, 2009

 When Rosetta Bledsoe was on her deathbed last September, relatives moved the three grandchildren she was raising from their Rogers Park apartment to the West Side to be near the hospital.

That way, the youngsters could more easily visit the woman who had mothered them with a mix of tenderness and drill-sergeant discipline, while temporarily living with other family and not missing school.

Now the apartment building's owner is citing that decision in saying the children must give up the Rogers Park home they shared with Bledsoe, 48.

To readthe full article click here .

Annual Luncheon Raises $550,000!

The Legal Assistance Foundation of Metropolitan Chicago (LAF) heralded the official start of summer on Monday, June 22nd with its Annual Campaign for Justice Luncheon. Over 500 people joined LAF at the Palmer House Hilton. The event raised $550,000 in support of LAF’s mission to provide high-quality legal services to low-income and senior residents of Cook County.

Left: LAF Board President Philip H. Corboy, Jr. with Executive Director Diana White

 LAF Board President Philip H. Corboy, Jr. welcomed the guests and thanked the Co-Chairs of the Campaign for Justice who worked hard to make the luncheon such a success: Lawrence R. Desideri, Winston & Strawn LLP; Charles Douglas, Sidley Austin LLP; Robert A. Helman, Mayer Brown LLP; Richard F. Klawiter, DLA Piper US LLP; Emily Nicklin, Kirkland & Ellis LLP; Jerold S. Solovy, Jenner & Block LLP; and Sheldon T. Zenner, Katten Muchin Rosenman LLP. He then introduced LAF Executive Director Diana C. White, who spoke about the challenges LAF has met over the past year, and the grave circumstances our clients face in their everyday lives as they struggle to remain afloat. In these difficult economic times, she asked that everyone strengthen their commitment to equal justice and continue to make advocacy on behalf of the poor a priority.

“I believe in equal justice in all its forms, and in my work every day, I contribute a little bit toward the ideal of ensuring that a person, by virtue of his or her poverty, does not face injustice, or indifference.”

                         - Cynthia Sadkin, 2009 Recipient of the Jerold S. Solovy Equal Justice Award  (above, with Jerold S. Solovy of Jenner & Block)

LAF Board Fundraising Committee Chair Mary Hutchings Reed introduced a moving video highlighting the effect LAF’s work has had on individuals and families. Pamela Napier, one of the clients featured in the video, then shared her story with the luncheon audience. Pamela had been a victim of rescue fraud -- a new sophisticated scam that targets vulnerable homeowners who have significant equity in their homes. Pamela came to LAF and Supervisory Attorney Jim Brady when she was about to lose her family home. It was a long and difficult fight but Pamela has her home back and her gratitude for LAF’s work could not be greater.

Above: LAF client Pamela Napier with LAF Supervisory Attorney Jim Brady;  Right: Luncheon attendees watch a special video highlighting LAF's work and clients' stories

The luncheon concluded with Emily Nicklin presenting LAF’s Lifetime Achievement Award to the McDonald’s Corporation in recognition of the incredible pro bono work the company’s legal department has done with LAF and other local legal aid programs. Over the past several years McDonald’s paralegals have been working with LAF to ensure that poor people obtain the medical benefits to which they are entitled. Gloria Santona, McDonald’s Executive Vice President, General Counsel and Secretary; and Pauline Levy, Senior Counsel of the McDonald’s Corporation were on hand to accept the award.

  Above: LAF Board Member Emily Nicklin of Kirkland & Ellis presenting the Lifetime Achievement Award to McDonald's Corporation; Right: Pauline Levy, Senior Counsel and Gloria Santona, Executive Vice President, General Counsel and Secretary of the McDonald's Corporation accepting the LAF Lifetime Achievement Award

Thanks to all who joined us this year and made the luncheon such a success! We look forward to seeing you again in June of 2010.

If you want more information on the Campaign for Justice, or would like to make a contribution to LAF, please contact the LAF Development Office at 312.347.8382 or visit our online donation page .

  Photos courtesy of Jennifer Girard Photography  

  Download the fall 2008 Newsletter
Download the Chicago Appleseed Fund and LAF Joint Study on Immigration Court Videoconferencing

Vivian Hessel Receives Public Interest Law Award
LAF Supervisory Attorney and Loyola Law Alumna, Vivian Hessel, was honored at Loyola Law School's annual Public Interest Convocation.   An award is presented at the Convocation to one or more legal professionals who have devoted their career to helping the under-represented.  Vivian accepted her award alongside Thomas Sullivan of Jenner & Block LLP, who was honored for providing substantial pro bono services to the community and to the profession.

Two LAF Attorneys Receive CBF Sun-Times Fellowships LAF attorneys Hilda Bahena and Peter Bibler were among five recipients of the 2008 Chicago Bar Foundation Sun-Times Public Interest Law Fellowship.  Each Fellow will receive $50,000 in loan repayment assistance over five years to help them continue their careers in legal aid.  “Each of our Fellows could have had their pick of top-paying law firm jobs upon graduation from law school.  Instead, they chose to make the financial sacrifice it takes to ensure that those in need have access to our justice system,” said Bob Glaves, Executive Director of The Chicago Bar Foundation.
 

First awarded in 2007, the CBF awards five annual fellowships of up to $50,000 per fellowship to individual legal aid or public interest law attorneys who demonstrate a commitment to public interest work, academic achievement in law school, and outstanding character and integrity. The CBF Sun-Times Fellowship addresses a crisis facing lawyers in our community who are increasingly finding that a career in legal aid and public interest law is simply untenable from an economic standpoint. Lawyers graduating today typically have an average of more than $100,000 in law school debt, while starting salaries in the legal aid and public interest law field average only $42,000. Through a generous $2 million cy pres award from a case involving the Chicago Sun-Times, the CBF was able to create these fellowships to provide significant loan repayment assistance to those who most need it.

Upon receiving her Fellowship, Hilda Bahena, underscored the critical need for this program. “Without this Fellowship, I may have had to leave a job I love.” Each of the five fellowship recipients provide legal assistance that is critical to the safety and independence of their clients. Peter Bibler is working primarily on litigation for lower income and senior homeowners facing foreclosure and Hilda Bahena created a monthly legal clinic that provides domestic violence survivors on-site legal advice on family law matter.

Hilda Bahena— A 2001 graduate of the University of Illinois College of Law, Hilda is dedicated to family law litigation and the representation of domestic violence survivors. Her legal advocacy and personal commitment provide a strong base for clients to pursue a safer life, and she has shown a dedication to reaching out to communities where cultural and language barriers impede people from obtaining the legal advice and representation they desperately need. While at LAF, Hilda co-created and facilitates a monthly legal clinic at Mujeres Latinas in Accion that provides domestic violence survivors on-site legal advice on family law matters. The clinic allows the survivors to understand their legal rights and to incorporate the information into the safety and financial plans they develop with their domestic violence counselors. She also often represents these individuals in court.

Peter A. Bibler— Peter graduated summa cum laude from DePaul University College of Law in 2005 with a certificate in Public Interest Law, and a number of honors including Order of the Coif, Phi Kappa Phi, and Dean’s Law Scholar. He is currently Staff Attorney for LAF’s Home Ownership Preservation Project (HOPP). With mortgage fraud and related scams on the rise, low-income homeowners in the Chicago area are increasingly in need of legal representation as the number of foreclosure filings has exceeded 40,000 in the past year. Peter represents at all stages of litigation lower income and senior homeowners facing the imminent loss of their homes through foreclosure, many of whom are victims of predatory lending or deed theft. Peter is proud to be able to provide critical legal assistance to vulnerable people who otherwise would be shut out of our justice system. He also organizes workshops to educate the community on the foreclosure process, predatory lending, and mortgage rescue fraud. While in law school, Peter interned at the Cabrini Green Legal Aid Clinic and the Office of the Public Defender.


EJW Fellow Nora Phillips Featured in CBA Record/CBF Report
The article highlights our own Equal Justice Works fellow, Nora Phillips, and her work with immigrant victims of crime and trafficking.  Read "The CBF's Equal Justice Works Fellows Putting their Passion to Work in our Community" here.

MSNBC Article Featuring LAF Attorney Dan Lindsey's Client and Her Experience as a Victim of Foreclosure Rescue Fraud
September 22, 2008- Read the full article "Millions at Risk of Foreclosure Fraud" here .

Lawyers Duty Bound to Serve the Poor
Chicago Sun-Times 
Letters to the Editor, September 19, 2008
As lecturers in law at the University of Chicago Law School, we teach the "Law and Poverty" seminar that Justice Antonin Scalia dismissed as "made-up stuff" and a waste of time during his remarks to the Federalist Society [Scalia says U. of C. has gone liberal, Sept. 17]. Scalia's comments elicited hearty laughter from his conservative audience, but we are dismayed that one of the smartest, most powerful and most influential jurists in the country does not consider poverty law a serious or worthwhile subject.

Thirty-seven million Americans -- more than 12 percent of the population -- live in poverty. Lawyers can help them avoid unwarranted evictions, escape abusive relationships, retain custody of their children, obtain or preserve desperately needed benefits and services, challenge policies that discriminate against the poor and fight employment discrimination. This is vitally important work.

If  "equal justice under the law," a phrase that Scalia knows is engraved on the front of the United States Supreme Court building, is to have any meaning, our nation's lawyers are duty-bound to commit themselves to serving the less fortunate through pro bono service. Poverty and the laws that can be used to help the impoverished are anything but "made-up stuff."

Given the size of their law school loans, few of our students become full-time poverty lawyers. But they leave our class determined to devote part of their time to representing indigent clients with meritorious cases, and in the process they create a more just society.

Lawrence D. Wood
Richard M. Wheelock
Legal Assistance Foundation of Metropolitan Chicago 

Click here  for the full piece in the Sun-Times.
Read the original article "Scalia Says U. of C. Has Gone Liberal" here .
 

LAF and Freeborn Secure Settlement in RPUSA Suit against CHA
Last week, LAF attorney Julie Harcum and pro bono co-counsel Gia Colunga of Freeborn & Peters settled a Rental Property Utility Service Act case against CHA and their property manager, Legum & Norman. In 2006, LAF filed the complaint against CHA alleging that our client had been paying the electricity and gas bills for the common areas of her building since 1998.  After repeated complaints to the property manager and to CHA were ignored, she came to LAF for assistance.  Soon thereafter, LAF enlisted Gia Colunga of Freeborn & Peters as a pro bono attorney on this case. 

We attempted to work with the property manager, who denied the informal grievance before we even arrived for the meeting. Next we attempted to work with CHA legal counsel, who failed to respond to our demands. Finally, with the assistance of Gia Colunga, we filed suit in Chancery. After two years of litigation, and ten years of our client paying bills for the common areas of her building, we finally settled the case with CHA and Legum & Norman.

There is little doubt that we would not have reached a settlement if it had not been for the threat of attorney's fees to be assessed against CHA.  Although the statute permitted recover of attorney's fees if we were successful at trial, Freeborn agreed to waive these fees in order to help our client settle the case.

Ms. Colunga spoke highly of her experience as a pro bono attorney for LAF.

"LAF gave me the freedom to manage the case as my own, while at the same time provided me with the guidance and support necessary to resolve the case in our client's favor.  Furthermore, our case enabled me to hone many of my litigation skills, including taking and defending depositions and drafting and arguing substantive motions.  Needless to say, I strongly recommend pairing up with LAF on your next pro bono matter."   Click here for more information about volunteer opportunities at LAF.

 Congratulations to Ms. Colunga who is the Illinois Legal Aid Online Featured Pro Bono Attorney of the Month.  Click here to watch the video.

LAF Attorneys Awarded at 10th Annual CBA/CBF Luncheon
Two LAF Attorneys, Alan Alop and Dennericka Brooks, received awards at the 10th Annual Chicago Bar Association (CBA) & Chicago Bar Foundation (CBF) Pro Bono & Public Service Awards Luncheon. 

Alan A. Alop, one of LAF’s Deputy Directors, was awarded the 2008 Thomas H. Morsch Public Service Award.  The award, which includes a $10,000 cash prize generously provided by the Morsch family, was established to recognize and reward exemplary lawyers who choose public service work as a career.  Alan has devoted his entire 37-year career to helping some of the most vulnerable members of this community. “As the recipient of the Morsch Award in its 10th year, I appreciate that Diana White and Jack Block had the confidence in me to nominate me, and it is an honor to be among the distinguished group of previous winners.”  Over the years, Alan has become nationally known as the resident expert in consumer law matters.    For example, with a grant from CBF, Alan brought the medical debt crisis to the forefront.  Recognizing the need for a staff member to cut through the administrative red tape, Alan developed LAF’s Medical Debt Relief Project.  Under his supervision and staffed by a law student, the Project’s goal is to get non-profit hospitals (who by law have a responsibility to provide charity care) to write-off the medical debt incurred by indigent patients.  To date, the Project has obtained debt relief of over $2 million.  

LAF attorney Dennericka Brooks was awarded The Kimball R. Anderson and Karen Gatsis Anderson Public Interest Law Fellowship.  The fellowship — the first of its kind in the nation — pays $50,000 over 5 years to relieve the staggering law school debt burden of an outstanding law graduate working in a Chicago area public interest organization. Dennericka is the third attorney at LAF to receive this prestigious award.  Upon receiving the award, Dennericka said, “At the most basic level, I strive to provide individuals with access to justice.  I know what it feels like…growing up on the south side of Chicago (where) landlords neglected their duties to tenants…where women were abused and stayed in relationships because they didn’t believe they could leave or because economics forced them to stay.  This is why I have dedicated myself whole heartedly to public interest work.”  Dennericka feels particularly honored and blessed to have this fellowship to help her continue doing the work she loves.  The Andersons’ gift of less financial stress coupled with her dream job is more than she could have imagined just a year out of law school.

To read more, click here for the article that appeared in the Chicago Daily Law Bulletin.

Brett R. Johnson & Todd A. Solomon recognized as Pro Bono Attorneys of the Month on www.IllinoisProBono.org
Brett R. Johnson and Todd A. Solomon of McDermott Will & Emery have been named 'Pro Bono Attorneys of the Month' by Illinois Legal Aid Online for June 2008.  Johnson, a fourth-year associate, and Solomon, a partner and co-chair of the firm's pro bono & community service committee, are both members of the Employee Benefits Department.  Collaborating with the Legal Assistance Foundation of Metropolitan Chicago, they took on a pro bono case of a disabled woman whose pension was wrongfully revoked after she worked for the City of Chicago for over 30 years. Using the firm's resources and their expertise, Johnson and Solomon logged over a hundred hours to fight for their client's benefits. To learn the full story and outcome of this case, watch the video interview with Johnson and Solomon here .

Pro Bono Attorney Helps Client Break Free From Abuse
Thanks to the pro bono efforts of Jennifer B. Groszek an attorney with Gunty &  McCarthy , a 29-year-old immigrant from Ghana, who was physically and emotionally abused by her United States citizen husband, has received VAWA status.  Now, she can obtain a work permit and adjust to permanent residency which means she will be able to financially support herself, no longer needing to depend on her abuser.

In May of 2003, Betty (fictitious name) came to the United States on a visitor visa.  She met her husband in Illinois shortly after arriving and fell in love.  She began living with him in 2004 and they married on March 16, 2005.  Shortly after the wedding, Betty found out that her husband had lied about his job and was seeing other women.  They argued repeatedly about this, and even separated for a short while.  Later, Betty’s husband apologized and promised to change and they decided to get back together.  At the same time, Betty found out she was pregnant with the couple’s first child, so they moved in with Betty’s mother-in-law.

Soon after reconciling, Betty’s husband’s girlfriends began calling the house and the couple began to argue again.  Betty’s husband became so angry that one night he began to physically abuse Betty.  The abuse became more frequent and included punching, hitting and kicking.  In December of 2005, Betty’s husband punched her in the face but she was too afraid to call police.  Shortly after, Betty realized that she had lost the baby due to a miscarriage caused by the abuse.  After one particularly brutal incident where Betty’s husband followed her home from work and hit her several times, Betty knew she had to separate from her husband.

Although Betty’s husband filed a petition for Betty to become a permanent resident, it was denied due to insufficient evidence of their marriage.  The case is currently being appealed and now that Betty received her VAWA approval, this case can be resumed.

Betty is currently in school to become a certified nursing assistant and she hopes to eventually become a licensed nurse practitioner and be able to support herself.  She currently lives with one of the many relatives she has in Chicago and hopes to start over.

The efforts of Jennifer B. Groszek not only saved Betty from deportation, but also allowed her to gain self sufficiency and begin a new life free from abuse.

For information on volunteer opportunities through the Pro Bono Panel, click here .

LAF Saves Nettie's Home 

LAF's Home Ownership Preservation Project Featured in Legal Services Corporation (LSC) Newsletter

Chicago Legal Aid Foundation Highlighted in USA Today
The Legal Assistance Foundation of Metropolitan Chicago was featured in a recent USA Today article on foreclosure rescue scams, which more and more are affecting the clients of legal services programs.  "This has become the No. 1 problem in terms of calls we're getting and cases we're filing,” said Daniel Lindsey, head of the foundation’s Home Ownership Preservation Project.  A typical foreclosure rescue scam, also known as “equity skimming,” works like this: a homeowner facing foreclosure is solicited by an unscrupulous organization or individual offering to buy the house and rent it back to the owner until they are back on their feet financially, at which point they are promised that ownership will revert back to them.  Instead, the fraudulent “rescuer” borrows as much money as possible against the equity in the house while collecting rent from the original owner, and never paying a dime towards the mortgage.  The house goes into foreclosure anyway, and all the equity in the house is gone, leaving the original owner with nothing.  Lindsey told USA Today that the saddest stories he hears are from retirees who have lost the only home they have ever had thanks to one of these scams.  "That property is their entire life, most of their wealth, they've raised their children there, they are completely emotionally invested in it, and that's exactly the last thing they want to lose," he says.  "The vulnerability they are experiencing gets exploited by these ‘rescuers.’"   To read, “Con artists circle over homeowners on edge,” in the USA Today, click here .

LAF Announces New Executive Director

The Board of Directors of the Legal Assistance Foundation of Metropolitan Chicago (LAF) is pleased to announce that, after a national search, Diana White has been selected as LAF’s new Executive Director effective July 13, 2007.  Roger G. Wilson, President of LAF’s Board who headed the Search Committee said: "Diana White impressed everyone with her legal talents, her dedication to our clients, and her leadership abilities. Both the Board Search Committee and the Staff Advisory Committee were overwhelmingly in support of Diana as the new Executive Director."

Ms. White has been LAF’s Deputy Director of Special Projects since 1997. In that capacity, she supervised the work of more than a dozen specialized units at LAF, including children’s rights, employment, family law and domestic violence prevention, health, HIV/AIDS, immigration, migrant, public benefits, seniors, and Adult SSI.  During her tenure, LAF launched a Public Benefits Hotline which has helped thousands of poor families obtain, or keep, such basic safety-net benefits as Food Stamps, Medicaid, and TANF.  Ms. White helped LAF secure more than $800,000 in funding to expand its domestic violence prevention work to reach immigrant women who because of linguistic or cultural isolation thought family violence just had to be endured.  She helped LAF’s children’s project focus its efforts keeping children in safe families, even if those families weren’t traditional, nuclear families.  Its clients now include grandparents raising grandchildren, siblings raising siblings, and parents who have recovered from alcohol or drug addiction and can now be guardians of children they had once lost.  In one of the biggest challenges of the last decade, Ms. White worked with LAF’s Housing Law attorneys to represent public housing residents whose developments are being demolished and rebuilt as "mixed-income" communities by the Chicago Housing Authority.  Together, they created partnerships between real estate developers and public housing residents, served on the "working groups" that plan the new developments, and negotiated a contract that provides every public housing family with certain basic protections during the relocation process.  The next task is to make sure that public housing families have a real voice in the "mixed-income" communities when they move back.

Prior to joining LAF, Ms. White was a litigation partner at the law firm of Jenner & Block, an associate at Jenner and at several other Chicago firms, and a law clerk for the Honorable Walter J. Cummings, Chief Judge of the Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit.  She received her J.D. with honors from the University of Chicago Law School, where she was an articles editor on the Law Review and a member of the Order of the Coif.

Ms. White is a summa cum laude graduate of Smith College, and has a Ph.D. in Latin and Greek from the University of Chicago. She was a member of the Board of Directors of the Chicago Council of Lawyers from 1999-2003 and is currently a member of the Board of Chicago Appleseed Fund for Justice where she served as President from 2003-2006.

Ms. White will be succeeding Sheldon R. Roodman who is retiring after 30 years as LAF’s Executive Director. "I am overjoyed and am totally confident that LAF is in excellent hands with Diana as the new Executive Director," he said after the Board announced its decision.

In accepting the post, Ms White said: "The challenge for us in the post-Sheldon era is to continue to provide high-quality legal services to poor people throughout the Chicago metropolitan area, become more involved in the communities we serve, and earn the support of civic-minded people generally."

United Way of Metropolitan Chicago gives Children's Law Project $100,000 grant for each of three years

The Children's Law Project (CLP) ensures that children who are in the Juvenile Justice System are moved into safe, permanent and nurturing homes as quickly as possible and with as little trauma as possible. The legal representation CLP provides to parents, relative caregivers, and children significantly reduces the time children spend in foster care and ensures that they and their families are connected to the services needed for a safe, nurturing and stable home life and the tools needed for a successful childhood.

Visit the United Way of Metropolitan Chicago

LAF Receives CHAC’s Community Partner Award

On April 30, 2007, CHAC (CHA's Section 8 voucher administrator) awarded LAF its Community Partner Award at its annual employee awards event. CHAC administers CHA’s Section 8 Housing Choice Voucher Program.  Housing Choice Vouchers, which help subsidize the rent of low-income families, allow families to lease apartments from private landlords.   LAF’s Housing Law Project, including Nicki Bazer, Carlos Ramirez, Larry Wood and Rich Wheelock, was there to accept the award on behalf of LAF. Jennifer O'Neil, CHAC's Deputy Director, presented the award. She acknowledged that although on occasion LAF and CHAC must settle its differences in court, in the majority of cases the two agencies work together to mutually resolve problems faced by voucher program participants and to improve CHAC's policies and procedures.