What is the Investing in Justice Campaign?
Why is the Campaign necessary?
What do you mean when you say there is a justice gap in our community?
Who are the people who depend on our community’s pro bono and legal aid organizations?
How will my contribution to the Campaign make a difference?
I support a lot of other good causes, why should I also support the Campaign?
Doesn’t Government bear the primary responsibility for funding legal aid?
I already do pro bono work, isn’t that enough?
How will the CBF use the funds from the Campaign?
How does the CBF decide which organizations receive grants with the Campaign funds?
What types of innovative projects will the Campaign make possible?
Can I designate my Campaign contribution to support a particular organization?
What other things does the CBF do to increase the impact of its grants?
What about improving legal aid salaries—wasn’t that the original focus of the Campaign?
How has the Campaign made an impact on the salary issue?
Will improving legal aid salaries remain a priority in the Campaign?
How will the current economy impact the salary initiative going forward?
Where can I find out more about the Campaign?
What is the Investing in Justice Campaign?
The Chicago Bar Foundation’s annual Investing in Justice Campaign is a special initiative each year in March when Chicago’s legal community comes together around a cause that is uniquely important to us as a profession: helping ensure that everyone in the Chicago area has equal access to justice by building the capacity of our overburdened pro bono and legal aid system to serve low-income and disadvantaged Chicagoans in critical need of legal assistance.
100% of the proceeds from the Campaign go directly toward CBF grants that advance this purpose. All contributions are tax-deductible and can be counted for purposes of the Illinois Supreme Court Pro Bono Reporting Rule.
Thousands of individual lawyers and legal professionals at law firms and corporations throughout the Chicago area participated in the Campaign in each of the first two years, collectively contributing nearly $2 million to support the work of our community’s pro bono and legal aid organizations and their dedicated attorneys.
Why is the Campaign necessary?
There are three underlying premises for the Campaign. First, while we all support a wide variety of worthy causes in our community, as the guardians of the justice system ensuring that all people in our community have equal access to that system is a cause that is uniquely important to us as lawyers.
Second, despite the dedicated efforts of legal aid and pro bono attorneys in our community, there is a huge gap today in access to civil legal assistance for the low-income and disadvantaged Chicagoans who most need the protections of our justice system, and the need for assistance is growing in the current economic crisis.
Finally, while we all have important roles to play as individuals, we have the power to significantly expand the capacity of our pro bono and legal aid system when the legal community comes together as one around this issue.
What do you mean when you say there is a justice gap in our community?
Out of more than 42,000 practicing lawyers in Cook County, there are less than 300 legal aid attorneys in the Chicago area to serve more than one million low-income Cook County residents who are eligible for their services. As a result, more than half of low-income and disadvantaged Chicagoans who seek legal assistance that is often critical to their safety and independence are turned away and left to solve complex legal problems on their own.
Who are the people who depend on our community’s pro bono and legal aid organizations?
The low-income and disadvantaged Chicagoans who depend on our community’s pro bono and legal aid organizations include people facing wrongful foreclosure of their homes due to predatory lending and other consumer fraud; women and children victimized by domestic violence, veterans being denied the benefits our country promised them, and many other vulnerable members of our community.
Whether these people have access to the legal help they need could mean the difference between shelter and homelessness; medical assistance and unnecessary physical suffering; food on a family’s table and hunger; economic stability and bankruptcy; productive work and unemployment.
How will my contribution to the Campaign make a difference?
The Campaign is a unique opportunity to invest in the entire pro bono and legal aid system with one contribution. With one gift to the Campaign, you support all of our community’s many outstanding legal aid organizations; help the dedicated attorneys pursuing legal aid careers and make it possible for pro bono attorneys to most effectively supplement their efforts; and underwrite innovative projects that make our justice system more user-friendly and accessible for those in need.
While it might not seem like your individual contribution could make a real difference, when combined with thousands of other supporters of the Campaign (and the many firms and corporations that are matching individual contributions), the collective impact is remarkable. The Campaign is not a replacement for what we do as individual lawyers, law firms and corporations; rather, it is recognition that there are some issues impacting our pro bono and legal aid system that are of such a large scale that we can address them far more effectively by coming together as a community.
I support a lot of other good causes, why should I also support the Campaign?
While we are all asked to support a number of worthy causes throughout the year, the justice system is our “home turf” as lawyers, and we have both the responsibility and the power to make a real difference in our community. If we as lawyers don’t take the lead in this cause, no one else will.
Doesn’t Government bear the primary responsibility for funding legal aid?
While lawyers clearly have a leadership responsibility on these issues, equal access to justice is central to our democratic society, integral to the effective functioning of our justice system and a critical part of the safety net for vulnerable members of our community. Funding for legal aid and related access to justice initiatives is one of the core responsibilities of our government.
On a parallel track with the Campaign, the CBF is actively working with other local and national organizations on efforts to ensure adequate government funding for legal aid at the federal, state and local levels. But we need to continue to do our part as lawyers to ensure that the people who are in most critical need of the protections of our justice system have equal access to justice.
I already do pro bono work, isn’t that enough?
Your commitment to doing pro bono work is a critical part of your role as a guardian of our justice system, and we commend you for it. For pro bono to be effective, however, we need strong legal aid organizations as partners, and investing in their work by providing financial backing and other support is a necessary complement to doing pro bono work. Legal aid organizations provide the necessary infrastructure to support pro bono work for area lawyers, law firms and corporations (i.e., pro bono programs with solid screening, referral, training and support functions for volunteers). Legal aid programs also provide critical legal assistance to the most vulnerable members of our community in matters where specialization and expertise is necessary and pro bono is not a practical solution.
How will the CBF use the funds from the Campaign?
“Investing in Justice” is not just a catchy title for the Campaign. It reflects the CBF’s two- pronged strategy for closing the justice gap in our community through the CBF’s comprehensive grants program: investing in what we know works (i.e., the many outstanding people and organizations who anchor our pro bono and legal aid system), while also investing in innovative projects and initiatives that improve access to our justice system and address gaps and emerging issues facing our pro bono and legal aid system. Specifically, 100% of the funds will go directly for CBF grants that strengthen our community’s many outstanding legal aid organizations; help the dedicated attorneys pursuing legal aid careers and make it possible for pro bono attorneys to most effectively supplement their efforts; and underwrite innovative projects that make our justice system more user-friendly and accessible for those in need.
The CBF has received significant in-kind support from individuals, law firms and corporations and is underwriting all other administrative expenses so that 100% of the contributions to the Campaign go directly to grants.
How does the CBF decide which organizations receive grants with the Campaign funds?
The CBF has a comprehensive grant screening and evaluation process that carefully vets pro bono and legal aid organizations before they receive grant funding. A highly-regarded board of lawyers and judges who are broadly representative of Chicago’s legal community, with the assistance of CBF staff with widely recognized expertise on these issues, ensures accountability and strategically allocates the Campaign funds to maximize impact; leverage additional support from government and other sources; and promote best practices on common issues and collective challenges facing legal aid organizations.
The CBF looks at issues like the organization’s leadership; its management and governance practices; the strength of its attorney and non-attorney staff; its strategic plan; and how the organization fits into the broader pro bono and legal aid system. For special projects and initiatives, the CBF also looks at additional factors such as whether the organization is well suited to carry out the particular project and whether it is coordinating with other relevant stakeholders, among many other factors.
Click here for more information on the CBF’s grant process and recent grants.
What types of innovative projects will the Campaign make possible?
The CBF invests in a variety of projects and initiatives to help move the justice system forward and address gaps and emerging issues in the pro bono and legal aid system. More detailed information is available on the CBF website at www.chicagobarfoundation.org, but a few examples include:
Help desks in the federal and state courts that help the growing number of unrepresented litigants get advice, brief assistance and referrals.
A strategic array of projects the CBF is funding to combat the surge in mortgage foreclosures, particularly the thousands of cases that have resulted from predatory lending and mortgage fraud.
Several innovative projects that increase the ability of pro bono lawyers to help close the justice gap in our community. Two examples are the Nonprofit Legal Assessment Project, which works with firms and corporations to provide comprehensive pro bono assistance to nonprofit organizations serving disadvantaged communities throughout the Chicago area; and the Disabled Adults Guardian ad litem Probate Court Pro Bono Project, which gives lawyers the opportunity to serve as pro bono GALs in the Circuit Court of Cook County’s Probate Division.
Can I designate my Campaign contribution to support a particular organization?
We cannot designate your contribution to an individual program. However, all of the major pro bono and legal aid organizations serving the Chicago area will directly benefit from your contribution (the full list of currently eligible organizations is listed in the Campaign brochure, available on the CBF website at www.chicagobarfoundation.org). The Campaign’s overarching goal is to move the entire pro bono and legal aid system forward by focusing on the common needs and collective challenges facing all of these organizations, and we can best achieve that goal by harnessing the combined force created by the legal community coming together around this issue.
While all of the pro bono and legal aid organizations serving our community benefit from the Campaign, it is critical for lawyers, law firms and corporations to continue to do pro bono work and provide financial support to the individual legal aid organizations they work with as partners. To learn more about the many outstanding pro bono and legal aid organizations serving the Chicago area and how you can contribute to them directly, you can go to www.chicagobarfoundation.org. Click here for more information on how you can get involved in pro bono work.
What other things does the CBF do to increase the impact of its grants?
In addition to grants, the CBF’s broader efforts to ensure access to justice include championing pro bono work and related access to justice initiatives in the legal community; advocating for sufficient government funding for legal aid and promoting broader community support; helping dedicated attorneys pursue careers in legal aid; working with the courts to make the justice system more user-friendly and accessible; and advancing best practices in the legal aid community on issues like management, governance and coordination with other providers. Click here for more information on the CBF’s comprehensive access to justice efforts.
What about improving legal aid salaries—wasn’t that the original focus of the Campaign?
A landmark study in 2006 conducted by the CBF and the Illinois Coalition for Equal Justice found that the combination of inadequate legal aid salaries and skyrocketing law school debt increasingly was making it economically untenable for attorneys to pursue, and remain in, careers in legal aid. The findings of the Study underscored that addressing this growing crisis was the most immediate priority to achieve the Campaign’s longer-term goal of building the capacity of our pro bono and legal aid system when we launched the inaugural Campaign in 2007.
How has the Campaign made an impact on the salary issue?
The funds raised in the inaugural Campaign were a critical down payment on the longer-term work necessary to enable dedicated attorneys to commit to and remain in legal aid careers, and the funds raised in year 2 of the Campaign helped sustain that effort while also advancing the interconnected goals of strengthening our community’s pro bono and legal aid organizations and making our justice system more user-friendly and accessible for those in need.
The inaugural Campaign and the special CBF grant process delivered the jolt needed to head off the legal aid salary crisis. The CBF used 100% of the $900,000+ raised in the first year of the Campaign for a special grant process that gave every legal aid attorney an immediate and meaningful salary increase and jump started a comprehensive program to bring legal aid salaries up to par with their public service peers.
As a condition of receiving these special grant funds after the first year of the Campaign, and as part of accepting the shared responsibility for increasing legal aid salaries going forward, all of the major pro bono and legal aid organizations serving the Chicago area developed and adopted a board approved plan to raise their attorney salaries to the level of comparable government service positions over the next 3-5 years and to address the other non-compensation issues impacting attorney retention identified by the steering committee in the study.
The inaugural Campaign’s special grant process made it possible for our community’s pro bono and legal aid organizations to obtain additional support for this effort from other funders and inspired the launch of innovative new CBF management training and professional development initiatives for these organizations and their lawyers. Going forward, the effort to increase salaries requires a shared responsibility of the CBF, other funders and the individual pro bono and legal aid organizations to be successful.
Will improving legal aid salaries remain a priority in the Campaign?
Yes, improving legal aid salaries will remain a Campaign priority. The Campaign will continue to strengthen the pro bono and legal aid organizations while making our justice system more user friendly and accessible for those in need. Supporting adequate legal aid salaries is a critical prong of this larger effort.
Now that all of the major pro bono and legal aid organizations in Chicago have committed to longer-term plans to increase their salaries to the levels of comparable public service positions, the key going forward is to help give these organizations the means to do that, both through the Campaign and through other sources. Helping these organizations meet their long term salary plans will remain a priority in the CBF’s grants program, advocacy and other work for as long as necessary. The funds raised in the Campaign will allow us to continue to do our part in this effort. The CBF will use our grants program to ensure that the salary issue remains a priority and that non-financial issues impacting legal aid attorney retention identified in the Study continue to be addressed.
How will the current economy impact the salary initiative going forward?
One of the many unfortunate byproducts of the current economic climate is that overall funding for legal aid is under stress at the same time that demand for legal aid services is going up significantly. As a result, beyond cost of living raises, it will be difficult in the short term for our pro bono and legal aid organizations to continue increasing salaries as called for in their longer-term salary increase plans.
The CBF recognizes these short-term economic challenges faced by pro bono and legal aid organizations and believes extending their longer-term salary increase plans is an acceptable response for 2009 so long as the organizations commit to at least maintaining salaries at current levels, remain committed to their salary plans for the longer term and continue to address the non-financial aspects of their retention plans.
While we recognize that everyone is facing pressures to cut costs right now, we cannot use the economic crisis as a reason to balance budgets on the backs of the attorneys who are the backbone of these organizations. The tendency in the larger legal aid community to do that when facing economic pressures in the past is what over time created the distorted legal aid salary market that exists today. While there might be a temporary reduction in turnover pressures in the current climate, it is not a viable long-term answer to ignore this issue. Pro bono and legal aid organizations must remain committed to their salary plans in order to make it possible for dedicated attorneys to pursue careers in legal aid, which will make their organizations much stronger over the long term.
Where can I find out more about the Campaign?
For more information, contact Bob Glaves at
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or 312-554-1205, or David Gee 312-554-1209 or
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at The Chicago Bar Foundation.
