CBA Record

Chicago Bar Foundation Report

The 2017 Investing in Justice Campaign Justice People Deserve, Not Just What They Can Afford By Meredith Mazzuca, CBF Director of Marketing and Communications

The CBA again is one of the organizations par- ticipating in the Campaign, andwe enourage all CBA members to contribute at chicagobarfoun- dation.org/campaign. When the Investing in Justice Cam- paign launched in 2007, it raised more than $600,000 from about 1,600 individu- als at 35 participating law firms and com- panies. The Campaign has come a long way since that promising beginning. Last year, M arch brings to mind several annual traditions—March Madness, St. Patrick’s Day, spring breaks. But for those in the Chicago legal community, March has also come to mean something particularly important to the legal profession: the annual CBF Investing in Justice Campaign. This month marks the 11th year of the Campaign, a community-wide effort through which thousands of indi- vidual attorneys and legal professionals at more than 150 participating law firms, corporations, the CBA and other law- related organizations in the Chicago area come together around our profession’s common cause: ensuring that everyone has access to necessary legal help, not just those who can afford it.

bers of our legal community, including Susan Levy, Brett Hart, Patrick Fitzger- ald, Dan Reidy, Emily Nicklin, Bill Von Hoene, Jr., Chuck Douglas, Jeff Stone, Dan Webb and Tony Valukas. Following in this tradition, the 2017 Campaign is chaired by Jesse Ruiz, a Partner at Drinker Biddle & Reath LLP. Today, we can proudly declare the Campaign is the largest and most impactful initiative of its kind anywhere in the coun-

more than 5,000 individuals donated $1.5 million, bringing the total raised over the first ten years to nearly $14 million. Each year, one hundred percent of those dollars goes to dozens of Chicago-area pro bono and legal aid organizations through CBF grants, which in turn has leveraged millions more in legal aid funding from the CBF’s foundation and government partners. In past years, the Campaign has been led by some of the most prominent mem-

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