CBA Record January-February 2025
Chicago Bar Foundation Report
Building a Fairer and Better Justice System Together in 2024 By Emme Veenbaas, CBF Senior Manager of Communications & Events
T he CBF continues to make a remarkable impact in the Chicago area and beyond thanks to your strong support. Together with your fellow CBA members and our broader legal community, we are making it possible for thousands of people in need to get critical legal assistance while also building a fairer and better justice system for everyone. Below are just a few examples of how your support made a difference over the past year and continues to do so into the new year.
Cook County Legal Aid for Housing and Debt (CCLAHD) Program Continues to Make an Impact The CBF continues to be a lead partner with the Circuit Court, Cook County, the City of Chicago, and many other legal aid, government, and community partners in developing and manag ing this groundbreaking program. It provides critical legal help and other assistance for people facing evictions, consumer debt challenges, foreclosure, and other housing issues. CCLAHD completed its third full year of providing services, and in June 2024, the lead partners presented a formal impact report on the program (available on the CBF website) to the Cook County Board. The report highlighted the tremendous impact this nationally recognized program has made since its launch, helping more than 80,000 people in need and transforming the court process for eviction, consumer debt, and foreclosure cases. Launched in early 2024, the Above the Line Network (ATLN) is working to improve access to affordable legal help for the middle class. ATLN brings together leaders across the United States and Canada, including incubators, nonprofit and sliding scale law firms, innovative private practitioners, members of the judiciary and access to justice commissions, bar leaders, and legal educators and technologists. Led by the CBF and IAALS (the Institute for the Advancement of the American Legal System), ATLN already has over 100 mem bers committed to improving responses to the needs of people in the middle class, who represent more than 50% of our nation’s Above the Line Network Increases Access to Justice for the Overlooked Middle Class
population. Their income is too high to qualify for free legal aid but struggle to find affordable legal help when they need it.
Advocating at the State and Federal Levels
The CBF continued to advocate for access to justice initiatives in Springfield and Washington, DC, in partnership with the CBA, ISBA, and ABA. At the state level, the CBF continued to advo cate for funding for legal aid and court programs and initiatives to streamline and simplify the court process. Priorities at the fed eral level included increased funding for the Legal Services Cor poration; ensuring adequate funding and security for the federal courts; and passing a long-term, sustainable solution to the stu dent debt crisis. From left to right at the State Capitol: CBF Board member Randy Fearnow; CBF Executive Director Bob Glaves; CBF Advocacy Com mittee member Amy Masters; CBF Board member and Advocacy Committee Chair Ian Morrison; CBA Legislative Counsel Tom Suf fredin; CBA Legislative Director Julie Vyverberg; and CBF Chief Advocacy & Innovation Officer Roya Samarghandi.
20 January/February 2025
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