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Legal Services Corporation Honors Illinois Attorneys for Pro Bono Service

July 11, 2022

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Carl Rauscher    
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CHICAGO – The Legal Services Corporation (LSC) Board of Directors will present Pro Bono Service Awards on July 13 to Illinois attorneys and a law firm in recognition of their extraordinary commitment to equal justice. The awards reception will be held in conjunction with the LSC Board of Directors’ quarterly meeting. It will take place at 5:30 p.m. at Sidley Austin LLP's office, 1 South Dearborn. 

LSC Board Chair John G. Levi; Dean Thomas J. Miles, University of Chicago Law School; and Judge Diane P. Wood, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit, will deliver opening remarks. LSC President Ronald S. Flagg will close the event. 

Recipients of LSC’s Pro Bono Service Awards were nominated by LSC grantees Land of Lincoln Legal Aid, Inc., Legal Aid Chicago, and Prairie State Legal Services (PSLS). The recipients are: 

  • David Black, a retired attorney who was an active pro bono volunteer and PSLS board member during his 35-year law career and continues to take on pro bono cases. He has closed more than 800 record- sealing and expungement cases on behalf of PSLS clients.

  • David W. Butler, a retired judge who has helped 165 PSLS clients over his three years of volunteering with the organization. He was also instrumental in creating PSLS’s eviction court help desk in the McLean County Courthouse.

  • DLA Piper LLP, the law firm has been a dedicated pro bono partner of Legal Aid Chicago for more than 15 years. It was the primary collaborator in establishing Legal Aid Chicago’s first free walk-in legal clinic in the South Side neighborhood of Woodlawn. Building on this success, DLA Piper also helped start domestic violence and eviction help desks.

  • Charles Gross, the former president and CEO of Newsweb Corp.,  is a volunteer with Legal Aid Chicago’s Public Benefits Group, representing clients in administrative hearings and court. He has closed nearly 300 cases, helping clients gain or retain the benefits they need.

  • Brent D. Holmes, an attorney and volunteer with Land of Lincoln Legal Aid through the Coles-Cumberland Bar Association Pro Bono Project. He has closed more than 27 cases for clients and his law firm Heller, Holmes & Associates, P.C., has handled nearly 40 pro bono cases. He was one of the driving forces behind the bar association instituting a mandatory pro bono program. 

  • Alice Noble-Allgire and Wenona Whitfield, recently retired Southern Illinois University School of Law professors and good friends, approached Land of Lincoln Legal Aid about how they could best support the organization. They ended up taking on expungement and sealing cases and have collectively closed 54 cases in only three years, with 10 currently ongoing.  

Legal Services Corporation (LSC) is an independent nonprofit established by Congress in 1974. For 50 years, LSC has provided financial support for civil legal aid to low-income Americans. The Corporation currently provides funding to 131 independent nonprofit legal aid programs in every state, the District of Columbia, and U.S. territories.