This year has been marked by so many challenges. At PILI, we have been working hard to increase access to free legal services for those in need across Illinois. During this season of thanks, we feel grateful for all those who have given us support - emotional, temporal or financial!
Now we'd like to take a moment to celebrate all we have done this year and recommit ourselves to this work of advancing justice. Join us for our year-end events, including Giving Tuesday on December 1st and the Annual Awards Virtual Luncheon on December 2nd.
How will you commit to advancing justice? Could you increase your giving to PILI or make your first gift today? Take a pro bono case from us or another legal aid program in your area, or answer some questions on Illinois Free Legal Answers? Or, be a champion for pro bono with your colleagues? Whatever you can do, it will make a difference and PILI can serve as your gateway to helping those in need.
Illinois Free Legal Answers is a virtual legal clinic where low-income Illinois residents can submit a question online to ask a lawyer for help with a legal issue. We're seeing an increase in questions during the COVID-19 Pandemic and need more volunteers to answer questions.Learn more.
Self-represented litigants in the Illinois Appellate Court face many unique challenges without adequate resources to assist them through the appellate process. This platform is the first-ever virtual legal advice clinic for civil appeals in Illinois. Volunteer lawyers with appellate experience are needed!Learn more.
IL-AFLAN provides civil legal services across Illinois to veterans, active duty military and their spouses and dependents and PILI refers pro bono matters in the 101 counties outside of Cook County. Help us serve those who have served us! Learn more.
PILI Life Director Christopher Horsch, 79, passed away on November 11, 2020 after a brief illness. Chris joined PILI’s Board of Directors in 1985, decades later being named as a Life Director in honor of his service when he retired. Even in retirement and as a Life Director, Chris remained very involved in PILI’s work, regularly attending PILI events and board meetings. Chris’ family has encouraged those who wish to honor his legacy of service to make a gift to PILI to support the Christopher J. Horsch Memorial Law Student Intern starting in 2021. Learn more.
PILI has created a Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) Working Group to determine how to effectively realize this commitment internally, externally through its programming and services, and in support of its partner organizations. Learn more.
Several organizations hosted virtual Illinois Free Legal Answers Clinics to celebrate Pro Bono Week at the end of October. Together with other volunteers, these clinics contributed to a record breaking number of questions – 407 – being answered in a single month. Learn more.
Through its Pro Bono Initiative project, PILI facilitates the sharing of best practices through pro bono resources and programming, serving as a hub for pro bono within the Illinois legal community. A hallmark of this project since nearly its inception, has been PILI’s Pro Bono Reference Guide for both Law Firms and Corporations.Learn more.
PILI celebrated Pro Bono Week with eight Celebrate Pro Bono Virtual Events in judicial circuits across the state, recognized five local attorneys for their outstanding pro bono work, launched the new First Judicial Circuit Pro Bono Committee and even did some pro bono thanks to our Alumni Network Leadership Council and Young Professionals Board. We also shared a wrap up video to bring it all together. Learn more
