Chicago Appleseed - Fund for Justice

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Pro Bono Opportunities from Chicago Appleseed Fund for Justice

Change lives by changing the system.

Change lives by changing the system. Pro bono attorneys working with Chicago Appleseed work to promote systemic reform at the heart of local and state policies. We conduct research and advocacy in the areas of criminal justice, judicial performance, court reform, and community justice. We identify problems, research their causes, and recommend systemic solutions. Chicago Appleseed is part of a national network of public interest law centers working through and with Appleseed in Washington, D.C.

Interns and volunteers work with our talented staff, committed board members, and blue ribbon task forces comprised of exceptional professionals in their fields. The work you do will directly influence decisions by major policy makers at the city, county, and state level. Commitments are tailored to your availability and strengths, and can range from interviewing experts, drafting memos and articles, developing recommendations and strategies for implementing systemic reform, writing grants, blogging, court watching, and more.

Some of our more recent accomplishments, which have drawn on volunteer assistance, include:

Our recent accomplishments, described above, have all drawn on pro bono and/or intern assistance.

The following are pro bono opportunities from Chicago Appleseed Fund for Justice.

If you are interested in changing lives at the systemic level with Chicago Appleseed, please contact Malcolm Rich at malcolmrich@chicagoappleseed.org or 312.988.6552.

Court Reform & Judicial Accountability

  • Assist in the implementation and assessment of the Judicial Performance Commission. With the generous financial assistance of the Joyce Foundation, we launched in 2010 the Judicial Performance Commission Pilot Project. The purpose of this program is to utilize the work of a Judicial Performance Commission to both educate voters about judges seeking retention and to prepare judicial performance improvement plans to be distributed to the judges and their supervisors.

    We have launched the 2012 Commission effort, with the goal of having the Commission evaluate the 2012 retention judges by July 2012. Research data will be shared with all bar groups evaluating judges. The Commission utilizes research data prepared by Chicago Appleseed to do its work.

    The primary goals of the Commission are

    1) to utilize social science research-based judicial evaluations to identify judges with judicial performance problems such as temperament, courtroom management, and the inability to communicate with courtroom staff, criminal defendants, and parties to civil litigation. The Commission prepares Performance Improvement Plans that include court watching, requests for peer mentoring, and for continuing education. These judges are re-evaluated every three years;

    2) to inform voters when judges should not be retained.

    We seek pro bono assistance to research and participate in an oversight board which will also assess the impact and effectiveness of the Judicial Performance Commission project

  • Voter Education - Assist in the implementation of a web and media based campaign to education voters about judges seeking retention on the general election ballot.

  • Participate in the Professional Responsibility and Ethics Committee, which will be drafting judicial recusal proposals and procedures to improve the way in which judicial vacancies are filled.
  • Research how Cook County judges get to the bench, how they maintain their seats and evaluate alternatives to those methods.
  • Compare Illinois' method for filling judicial vacancies with methods used by other states.
  • Participate in the Immigration Court Reform Advisory Group by conducting policy research, crafting of proposed federal rules and legislation, and the writing of policy positions and editorial pieces for the media and for publication. The Advisory Group will also oversee a court watching program in the immigration courts. Advocate for recommendations stemming from the Appleseed report on the immigration courts - Assembly Line Injustice
  • Assess and address which recommendations of the Solovy Commission have and have not been implemented. The Solovy Commission was established by the late Jerry Solovy in the 1990's to suggest improvements in the administration of justice in Cook County in the wake of two major FBI sting operations which led to the conviction of 35 lawyers and judges.

Criminal Justice Reform

The felony criminal justice system has become the de facto and underfunded community mental health and drug treatment provider in Cook County. Many of the Chicago Appleseed recommendations are aimed at increasing the number and scope of court-related services and diversion programs.

  • Participate or contribute to the Criminal Justice Committee, co-chaired by Chicago-Kent Law Professor Daniel Coyne and Robert Loeb. The Committee has drafted a "Diversion Blueprint," aimed at countywide expansion, enhancement, and coordination of diversion programs.

Some of the major recommendations within the Blueprint that need pro bono efforts include:

  • promoting reinstatement of felony review in drug cases;
  • promoting a program of allowing deferred prosecution to emanate from the police station;
  • establishing a Diversion Division (overseen by a Coalition for Diversion comprised of stakeholders in the criminal justice system) through which pretrial services is used to "triage" defendants either out of the system (a chance at deferred prosecution), or diversion into dedicated diversion courtrooms;
  • a research-based assessment of bond court, pretrial services, and adult probation.
  • Develop a best practices manual examining the best ways to utilize social workers or social work graduate students within the felony criminal justice system - a practical approach to the increasing problem of dealing with defendants who show symptoms of mental illness.
  • Design and implement an assessment of the Cook County misdemeanor courts with a focus on possible due process concerns, the possible implementation of drug and mental health court calls, and the community court concept.

Community Justice and Education

  • Participate in an ongoing evaluation of the effectiveness and fairness of the Illinois child support system, with an eye toward issues pertaining to the bifurcated judicial and administrative processes.
  • Participate in a national Appleseed Network project researching and recommending ways in which parental involvement in education can be used to bring needed resources to underfunded schools. This project, Reducing the Opportunity Gap Within School Districts, seeks to identify intra-school district resource inequities and to develop/implement strategies for reducing them.
  • Chicago Appleseed in the past did a research project around the Illinois Department of Human Rights - the state agency handling complaints related to employment discrimination. We would like to return to see what progress has been made and to compare the outcomes from the state employment discrimination claims system to those from the federal EEOC process. Pro bono lawyers will assist in designing the project, conducting interviews, and strategizing around developing recommendations.

Policy Advocacy and Commentary

Serving as a writer and/or member of the Editorial Board of Justice Reform Digest, a quarterly publication of Chicago Appleseed Fund for Justice. Chicago Appleseed serves as a catalyst systemic reform as well as an advocate for community collaboration. As part of this mission, we inform others about issues and proposed solutions surrounding community injustices - solutions emanating from its own research and from the work of others. Justice Reform Digest includes interviews, commentary about reform-minded ideas, and a discussion about policy positions.