The CBF was honored to receive this year’s Louis Brown Award for Legal Access from the American Bar Association at the ABA’s Midyear Meeting earlier this month.
The Brown Award is an annual award presented by the ABA to programs and projects that advance access to legal services for those of moderate incomes in ways that are exemplary and replicable.
The CBF was recognized, in the words of the ABA, for our unique dedication to increasing legal services to those of modest means. The ABA highlighted the CBF’s leadership on our Justice Entrepreneurs Project, which helps newer lawyers launch community-based practices and develop market-based models to sustainably serve moderate-income people. The ABA also noted the CBF’s development of practitioner toolkits on key issues like pricing and limited scope representation, as well as the CBF’s leadership in advancing rules and policies that promote these new business models and foster innovation in the profession.
We are honored by this recognition and are fortunate to have such a great network of partners and supporters who make the CBF’s work possible, said Bob Glaves, CBF Executive Director. As real as the access to justice challenges are today for low-income and disadvantaged people in our community, people in the proverbial middle increasingly struggle to find affordable and accessible legal help too, Glaves added. These issues will continue to be a priority for the CBF going forward, and we’re thrilled the ABA recognizes the impact we collectively are making as a model for others.
The CBF was pleased that one of our partners in the JEP program, Chi City Legal, received the Brown Award’s meritorious recognition honor. The ABA noted Chi City Legal’s dedication to using innovations in technology and practice management to assist small and medium sized landlords in the Chicago area who would otherwise navigate the eviction process as self-represented litigants.
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