We’re excited to announce a new group of CBF-sponsored PILI summer interns!
Jessica A. Boone: A rising 3L at Valparaiso University Law School, Jessica will be serving at Cabrini Green Legal Aid, an organization that provides both criminal and civil legal services to individuals facing barriers stemming from an encounter with the criminal justice system. During law school, Jessica has worked as a legal extern at Hammond Legal Aid Clinic, observing client intake, conducting legal research, drafting pleadings and memorandums, and making court appearances with attorney supervision. She has also worked in her law school’s career services office. Prior to law school, Jessica was a second grade teacher for five years and a legal assistant at a law office in Austin, Texas.
Loren Gutierrez: A rising 3L at Chicago-Kent College of Law, Loren will be serving at the Legal Aid Society of Metropolitan Family Services, whose mission is to protect and strengthen families by providing equal access to justice for our most vulnerable citizens. Loren is a double-PILI, having worked at LAF the summer after her 1L year in the Children & Family Practice Group. This past academic year, she continued to work at LAF as a Juvenile Expungement Help Desk Intern where she helped clients complete petitions to expunge juvenile records and provided outreach to local low-income high schools. She has also served as a CourtWatch Volunteer as part of the Chicago Battered Women’s Network and observed court on a weekly basis for a study on the outcomes for survivors of domestic violence.
Alyssa K. Phillips: A rising 3L at the University of Notre Dame Law School, Alyssa will be serving at the Law Project of the Chicago Coalition for the Homeless, an organization which has been organizing and advocating to prevent and end homelessness since 1980. As an undergraduate student, Alyssa worked as a DACA Intern with the National Immigrant Justice Center and on the Students Global AIDS Campaign, a national network of students and youth activists fighting to end AIDS. This past summer, Alyssa interned for the Chicago Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, where she conducted legal research for the Health Disparities Project, met with clients over employment and housing intakes, and helped complete petitions for criminal records expungements.
The Public Interest Law Initiative (PILI) is a Chicago-based organization which works with the legal community to cultivate a lifelong commitment to public interest law. The CBF’s grant supporting PILI’s Law Student Internship Program funds three summer interns and two school-year interns to work at CBF-funded pro bono and legal aid organizations in the Chicago area. Our summer interns will work 400 hours full-time, under the supervision of licensed attorneys, to provide legal assistance to people in need, and may also may engage in advocacy, policy-based work or impact litigation on behalf of low-income people.
We applaud them for their commitment to public service!
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