Our Blog

April 22, 2020

Take Action: Support LSC Funding in Face of Critical Need

The COVID-19 pandemic has already increased the need for help with the everyday legal issues that the organizations funded by the Legal Services Corporation (LSC) assist with, including evictions, unemployment, access to healthcare, scams aimed at the elderly, and domestic violence. With other major funding sources under severe stress at state and local levels at […]

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April 21, 2020

Your Foundation at Work in the Pandemic—April 2020

As we hit the six-week mark since the Coronavirus upended our lives, the CBF has been hard at work helping to move the court system to remote access and adapt the way we deliver legal services, support that work, and help others during this crisis. The way our legal community has quickly stepped up to this challenge has inspired us, and following are just a few highlights of the important work you have been making possible during this time.

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April 20, 2020

Making Law Better By Looking Outside of Law—Video Changed the Radio Star

Those of us of a certain age who grew up with our home entertainment options largely limited to radio and a handful of network and local TV stations will remember when MTV arrived on the scene in 1981 and wowed us with this new-aged video from the Buggles.

While that song still belongs on any good list of one hit wonders, the Buggles were just as wrong that music video would be the end of radio as the many pundits who said that television would do the same several decades earlier. But being able to watch videos on MTV fundamentally changed the music landscape, and it was one of the key markers on the path to the multi-channel entertainment world we now all take for granted and have come to rely on more than ever during the pandemic lockdown.

And that makes music, movies, and the media a fitting next stop in my 2020 Resolution for the Legal Profession series on how we can learn from our counterparts in other professions and industries to make law better. Because with just a few notable exceptions, our legal profession and larger justice system are still operating with a one-channel business model in today’s multi-channel world, and it’s no wonder that is not working very well for the average person with a legal problem.

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April 20, 2020

Illinois JusticeCorps Seeking Fellowship Applications

During these uncertain times, access to reliable, neutral information about the court system is more important than ever. Originally pioneered by the CBF, Illinois JusticeCorps is an innovative AmeriCorps program through which college students and recent graduates provide legal information, procedural guidance, and resource referrals to people going to court without lawyers. JusticeCorps is now […]

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April 19, 2020

Legal Help Resources in the Pandemic—April 2020

All pro bono and legal aid organizations will see a spike in the need for their services in the coming weeks and months, particularly when the courts are back to fully functioning. These are free resources for the public on some of the most immediate legal needs in the early days of the crisis.

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April 3, 2020

Passport to Chicago Update

This year’s Passport to Chicago event will not be an in-person event given the current health crisis. We are working with the Chopping Block to create a virtual event to allow our community to come together around food and to support the growing need for legal services. Stay tuned for more details!

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April 1, 2020

Our Legal Community’s Time to Lead

The last several weeks have felt like we are living in an alternate reality. And while we all are dealing with some level of upheaval in our firms, our families, and our companies, we are actually the lucky ones. When compared to those in our community — many of whom live at or below the […]

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March 31, 2020

Remote Pro Bono Opportunities in the Time of COVID-19

For attorneys looking to give back while sheltering in place, here is a current listing of pro bono opportunities that are fully remote from training to service delivery. Please keep in mind that information is changing quickly, and we will keep this as up to date as possible. Many organizations will have additional pro bono opportunities that […]

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March 20, 2020

Through This Together, Stronger on the Other Side

As we all continue to adapt to our worlds being turned upside down in the span of less than two weeks, our legal community’s leadership on access to justice will be more important than ever in this time of heightened need. And the CBF already is stepping up our efforts to bring our community together around this common cause to tackle the many emerging challenges and opportunities this crisis is generating.

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March 19, 2020

Make Law Better by Looking Outside of Law—A Tax and Accounting Tutorial

When I started down the road on my 2020 Resolution for the Legal Profession to look at how we can learn from our counterparts in other professions and industries to make law better, it never occurred to me that we’d be facing a situation like the one brought on in recent weeks by the coronavirus. But as our legal community and justice system continue to respond in earnest to the challenges and disruption caused by this crisis, the importance of this undertaking has become even clearer. And the next stop on this journey—the tax and accounting profession and related businesses—offers some particularly useful lessons for our present and future times in law on the key issues of remote services and remote access.

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