With thousands of veterans having recently returned from World War II and O’Hare Airport soon to open, the Chicago area in 1948 was about to embark on an era of unprecedented growth. It was then that a small but prominent group of lawyer members of the Chicago Bar Association (CBA) came together united in the belief that by pooling their charitable efforts, the members of the Association collectively could make substantial improvements for both their profession and their community.  Their vision soon became The Chicago Bar Foundation (CBF), which over the past 60+ years has evolved into a major charitable force in the community focused on improving access to justice for people in need.

Former CBF Board President Tom Morsch wrote an excellent history of the CBF’s first fifty years in the CBA’s 125th Anniversary publication in 1998, and more recently the CBF followed that up with a ten year retrospective during our 60th anniversary year. The CBF has continued to build on all of our earlier successes to be an even greater force for good today, and you can see a list of the distinguished leaders in the legal community who have served as CBF Presidents and track our more recent progress by viewing our annual reports.