PrintBob Glaves
Executive Director
As Executive Director of The Chicago Bar Foundation, Bob Glaves is responsible for leading and overseeing all activities of the CBF, including grants, programs, fundraising, finances and administration. Glaves joined the CBF as Executive Director in October, 1999 after a successful nine-year career as a civil litigator at the Chicago law firm then known as Menges, Mikus & Molzahn. Since Glaves became Executive Director, the CBF has quadrupled the amount of its annual grants and fundraising to more than $1 million per year, doubled its net assets, and played a lead role in launching several groundbreaking access to justice initiatives. Glaves is a 1991 magna cum laude graduate of The John Marshall Law School and received a B.A. degree in Political Science and Journalism from the University of Wisconsin in 1987.
Glaves has received a number of commendations over the course of his career, highlighted by the Maurice Weigle Outstanding Young Lawyer Award in 1998, the Chicago Legal Clinic’s Cardinal Bernadin Award for action on behalf of social justice in 2000, the Atticus Finch Award from Chicago Volunteer Legal Services in 2002, the Human Rights Practitioner of the Year Award at the Midwest Light of Human Rights Awards Luncheon in 2003, and a Distinguished Service Award from the John Marshall Law School Alumni Association in 2004. Glaves also was selected in 2002 as one of the “40 Illinois Attorneys Under 40 to Watch” by Law Bulletin Publishing Company.
He currently is the President of the National Conference of Bar Foundations, serves on the Boards of the Donors Forum of Chicago and Grantmakers Concerned with Immigrants and Refugees; co-chairs the Department of Homeland Security Immigration Enforcement Working Group; and is an active member of the Chicago Bar Association (CBA) Legal Aid and Legislative Committees; the Illinois Coalition for Equal Justice; the American Bar Association; and the Illinois Task Force on Unaccompanied Immigrant Children. He is involved in a number of other bar and pro bono activities as well.
Glaves previously has chaired the CBA’s Legislative Committee and Legal Aid Committee and several other bar committees. He was the principal drafter and coordinator of the successful advocacy effort for the Illinois Equal Justice Act and other Illinois legislation. He has written numerous articles for the CBA Record and other publications and is a frequent speaker at seminars and conferences on issues including access to justice, pro bono, immigration, advocacy and a number of other bar-related topics.
In addition to his law related activities, Glaves is a member of the local school council for Beaubien elementary school in Chicago, served on Mayor Daley’s 21st Century Leadership Council, and is involved in other community activities. He resides in Chicago’s Jefferson Park neighborhood with his wife Robin and their two children.