Each Fellow will receive up to $50,000 in loan repayment assistance over five years to help them continue their careers in legal aid.

“Each of our Fellows could have had their pick of top-paying law firm jobs upon graduation from law school. Instead, they chose to make the financial sacrifice it takes to ensure that those in need have access to our justice system.  Each day these impressive lawyers are improving our community and making a difference in people’s lives,” said David Mann, Chair of the CBF Sun-Times Fellowship Selection Committee.

First awarded in 2007, the CBF awards five annual fellowships of up to $50,000 per fellowship to individual legal aid or public interest law attorneys who demonstrate a commitment to public interest work, academic achievement in law school, and outstanding character and integrity. The CBF Sun-Times Fellowship addresses a crisis facing lawyers in our community who are increasingly finding that a career in legal aid and public interest law is simply untenable from an economic standpoint. Lawyers graduating today typically have an average of more than $100,000 in law school debt, while starting salaries in the legal aid and public interest law field average only $43,000. Through a generous $2 million cy pres award from a case involving the Chicago Sun-Times, the CBF was able to create these fellowships to provide significant loan repayment assistance to those who most need it.

“One of the top priorities for the CBF is to make it possible for dedicated attorneys to pursue careers in legal aid and public interest law given the often overwhelming financial challenges facing this sector,” said Bob Glaves, executive director of The Chicago Bar Foundation.  “Through the CBF Sun-Times Fellowship, we are able to make it more manageable for these attorneys to serve the people in our community who are in most critical need of the protections of our justice system.”

Each of the five fellowship recipients provides vital legal assistance to the most vulnerable members of our community.  Jill Becker provides legal resources through three statewide website to the public and pro bono and legal aid attorneys; Kevin Patrick Curran helps victims of domestic violence secure safety from their abusers; Stephanie Hiebert assists elderly clients with a variety of legal problems, including elder abuse, financial exploitation and consumer fraud; Beth Johnson helps low-income people with a criminal background gain a second chance by helping them expunge and seal their records so they can obtain employment and housing; and Claudia Valenzuela ensures due process for her low-income immigrants clients.

Upon receiving his Fellowship, Kevin Patrick Curran, a staff attorney at Life Span, said “[T]he CBF Sun-Times Fellowship is life-altering.  This Fellowship will make it much easier to continue doing a job I love.”

More information on each the 2009 Fellows is attached. Photos of the Fellows with their awards are available.

Brief Biographies of the 2009 CBF Sun-Times Fellows

Jill Becker – Illinois Legal Aid Online

Jill graduated from Loyola University Chicago School of Law in 1999.  She became committed to legal aid after her first year of law school when she worked as an intern for Cabrini Green Legal Aid.  She has continued to exhibit her dedication to public interest law since graduating despite an educational debt load and often an economy that made acting on that commitment a challenge.

After serving as a staff attorney at Prairie State Legal Services and CARPLS, a year ago she became the Legal Content Manager for Illinois Legal Aid Online (ILAO).  In this position she maintains legal resources on 26 different areas of law for the three ILAO websites tailored to three distinct audiences – the general public (www.IllinoisLegalAid.org), legal aid advocates (www.IllinoisLegalAdvocate.org), and members of the legal community who want to become involved in pro bono (www.IllinoisProBono.org).  Over 70,000 people a month visit ILAO’s website for the public.    In this position Jill also supervises ILAO’s law student interns and performs community outreach.   She relishes her role as a legal aid ambassador to the law students.  She tries to create a rewarding experience for them so that she is cultivating a new group of lawyers who will be committed to legal aid.  Her position at ILAO is an excellent fit for Jill’s broad experience in legal aid, and her colleagues from earlier positions in legal aid made clear how fortunate ILAO and the community are to have made good use of Jill’s talents and commitment.

Kevin Patrick Curran – Life Span Center for Legal Services and Advocacy

Kevin graduated with honors in 2003 from the University of Chicago; he began his studies at the U of C as a 16-year old.   In 2006 he graduated from DePaul University College of Law where he was a member of the Law Review.

He has been a staff attorney at Life Span Center for Legal Services and Advocacy since 2007.  There he represents domestic violence survivors, helping them obtain orders of protection and divorces.  He actually started working in the area of domestic violence in his first year law of law school when he was a law clerk at the Legal Assistance Foundation of Metropolitan Chicago.  He continued to expand his experience in the area of domestic violence throughout his law school career as a 711 attorney for the Domestic Violence Legal Clinic and then the Legal Aid Bureau of Metropolitan Family Services.  The work that he does is very stressful but when he receives a call from a client who has her child and is safe he knows that it is worthwhile.

Stephanie Hiebert – Land of Lincoln Legal Assistance Foundation

Stephanie graduated in 2003 in the top 20% of her University of Kansas law school class.  From her experiences interning at legal aid organizations in Kansas during law school, Stephanie knew that she wanted to work with senior citizens.  She says, “It takes a special approach to work with seniors. Seniors require more patience and a slower pace.  You must be prepared to listen to lots of stories about grandchildren…”  So when she graduated from law school, passed the bar in both Kansas and Missouri and then saw her perfect job as staff attorney for the Senior Citizens’ Legal Services Project at Land of Lincoln Legal Assistance Foundation in East St. Louis, Illinois, she did not hesitate to accept the position when it was offered and to take her third bar exam.

Stephanie was right about her passion, and since 2004 she has remained at this position helping seniors with a myriad of legal problems including consumer issues, elder abuse and neglect (including financial exploitation), family law and advance directives.  She loves her work and her coworkers.  Currently, she is supervising her fourth summer intern and hopes to inspire her to pursue a career in legal aid.

A separate interest of Stephanie’s is swimming, and she teaches and coaches master swimmers, some of whom compete.  “I think calming my swimmers’ fears is similar to working with my seniors at Land of Lincoln and calming their fears about the future and what the legal system holds for them.”

Beth Johnson – Cabrini Green Legal Aid

Beth is the Director of Cabrini Green Legal Aid’s (CGLA) statewide Criminal Records Program. In this position she has developed into the leading expert in Illinois on expungement and sealing of criminal records as well as the presentation of clemency petitions before the Illinois Prisoner Review Board.  Additionally, Beth often is called on to testify in Springfield as well as to train on these topics.

Beth started her legal career at CGLA in 2003 as a summer intern.  She returned in 2005 after she graduated from DePaul University College of Law and shortly after the Expungement Desk was opened at the Daley Center.  The Help Desk assists thousands of individuals a year to properly file with the court to clear or seal a past criminal record, both of which give people a fresh start.  She remains committed to her work despite significant educational debt because “[T]he Criminal Records Program is a unique combination of direct service representation, policy advocacy, community outreach and legal education - a combination that truly utilizes the law to serve the public interest.”  To give a sense of Beth’s staunch commitment to her work and her clients, Beth became a new mother for the first time on September 27 and is scheduled to present at a CLE program on Criminal Records during next week’s CBA/CBF Pro Bono Week.

Claudia Valenzuela – National Immigrant Justice Center

Claudia began her work in immigrant detention a few months after September 11, 2001.  She says “[B]ecause I was formed as an attorney during an extremely tough period for detained immigrants, I feel a special tie to this population, and despite the periodic emotional burden and legal challenges this kinship presents, I cannot imagine doing anything else with my law degree.”  Prior to attending law school, she spent three years as a teacher and school administrator.  Beginning with her first year of law school, she chose internships and research positions assisting low-income and immigrant communities.

She began her career at the National Immigrant Justice Center (NIJC) in 2000 as a law clerk; in 2002, she became a Chicago Bar Foundation- sponsored Equal Justice Fellow at NIJC.  She provided representation and counseling to immigrants in detention and developed “Know Your Rights” presentations as well as monitored the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention conditions.  Now, she continues her work as the Managing Attorney of the Detention Project for NIJC where she both supervises the work of the staff and pro bono attorneys who provide legal representation and contributes to the development of NIJC’s National Detention, Democracy and Due Process Project.   To further the work about which she cares so strongly, she has fostered relationships with law schools in the area to develop student capacity in a supervised setting.  In 2003, her alma mater DePaul University College of Law recognized Claudia with its Outstanding Young Alumna Award.