At November's Statewide Legal Aid Advocates Conference Illinois Legal Aid Online screened the world-wide premiere of "Doing Justice: Stories from the Front Lines of Legal Aid" for 400 legal aid attorneys and professionals. In this video 7 attorneys from across Illinois talk candidly about the joys and challenges they face as legal aid lawyers. This 12 minute video was produced in order to encourage conference attendees to visit the video diaries booth and tell their stories of working in legal aid. At the conference, over 40 more members of the Illinois legal aid community stepped in front of the camera to tell their stories. Illinois Legal Aid Online is now posting theses stories on our websites, beginning with 9 new videos. Look for more to be released in each of the next several months. The next 9 Doing Justice stories include:

• Kendra Reinshagan, Legal Aid Bureau
• Kevin D. Johnson, Legal Assistance Foundation of Metropolitan Chicago
• Sarah Price, Equip for Equality
• Kate Miller, AIDS Legal Council of Chicago
• Rene Heybach, Chicago Coalition for the Homeless
• Robert B. Acton, Cabrini Green Legal Aid
• Tinita Scott-McDonald, CARPLS
• Michelle M. Valiukenas, Life Span
• John J. Bauters, Prairie State Legal Services

Visit http://www.illinoislegaladvocate.org/doingJustice or http://www.illinoisprobono.org/doingJustice to view these inspiring stories, and please share them with your colleagues.

Doing Justice is a video project sponsored by Illinois Legal Aid Online to capture and share the stories of the attorneys and paralegals in Illinois who work every day to level the legal playing field for low-income individuals and families. These stories are a way to help people – both inside and outside the legal aid community – understand the challenges inherent in this work, and why it so important. For more information on the project, contact Susan Muirhead at smuirhead@illinioslegalaid.org.

Submitted by: Illinois Legal Aid Online | More news from this organization
Posted: 04/27/2009