Chicago Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, Inc.

Our Equitable Community Development and Housing practice partners with and supports community-based organizations and coalitions to create thriving, resilient communities of opportunity. Our work advances priorities identified by impacted communities and addresses systems and structures that maintain racism and deny opportunity. We focus on land use, community development, housing, environmental justice, wealth-creation and economic equity.

We use a community-driven advocacy model, recognizing that racial justice must be achieved through the leadership and power of communities of color. Our expertise includes litigation, legislative drafting and advocacy, advocacy through administrative and regulatory processes, transactional support, and strategic communications.

Formerly called the Community Law Project, our attorneys have helped to build, strengthen and support nonprofit organizations and small businesses that contribute to economic development and deliver social services in low-income neighborhoods since 1985. Our work is focused in historically disinvested communities of color on Chicago’s South and West Sides. Our attorney volunteers and expert legal staff provide nonprofit leaders and small businesses owners with the knowledge to sustain the quality of their programs, improve outcomes, and spur economic development. Chicago Lawyers’ Committee recognizes that structural racism is a major contributor toward economic injustice; we work to eradicate racism and end poverty in our city and coordinate our activities in close working relationship with our community partners.

The mission of the Pro Se Litigants’ Settlement Assistance Program is to provide meaningful access to justice to the thousands of indigent litigants who file federal civil rights lawsuits without the benefit of counsel. The judges and magistrate judges of the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois refer cases to the Settlement Assistance Program when the parties have asked for a settlement conference or when the judge has determined that one is appropriate, and the unrepresented litigant agrees to accept counsel for the limited purpose of settling the case.

The right to vote is fundamental to a healthy democracy. Chicago Lawyers’ Committee works to prevent, reduce, and eliminate barriers to voting and civic participation, especially in communities of color and low-income communities, to ensure that each eligible citizen is able to cast a ballot and make her voice heard.