October 2015

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Chicago Bar Foundation
Report
By Bob Glaves
CBF Executive Director
Imagine what it would be like to be
victimized by consumer fraud or
domestic violence. Imagine you had
no legal knowledge, training or skills. Now
imagine facing the justice system on your
own because you could not afford neces-
sary legal help. That would be a scary and
daunting situation for anyone, yet it hap-
pens to thousands of people each week in
Chicago because there is not nearly enough
free or affordable legal help to go around.
The CBF’s new Justice Pledge reflects
two indisputable truths. First, far too
many people in our community cannot
get the legal help they need to protect
their rights and achieve justice. Second,
You can join the hundreds of your colleagues
who already have taken the Justice Pledge by
taking the pledge at chicagobarfoundation.
org/pledge. And you can find out more about
how to start carrying out your pledge today by
visiting or by at-
tending one of themany great events scheduled
for this year’s CBA/CBF Pro Bono Week the last
week of October.
Take the Pledge
while equal access to justice is one of our
country’s foremost principles and a funda-
mental responsibility of our government,
as lawyers and CBA members we have a
professional responsibility to take the lead
in ensuring the justice system is fair, acces-
sible and efficient for everyone.
As lawyers, we have been given a special
privilege, effectively having been handed
the keys to the justice system. With that
privilege comes a special responsibility to
use our training and skills to help ensure
that people who can’t afford our services
have access to the justice system. That
responsibility is underscored in the Pre-
amble to the Illinois Rules of Professional
Conduct, in the questions about pro bono
and related giving in our annual attorney
registration statements, and in the CBA’s
standing Pro Bono Resolution (see page 38).
Every day that goes by when people in
our community can’t count on the justice
system being fair and accessible, we lose a
key part of who we are as a profession and
as a country. Taking the Pledge underscores
your personal commitment to take the lead
in doing something about that. Wherever
you are in the legal community, you can
contribute your time, your money, and
your influence to advance this common
cause of our profession. Some of us have
more time to give than money, while for
others the opposite is true. All of us have
important influence in our networks, in
the justice system, and in the policymaking
process.
“A lot of people are waiting for
Martin Luther King or Mahatma
Gandhi to come back–but they are
gone. We are it. It is up to us. It is
up to you.”
–Marian Wright Edelman
18 OCTOBER 2015