Legal Aid Matters

This week our hosts, Colleen Connolly and Naeem Nulwala, speak to Susan Theiss, an attorney in our Housing Practice Group, and Rae Kyritsi, Programs Director at the Center for Conflict Resolution here in Chicago. The group discusses Eviction Court and the benefits to both tenants and landlords of early resolution. They speak to the issues of eviction that the  COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated and how the Cook County Court systems have adapted. The group also discusses a recent op-ed by the Washington which can be found here. Colleen and Naeem are both lawyers in our Children & Families practice group. Susan Theiss is a Staff Attorney with our Housing Practice Group. Rae Kyritsi is the Programs Director at the Center for Conflict Resolution and heads the Early Resolution Project.

This week our hosts, Colleen Connolly and Naeem Nulwala, speak to Lauren Dana and Katie Johnson, members of our Immigrants & Workers' Rights practice group, about Legal Aid Chicago's Migrant Project and the "Pesticide Case." They speak to the issues that migrant farmworkers face as low-wage workers and about a specific case where workers were improperly sprayed with toxic pesticides. Colleen and Naeem are both lawyers in our Children & Families practice group. Lauren Dana is a Staff Attorney, and Katie Johnson is a Paralegal with our Immigrants & Workers' Rights practice group.

Our hosts, Colleen Connolly and Naeem Nulwala, speak this week on what "legal aid" is, the type of work that it encompasses, and how we got to this current legal landscape in America. Colleen and Naeem, both lawyers in our Children & Families practice group, discuss their experience working in legal aid environments.

Current podcast host, Naeem Nulwala from Legal Aid Chicago's Children and Family Practice Group, joins our previous host, Nubia Willman, to discuss the Illinois Criminal Justice Information Authority and how it applies to his clients.   This episode originally aired in May of 2019.

This week, Colleen and Naeem have a conversation with Eduardo Cisneros and Anna Maitland of Legal Aid Chicago's Immigration & Worker's Practice Group on what human trafficking is and how Legal Aid Chicago advocates for trafficking survivors. They discuss labor trafficking, sex trafficking, and the complex realities of the victims and survivors of human trafficking in our city and state.

This week, Colleen and Naeem sit down with Jamie Schulte from Legal Aid Chicago's Children and Families Practice Group to dive into education law. Jamie shares how her experience teaching sixth graders sparked her interest in pursuing a career in law and explains how legal aid has the potential to disrupt the school to prison pipeline. 

Join our co-hosts Colleen Connolly and Naeem Nulwala as they recap the topics we've covered in 2019 and introduce some episodes to look forward to in 2020. Have ideas for legal aid related topics you'd like to hear discussed on the podcast next year? Reach out to us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, or LinkedIn at Legal Aid Chicago. 

In acknowledgement of World AIDS Day (December 1), our co-hosts sit down with SOAR paralegal Marissa Korte to discuss Legal Aid Chicago's HIV project and the ways that an HIV diagnosis can impact other legal issues, like housing and employment. Tune in to learn about how legal aid helps people living with HIV and to celebrate the incredible advancements in HIV treatment and prevention over recent years. 

This week, co-hosts Naeem Nulwala and Colleen Connolly chat with Jenelle Pedroza and Alexa Bell, both social workers at Legal Aid Chicago, about the intersections between social work and legal aid. They talk about pursuing social justice within established systems, what it's like working with clients and attorneys, and whether or not social work has a clear end goal. 

Legal Aid Matters is back! Colleen Connolly, new co-host and staff attorney at Legal Aid Chicago, sits down with former Legal Aid Matters host Nubia Willman to learn about her new job working for the Office of New Americans through the Office of the Mayor. They discuss the importance of the census in Chicago and how Nubia's background with legal aid informs her new position working for the city of Chicago.

Naeem Nulwala from Legal Aid Chicago's Children and Family Practice Group joins Nubia to discuss the Illinois Criminal Justice Information Authority and how it applies to his clients.

VISTA Martin Martinez and Dan Lindsey from consumer chat with Nubia about the Bankruptcy Help Desk

Happy Women's History Month! Legal Aid Chicago's own Kathryn Socha shares her work on the women veterans project.

Episode 10 Attorney Myka Held from Children and Family Services chats with Nubia about Legal Aid Chicago's CLASP project.

Michelle Weinberg of Legal Aid Chicago's consumer practice group chats about consumer law in Chicago and the work she does supporting and advocating for seniors.

In this episode of Legal Aid Matters, Lisa Palumbo director of our Immigrants and Workers Rights Practice Group interviews our show's host Nubia Willman.

The Legal Aid Chicago (formerly LAF) Ombudsman project advocates for senior citizens living in assisted living and skilled nursing facilities. Listen as Nubia, Robert, and Suzanne discuss the challenges low-income seniors face when they require longterm care as well as strategies to prepare for your own family's needs.

In honor of Domestic Violence Awareness Month, this October Caitlin Cervenka of Legal Aid Chicago's Children and Families Practice Group joins Nubia in conversation for this episode. They discuss the strategies Caitlin and her colleagues employ to advocate for survivors of violence in child custody and divorce proceedings how low-income survivors experience violence differently than others and as always why legal aid matters to them.

Regina Hernandez is a staff attorney with Legal Aid Chicago's (formerly LAF) volunteer services unit where she recruits and manages volunteers to stretch our services to as many clients as possible. She also runs our community legal clinics where several times a month we serve large numbers of people with free walk-in meetings with attorneys who advise on legal problems in the neighborhoods our clients call home. In their conversation, Nubia and Regina talk about the successes and challenges of the clinic model the great lengths Regina and her colleagues go to to ensure as many people as possible receive Legal Aid Chicago's help and how we can all work together to help close the justice gap.

In this episode, Nubia sits down with her colleague within Legal Aid Chicago's (Formerly LAF) Immigrants and Workers rights Practice Group, Jon Delozano, whose work focuses on removing legal barriers that prevent low-wage workers from getting or keeping a job. He and Nubia discuss the challenges of proving workplace discrimination and how the MeToo movement has affected his work on behalf of women who suffer sexual harassment in the workplace.

National Teachers Academy NTA is a high-performing Level1 elementary school on Chicago's near south side serving students who are80 African American and 80 low income In February Chicago Public School approved a plan to close NTA and convert the campus into a new high school despite the schools remarkable success and despite the passionate protest of parents and students at community meetingsAttorneys at LAF and ChicagoLawyers Committee For Civil Rights CLC have partnered to represent students parents and community groups in a lawsuit to halt the closure of NTA Nubiasits down with Ashley Fretthold and Kate Gladson of LAFs Education Law project as well as Candace Moore of CLC to talk about the lawsuit and the importance of preserving high-performing public schools learn more about NTA by visiting WeAreNTAcom or by following them on Twitter WeAreNTARead the University of Chicago study about the 2013 CPSclosures that Ashley mentionsFollowLAF on Facebook on Twitter ChicagoLAF and on Instagram lafchicagoDont forget to subscribe to the show

In today's episode, we hear from Larry Wood, Director of Legal Aid Chicago's (formerly LAF) Housing Practice Group. Larry has spent the last 28 years at Legal Aid Chicago and in that time has become a leading expert on housing-related issues that affect people in poverty, especially those residing in public housing. Nubia and Larry's conversation touches on Matthew Desmond's Pulitzer prize-winning book "Evicted: How Housing Instability Causes Poverty" and how Legal Aid Chicago intervenes to prevent homelessness by stopping unfair evictions. Larry, who also happens to be most decorated New Yorker caption contest winner of all time, also shares a little advice for aspiring humorists.

In the debut episode of Legal Aid Matters, we hear from Legal Aid Chicago (formerly LAF) CEO & Executive Director John Gallo about how he wound up in his current role, what he's learned in his first year on the job, and why he's so passionate about legal aid.