Program History

Fr. Boland's Vision

Catholic Charities Legal Assistance (CCLA) began in March of 2003 with Catholic Charities' Administrator Father Michael Boland's vision for a program to address clients' need for legal services. Attorneys and paralegals who were members of the agency's administration or the Board of Advisors worked with the directors of key Catholic Charities programs to determine how to best assist Catholic Charities caseworkers in addressing clients' legal needs. CCLA was developed initially as a legal referral service to assist those clients who were financially unable to afford an attorney.

In May 2005, CCLA was piloted internally. Shortly thereafter, in October 2005, CCLA's doors were "officially opened." CCLA consisted of both a phone service and walk-in hours, as well as a presence at Catholic Charities' Evening Supper Program for the homeless. Clients were, and continue to be, screened only for substantive, geographic and financial needs. Initially staffed by the founding attorney board members with the assistance of paralegals, staffing was expanded in early 2006 to include volunteer attorneys and law students. These volunteers performed an initial intake for clients, and attorneys made referrals and offered limited legal advice to clients.

CCLA's Early Years

In response to the observed need both within Catholic Charities and in the Chicago area, Catholic Charities has since expanded the program in terms of both services provided to the clients and number of volunteers. First, to meet growing demand and to continue the development of the provision of legal services, a full-time Legal Program Coordinator was hired for CCLA in April 2006. In addition, during the second half of 2006, CCLA began an initiative to develop a network of pro bono attorneys to whom CCLA could refer certain of its clients. CCLA presently has 31 individual volunteer attorneys, plus an additional 16 law firms that will accept pro bono cases (CCLA has numerous other volunteers that help in other capacities such as assisting clients at the Tuesday Evening Supper Program). CCLA placed its first pro bono case in the fall of 2006. Presently, CCLA provides clients with legal advice when appropriate, provides referrals to legal aid organizations, and places clients with CCLA's network of volunteer pro bono attorneys when possible. In addition, a volunteer attorney from CCLA presented the program's first educational seminar on February 21, 2007, and in July, 2007, CCLA began to offer educational seminars on a monthly basis.

CCLA continues to grow and develop in a manner that will best provide legal assistance to those with limited financial means. The focus is now to lay out a plan for continued growth so that the initial intent behind the creation of CCLA, assisting the poor with their legal situations and alleviating some of the unmet need, is truly achieved. Thus the emphasis will be to provide direct legal services in-house with less emphasis on referrals to legal aid agencies.