Legal Aid Chicago is a nonprofit organization that provides free legal assistance in civil cases to individuals living in the Chicago area. Legal Aid Chicago provides legal services across more than a dozen practice areas and opens thousands of cases each year. 1
Legal Aid Chicago’s Cozzola Fund provides clients with small, one-time emergency grants. Grants are approved by a multi-faceted approval process, and the fund is backed by an anonymous donor. 2
Background
Legal Aid Chicago is a nonprofit organization that provides free legal assistance in civil cases to individuals living in the Chicago area. Legal Aid Chicago provides legal services across more than a dozen practice areas and opens thousands of cases each year. 1
Legal Aid Chicago was created from President Lyndon B. Johnson’s War on Poverty, which led to the formation of the Office of Economic Opportunity, an office that ultimately awarded grants to fund two Chicago legal aid organizations. These two organizations later merged to form the Legal Assistance Foundation of Metropolitan Chicago, the organization that became Legal Aid Chicago. 3
As of 2025, Legal Aid Chicago had a workforce of about 220 individuals including full-time attorneys, staff, and fellows. 1 At the time, the organization claimed to open over 12,000 cases in 2023 and more than 10,000 cases in both 2022 and 2021. In 2018, the organization changed its name from the “Legal Assistance Foundation of Metropolitan Chicago” to “Legal Aid Chicago.” 2
Practice Groups
Legal Aid Chicago has more than half a dozen practice groups including “Children & Families,” “Long-Term Care,” “Pro Bono & Community Partnerships,” and “Public Benefits” practice groups. The “Consumer” practice group, which handled more than 2,100 cases in 2023, works to protect clients’ income and assets from unfair collections, fraud, bankruptcy, foreclosure, and short-term loans. The “Housing” practice group prevents evictions, opposes housing discrimination, and enforces tenants’ rights. The “Immigrants & Workers’ Rights” practice group aids workers and immigrants with claims to secure unemployment benefits and challenge employment discrimination. 2
Programs
In 2024, Legal Aid Chicago began providing three attorneys and a paralegal to help patients with bedside civil legal services as part of the University of Chicago Medicine’s Recovery Legal Care initiative, a violence recovery program. The University of Chicago received a $4.92 million grant from the federal National Institutes of Health for the program, allowing Legal Aid Chicago to assist six new patients each week over the span of three years. 4
In 2022, Legal Aid Chicago began a pilot program to streamline pro bono workflows and recruiting pro bono volunteers by integrating a pro bono management program and a case management system for legal aid and public defender organizations. 5
Legal Aid Chicago also partners with the Katten de Diego Legal Clinic, which was created in 2013. The clinic assists with civil legal issues with the help of law students from the Northwestern University’s Pritzker School of Law and volunteer attorneys from Katten Muchin Rosenman LLP. 2
Financials
In 2022, Legal Aid Chicago reported total revenue of just over $21 million, expenses of about $22 million, and net assets of about $9.2 million. In 2021, the organization reported total revenue of about $23 million, expenses of about $19 million, and net assets of about $11 million. 6
In 2023, the organization reported receiving at least $100,000 from AgeOptions, a senior citizen advocacy group, as well as Alphawood Foundation, the Chicago Bar Foundation, Polk Bros. Foundation, and Sidley Austin LLP. 2
Legal Aid Chicago’s Cozzola Fund provides clients with small, one-time emergency grants. Grants are approved by a multi-faceted approval process, and the fund is backed by an anonymous donor. 2
Leadership
As of 2025, Katherina Shank was the chief executive officer and executive director of Legal Aid Chicago. She was an adjunct professor at Northwestern University’s Pritzker School of Law and sat on its Law Board. Previously, she was Legal Aid Chicago’s deputy director and chief of staff. She joined the organization after earning a law degree from Northwestern University’s Pritzker School of Law. 7
As of 2025, Teresa Sullivan was the deputy director and general counsel of Legal Aid Chicago. Earlier in her career, she worked in private practice as a commercial litigator in Chicago and sat on the board of the Young Center for Immigrant Children’s Rights. Sullivan received her undergraduate degree from Washington University in St. Louis in international studies and Spanish and earned her law degree from the University of Chicago Law School. 7
References
- “Home.” Legal Aid Chicago. Accessed May 12, 2025. https://legalaidchicago.org/.
- Rep. Annual Report 2023. Legal Aid Chicago. Accessed May 12, 2025. https://legalaidchicago.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/LACH_13_AR23_small_090524.pdf.
- “Our History.” Legal Aid Chicago, June 19, 2019. https://legalaidchicago.org/who-we-are/our-history/.
- Richards, Sarah. “$4.92 Million NIH Grant to Support Study of Legal Aid Benefits for Survivors of Violence.” UChicago Medicine. Accessed May 12, 2025. https://www.uchicagomedicine.org/forefront/community-articles/nih-grant-to-support-study-of-legal-aid-benefits-for-survivors-of-violence.
- Bob is a lawyer. “Legal Aid Chicago Pilot Integrates LegalServer Case Management with Paladin pro Bono Management.” LawSites, October 31, 2022. https://www.lawnext.com/2022/10/legal-aid-chicago-pilot-integrates-legalserver-case-management-with-paladin-pro-bono-management.html.
- Legal Aid Chicago, Return of Organization Exempt from Income Tax (Form 990), 2022.
- “Leadership.” Legal Aid Chicago, May 6, 2025. https://legalaidchicago.org/who-we-are/our-people/leadership/.