Staff

    Jody Adler, Director of The Law Project

Jody Adler is the Director of The Law Project. She specializes in the law of exempt organizations working with community-based nonprofit organizations. Jody has taught classes in nonprofit law and management for Oakton Community College and Spertus College. She is on the board of directors of AIDS Legal Council of Chicago and Changing Worlds, a Chicago-area arts in education organization.  She is a former president of Interfaith Housing Center of the Northern Suburbs, a member of Chicago Women in Philanthropy, and Vice-Chair of the Legal Aid Committee of the Chicago Bar Association.  Jody was recently awarded a Wasserstein Visiting Public Interest Fellowship at Harvard Law School.

    Angela Dear, Office Administrator

Angela Dear is the Office Administrator for the Law Project. She is responsible for the day-to-day coordination of office procedures and administrative support to TLP staff.  She manages TLP's client and volunteer database.  Prior to her work with TLP, Angela was a legal secretary at Business and Professional People for the Public Interest (BPI).  Angela has a Bachelor of Arts in Paralegal Studies.

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    J. Cunyon Gordon, Director of Settlement Assistance

J. Cunyon Gordon is the Director of the Settlement Assistance Project.  In this role, Cunyon evaluates cases and potential clients, recruits volunteer attorneys, and represents litigants in cases in which she is unable to find a match. Prior to CLC, Cunyon was Of Counsel at Eimer Stahl Klevorn & Solberg LLP, during which time she was an early volunteer with SAP.  Cunyon was also a civil litigator at Jenner & Block LLP for ten years, where she earned the distinction of being the first black woman to make partner at the then 75-year old firm. Cunyon has also served as an attorney with the U. S. Navy JAG office.  Cunyon attended Yale College and earned her J.D. from Yale Law School.

Cunyon has taught as a Distinguished Visiting Professor for the Boston University School of Law and Visiting Professor for Seattle University School of Law. Cunyon has been a board member of Access Living for over fifteen years, and served as the CLE chair for the Chicago Bar Association for two years.

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    Angie Hall, Staff Attorney

Angie Hall is a Staff Attorney for the Law Project. She works primarily with the Small Business Program and the Homeownership Program. Prior to TLP, Angela was a solo practitioner whose legal practice consisted primarily of residential real estate transactions. She is also a licensed real estate broker who was formerly affiliated with Lake Michigan Financial, Inc. Prior to having her own practice, Angela was an Associate at Robbins, Schwartz, Nicholas, Lifton & Taylor, Ltd. and counseled and litigated municipal law, real estate and employment discrimination cases. Early in her legal career, she was a Litigation Counsel at the Attorney Registration & Disciplinary Commission and a Cook County Public Guardian. Angie received her law degree from the University of Illinois College of Law and her Bachelor of Arts degree from Northwestern University.

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    Renee Hatcher, Staff Attorney

Renee Hatcher received her Juris Doctorate from New York University School of Law and a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science and Management from Indiana University- Bloomington. During law school, Renee participated in the Racial Justice Clinic working with the ACLU's National School-Prison-Pipeline Project. She also was a member of the Global Justice Clinic, researching the impacts of U.S. counter-terrorism and national security measures on gender equality. Prior to joining the Chicago Lawyers' Committee, Renee worked for Legal Services Corporation as the Inaugural Helaine Barnett Fellow. Her law school work also includes internships with the International Network for Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights (ESCR-Net) and a congressional member of the House of Representatives. Prior to law school, Renee interned with a lobbying firm, Politics Direct, based in London, UK. 

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    Elesha Jackson, Office Administrator

Elesha Jackson is the Office Administrator for CLC. She provides administrative support to the staff and board, serves as executive assistant to the Executive Director, and manages general operations. Prior to her work at CLC, Elesha was a Paralegal and Executive Administrative Assistant at the Chicago Housing Authority. Elesha received her Paralegal Certification in Civil Litigation and Domestic Relations from Roosevelt University and attended Harold Washington College and First Business School.

    John Knoff, Director of Finance

John Knoff is the Director of Finance at CLC. John prepares financial reports for the board, funders, and staff. He also is charged with overseeing the annual audit process and preparing the annual budget. In addition to his work at CLC, John is the President of John Knoff Consulting, Inc., through which John prepares monthly financial statements, provides fiscal oversight for grants, leads budget workshops, and develops budgets and cash flow projections and sets up accounting systems.  He is also adjunct faculty in the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, teaching graduate level financial management classes.

    Marissa Liebling, Staff Attorney

Marissa Liebling is a Staff Attorney at the Chicago Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law who leads the revitalization of the Voting Rights Project. Through legislation, litigation, and community outreach, the project addresses election and voting issues with an emphasis on voter protection, voter participation and voter education. Additionally, Marissa works on discrimination and VESSA cases within the Employment Opportunity Project and researches potential new projects to address modern civil rights violations. Marissa began her term at CLC as a Civil Rights Fellow. Marissa graduated from Northwestern University School of Law in 2010, where she was the recipient of the John Henry Wigmore Scholarship and worked in two clinics, served on the Journal of International Human Rights and spent summers at the EEOC and a private plaintiffs’ firm. Prior to law school, Marissa worked as a Department of Defense contractor.

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    Josefina Navar, Testing and Outreach Coordinator

Josefina Navar is the Testing and Outreach Coordinator for the Fair Housing Project. She conducts intake, investigations, testing for housing discrimination, outreach and education. Prior to CLC, Josefina worked as a social service provider, assisting clients in obtaining emergency, permanent, and less-restrictive housing, and regularly conducting intake, outreach, and education. Josefina received both her Bachelors and MSW from the University of Illinois at Chicago.

   Andrea Ott, Outreach Coordinator

Andrea M.B. Ott is the Outreach Coordinator for The Law Project. Andrea develops and implements strategies to increase the visibility of The Law Project in the greater Chicago area, as well as to increase the number of participating organizations and pro bono attorneys.  While she is not working at TLP, Andrea—an attorney—also maintains a solo law practice specializing in disability law. Before working for TLP, Andrea managed her law practice, worked as a Staff Attorney for Prairie State Legal Services, Inc., and served as an Americorps VISTA Attorney for the Legal Assistance Foundation of Metropolitan Chicago. Andrea also serves on the Board of Directors for Parenthesis Family Center and Therapists Without Borders, Inc., and has been appointed Chair of the Village of Oak Park Disability Access Commission. Andrea earned her J.D. from Indiana University Maurer School of Law in Bloomington, Indiana in 2007, and a B.A. in English with Honors and Certificate in Business Management (Liberal Arts and Management Program) from Indiana University—Bloomington in 2004.

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    Jay S. Readey, Executive Director

Jay S. Readey is the Executive Director of CLC. Jay champions civil rights through his leadership, activism and coalition-building in broad community networks. Prior to CLC, Jay was the founder and President of the MetroAlliance, a consortium of entrepreneurial community change organizations including NeighborScapes and MetroAlliance Consulting, Inc., and had a private legal practice in community development and federal tax credit investments in low income communities. Jay also served as a technical assistance provider to Illinois ResourceNet, helping nonprofit organizations and municipalities access federal funding. Prior to his time with MetroAlliance and Illinois ResourceNet, Jay was a lawyer in private practice in the corporate group at Jenner & Block LLP, and then in the tax-advantaged investing group of the real estate department at SNR Denton (formerly known as Sonnenschein Nath & Rosenthal), where he was a frequent speaker at national conferences on New Markets Tax Credits. During his time as a lawyer in private practice, Jay maintained an active pro bono practice working with TLP. Jay graduated cum laude from Yale University in 1994 with distinction in both African-American Studies and American Studies, and from Yale Law School and School of Management with a JD and MBA in 2004.

Jay teaches as an adjunct professor of community economic development law at DePaul Law School, and was a member of the founding young lawyers' leadership team of the Housing and Community Development Forum of the American Bar Association. Jay is a founding board member for DreamPioneers, Inc. and MoveSmart.org, both of which pursue civil rights by promoting integrated communities.

    Jessica Schneider, Intake Specialist and Staff Attorney

Jessica Schneider is currently a Staff Attorney and also an Intake Specialist in the Fair Housing Project. She co-counsels with volunteer attorneys on housing discrimination cases both in  court and at administrative agencies. She helps secure housing choices for the Project’s clients and combat housing discrimination in Chicago . She also serves as an intake specialist for fair housing complaints and does outreach for the Project. In addition, Jessica coordinates the new pro bono project representing Chicago Public School students in expulsion hearings and works on other litigation projects.  Jessica joined the Chicago Lawyers’ Committee on January 1, 2011 as a Civil Rights Fellow. Prior to joining the Chicago Lawyers’ Committee, she provided legal advice and brief services in family law, housing, and consumer debt at the Coordinated Advice and Referral Program for Legal Services (CARPLS) as a volunteer. Jessica is fluent in Spanish, and has previously worked with immigrant communities including doing immigration casework. She received her bachelor’s degree in Political Science and Spanish from Washington University in St. Louis and her law degree cum laude from DePaul University with a Certificate in Public Interest.

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   Betsy Shuman-Moore, Co-Director of Litigation 

Project Director, Fair Housing Project and Project to  Combat Bias Violence

Betsy Shuman-Moore is Co-Director of Litigation for CLC.  Betsy primarily works with the Fair Housing Project and the Hate Crimes Project. Some of her accomplishments include co-authoring amendments to the Illinois Human Rights Act to make the law substantially equivalent to the Fair Housing Act, trying dozens of civil rights cases, and bringing some of the first sexual harassment in housing cases. Prior to CLC, Betsy was a Staff Attorney and later Legal Director for the Leadership Council for Metropolitan Open Communities. Betsy earned her law degree cum laude from Indiana University in Bloomington and her bachelor of social work degree from the University of Illinois. Betsy is a board member of the Chicago Area Fair Housing Alliance.

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    Erica Spangler Raz, Staff Attorney

Erica Spangler Raz is a Staff Attorney for The Law Project and works primarily with the Nonprofit Support Program. She has counseled hundreds of emerging nonprofit organizations and regularly presents seminars on board fiduciary duties, startup nonprofit business planning, income tax exemption, and general nonprofit governance and compliance to community groups and attorneys. Erica was previously Staff Attorney for Coordinated Advice and Referral Program for Legal Services (CARPLS) providing advice and brief services in the areas of eviction, foreclosure, and consumer law. In addition to active participation in the Chicago Bar Association committees, Erica is also a member of the Northwest Suburban Bar Association, and chaired its Corporate/Business Committee for three years. Prior to her legal career, Erica managed marketing communications for a financial software firm. Erica is a graduate of Marquette University and received her law degree from DePaul University.

    Paul Strauss, Co-Director of Litigation

Paul Strauss is Co-Director of Litigation for the Chicago Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law and is the Director of the CLC’s Employment Opportunities Project. For twenty-five years he handled employment discrimination and other civil rights case, primarily class actions based on race, sex, and age, as an associate and partner at Miner, Barnhill & Galland, a leading civil rights firm. He also worked for two years, before coming to CLC, as General Counsel to Affordable Housing Centers of America, a not-for-profit devoted to helping homeowners restructure their loans to avoid foreclosure. Currently, at CLC, his work includes projects involving employment discrimination, inequities in education, and problems of incarceration.

Paul graduated summa cum laude, with highest honors from Williams College in 1978, and earned his J.D. from Yale Law School. He is a past president of the Chicago Council of Lawyers and in 1994 was a finalist for the Trial Lawyer of the Year Awar of the Trial Lawyers for Public Justice Foundation. He has published two articles "Handling of Plaintiff's Sexual Harassment Case" and "Using Statistics in Employment Discrimination Cases." The first of these was selected as one of the best articles of the decade by the ABA Litgation Magazine.

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Cindy Tapper, Development Associate

Cindy Tapper is a Development Associate at Chicago Lawyers’ Committee responsible for grant writing and management and the support of overall fundraising operations and external affairs.  She assists in the writing and content development for various communication pieces and leads the maintenance and growth of Chicago Lawyers’ Committee’s online and social media presence. Prior to Chicago Lawyers’ Committee, Cindy worked in fundraising and development for a supportive housing provider in Chicago. Cindy graduated from DePaul University in 2012 with a masters in public service management and earned a bachelor of arts in journalism and mass communication and bachelor of arts in gerontology from St. Bonaventure University.

    Debra Walker-Johnson, Director of Development

Debra Walker-Johnson is Director of Development for CLC. Debra has more than 20 years of experience in marketing, communications, coalition building and nonprofit fundraising and management. Over the course of her career, Debra has successfully designed and implemented programs to serve disenfranchised individuals, as well as secured funding to support them. Most recently, she served as the Vice President of Marketing and Development for National Able Network, Inc., where she was responsible for the development and growth of the organization's private and public sector fundraising programs and all marketing, media relations and advocacy efforts. She has also served as Executive Director of CTCNet Chicago, the Director of Community Initiatives for Women Employed, and the Director of the Employment Training Program for Southwest Women Working Together.

Debra is currently a member of the Chicago Jobs Council Board and is the past president of Illinois Women Work! She has also been a member of the City of Chicago's Community Development Advisory Committee and the Economic Development subcommittee, the Governor's Commission on the Status of Women in Illinois, the Statewide Non-traditional Leadership Team, Daley College's Advisory Board, the Beverly Area Planning Association's Public Education Committee, and Leadership Illinois.

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