Kane County Bar Association to receive Pro Bono Service Award
The Kane County Bar Association, located in St. Charles, will receive a 2014 John C. McAndrews Pro Bono Service Award from the Illinois State Bar Association at the organization's 138th annual meeting on Friday, June 20, at the Grand Geneva Resort in Lake Geneva, Wis.
The Pro Bono Service Award is named in memory of Rock Island attorney John McAndrews, who chaired the ISBA Committee on Delivery of Legal Services and received a Harry A. Blackmun Pro Bono Publico Award from Prairie State Legal Services before he died in 1993.
The association is being honored for its deep commitment to pro bono legal services. Through its Access to Legal Services Committee, it aggressively pursues innovative ways to deliver pro bono legal services to low-income residents in the county, and to involve its 1,200 member-lawyers in these efforts.
The association operates a Lawyer in the Lobby program in the Geneva courthouse and an Ask-a-Lawyer Day, which is held the second Saturday of each month. It supports Prairie State Legal Services' Volunteer Lawyer Program. In 2013 alone, 86 lawyers accepted 193 pro bono cases through PSLS. The association also supports Administer Justice, a Kane County legal non-profit and association members volunteer at food panties and homeless shelters.
The 32,000-member ISBA (isba.org), with offices in Springfield and Chicago, provides professional services to Illinois lawyers, and education and services to the public through a website (illinoislawyerfinder.com), consumer brochures, and distribution of legal information.