Legal Representation
Multidisciplinary Attorney Teams
Our attorneys provide a variety of legal services including criminal records research for adult and juvenile records, legal consultation, petition filing, and full representation through criminal records relief services, civil legal services, and criminal defense programs. Clients are served through our Adult and Juvenile Expungement Help Desk at the Daley Center and online, which screens for a full range of legal needs, as well as through community partner sites.
Our attorneys provide representation and other services across three legal programs. Our Civil Programs team provides family law and housing case services, including representation through the Cook County Domestic Relations Incarcerated Litigants Call. Our Criminal Defense program represents clients in delinquency, misdemeanor, and felony cases throughout Cook County and in parole aftercare revocation matters before the Prisoner Review Board.
Our Criminal Records Relief (CRR) team assists clients with expungement, sealing, and other forms of criminal records relief for adult and juvenile records, and serves as a weekly “Friend of the Court” for Chicago expungement & sealing objection hearings. CRR also manages Monarch®, a software platform that has streamlined the records petition research and drafting process for legal aid organizations across Cook County and Illinois.
Supportive Services
Client Support Services Team
Our Client Support Services (CSS) operates as an integral part of our interdisciplinary legal team by assessing clients’ needs, supporting them through their legal cases, and connecting them to additional supportive services. As a team of clinical social workers and client support specialists, our focus is on stability in five major areas of clients’ lives: legal status, financial wellness, housing security, social connectedness, and health, (which includes physical health, mental health, and substance use).
CSS intervention is dynamic, responsive, and individualized, ranging in activities from engaging in safety planning around mental health concerns to accompanying clients to court or referral agencies. CSS also plays a critical role ensuring clients can meaningfully engage in their legal case by partnering with attorneys to translate complex legal information into accessible language, supporting clients in creating goals and making informed decisions, and providing extensive mitigation reports for criminal records relief and criminal defense clients.
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Policy & Advocacy
Strategic Advocacy Team
Ultimately, we recognize that systemic change is critical to creating longstanding, productive transformations to the criminal legal system. Our Strategic Advocacy Team uses an integrated advocacy approach that utilizes litigation, political and legislative advocacy, community organizing, public education, and strategic communications to achieve our transformative vision for the future. Our work focuses on leveraging the power that exists in our communities with the goal that those most impacted by the injustices of the criminal legal system are central in creating change to transform the system.
Leadership Council
Raising the Voice of those Directly Impacted
At CGLA, our work is informed by those directly impacted by the criminal legal system. The Leadership Council is an advisory group and community healing space made up of former CGLA clients and community members directly impacted by the criminal legal system. Through this group, leaders serve as CGLA ambassadors by sharing their stories and providing education in Chicago communities and to legislators in Springfield with the goals of building an organizing base and advocating for legislative change. The Leadership Council also provides consultation to CGLA programs to ensure all of our work is implemented in a way that considers the unique needs of those who are or have been impacted by the criminal legal system.
At CGLA, we mitigate the criminal records barrier by employing an interdisciplinary approach, bringing together teams of lawyers and social workers to comprehensively support client goals. CGLA leverages strategic partnerships across other social service sectors including workforce development and housing organizations to maximize our collective capacity to serve our mutual clients. Through our policy and advocacy efforts, we work to remove the systemic barriers that perpetuate the cycle of poverty by way of coalition- building, legislative support, and leadership development.
Collaboration. Innovation. Collective Impact.