At its annual meeting on June 27, LTF President Aurora Abella-Austriaco announced that the Lawyers Trust Fund will distribute Legal Services Support grants totaling $9,998,700 for FY 2020 – an increase of $887,730 over FY 2019 grants.

Ms. Austriaco presented the Esther R. Rothstein Award to Sioban Albiol, Director of the Asylum & Immigration Clinic at the DePaul University College of Law. The Lawyers Trust Fund honored Ms. Albiol for her exemplary efforts to protect the legal rights of immigrants and promote equal access to justice.

Ms. Austriaco presented a special pro bono award to Sari W. Montgomery of the law firm of Robinson Stewart Montgomery & Doppke LLC.  The award was in recognition of Ms. Montgomery’s work to ensure that Rentervention, a new chatbot/virtual legal clinic developed by the Lawyers Trust Fund to assist Chicago renters, meets the highest ethical standards.

The LTF annual meeting was hosted by The Chicago Bar Association.

LTF President Aurora Abella-Austriaco presents a special award for pro bono service to Sari W. Montgomery (Robinson, Stewart, Montgomery & Doppke LLC) for her work on the Rentervention project.

LTF President Aurora Abella-Austriaco (Valentine Austriaco & Bueschel LLC) presents the 2019 Rothstein Award to Sioban Albiol, Director of the DePaul University College of Law Asylum & Immigration Clinic. In Ms. Albiol’s absence, the award was accepted by DePaul University College of Law Dean Jennifer Rosato Perea and DePaul University Ombudsperson Craig Mousin.

(l to r): Jayne Reardon (Illinois Supreme Court Commission on Professionalism); Chief Justice Lloyd A. Karmeier (Illinois Supreme Court); Mary Robinson (Robinson Stewart Montgomery & Doppke); Mary Karmeier.