CHICAGO LAW AND EDUCATION FOUNDATION

CLEF was founded in 2010 by teacher/attorney Dennis Kass, who had previously initiated a free after-school legal clinic at his school, Little Village - Infinity High School. He knew of other legal programs in schools that had been initiated by other attorneys and organizations, programs that were only short-term over time. He started CLEF to provide sustainable long-term organizational support for legal clinics and similar legal educational programs in Chicago Public Schools. In its first year, CLEF had five full-time participating schools. CLEF’s overall goals and objectives include - (1) providing needed legal services and access to legal resources for CPS and CPL students and families, (2) educating low-income communities about their rights and resources, to better enable them to advocate for themselves and navigate their legal situations, and (3) advocating for the rights and opportunities of those same vulnerable communities. Our programs have included: free after-school and open-house legal clinics, and initiatives such as: Housing Stability, Immigration/DACA and Juvenile Criminal Record Expungement.