Grantee Spotlights
Madison Wiegand
Madison Wiegand – Legal Aid Chicago (via Equal Justice Works)
The Rossotti Family Foundation is a strong supporter of Equal Justice Works, an organization based in Washington, DC, that connects sponsors with recent law school graduates seeking two-year fellowships in the legal aid sector. In 2021, The Rossotti Foundation selected Madison Wiegand as our Equal Justice Works Fellow. Madison did her Fellowship at Legal Aid Chicago.
We selected Madison in part because we were surprised to learn that Illinois has one of the highest rates of childhood lead poisoning in the country. We were under the impression that this was an issue that had been resolved a long time ago. Indeed, legal protections against lead poisoning in housing have existed for a long time, but there has been little to no enforcement of these protections. At Legal Aid Chicago, Madison’s project involved representing low-income Chicago families who were exposed to lead due to unsafe housing conditions, in collaboration with personal injury attorneys and community partnerships.
Specifically, Madison represented children who had high blood-lead levels from lead exposure in their homes. In the neighborhoods most affected by lead, medical providers are required to test children’s blood-lead-levels at their annual doctor’s appointment. Madison’s project partnered with medical providers in these highly affected regions. Madison also co-counseled with personal injury attorneys to sue for necessary repairs to the property and personal injury to the child.
During her two-year Fellowship, Madison:
• Helped 268 clients, conducting intakes, providing legal advice, negotiating with landlords, and providing full representation;
• Drafted and successfully argued an emergency temporary restraining order to restore essential services and obtain monetary damages for a low-income senior tenant with disabilities;
• Deposed defendants in an affirmative lawsuit, in partnership with a private law firm, wherein a child was exposed to lead at home; and
• Trained community partners on how to educate child healthcare providers and refer clients at higher risk of lead exposure.
Next Steps:
Madison will continue practicing public interest law at Legal Council for Health Justice, as a staff attorney with their Homeless Outreach Project. At LCHJ, Madison will work with a behavioral medical-legal partnership to connect unhoused populations to social security benefits, health care, housing, and other supportive services. Thank you, Madison, for all your hard work and positive impact on Chicago families!
Community Lawyering Program
Legal Aid of the District of Columbia
As the oldest civil legal services program in Washington, DC, Legal Aid has grown alongside the city and has deep partnerships with ally organizations that grapple with the structural forces underlying economic inequality. Now, Legal Aid DC is piloting a Community Lawyering Project (the “Project”) that aims to increase access to justice for low-income DC residents by intervening before their clients reach a crisis point.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, Legal Aid DC shifted to a primarily remote operation, conducting client intake by phone and online. Some clients found it easier to access assistance. That experience underscored the need for Legal Aid DC to meet more people before they reached a crisis point, when there are often fewer potential resources to assist with their legal issues. The Project is designed to increase access to justice in the District by placing attorneys directly in the neighborhoods where Legal Aid’s clients live and work.
Since 2010, Legal Aid has maintained an office at the Anacostia Professional Building (known as the “Big Chair” building) in Southeast Washington, opening twice per week for in-person intake until closing in March of 2020. Not only is the office closer to where many of Legal Aid’s clients live, but it is also conveniently located near several government benefits offices, all possible sources of referrals. One important aspect of the Project involves remaking that office into an open and welcoming community office where folks can walk in, talk to a lawyer about barriers they are facing in their lives, and receive legal assistance on the spot.
To employ an imperfect metaphor, most legal aid attorneys are like ER doctors, ready to act in a moment of crisis. Community lawyers will act more like primary care doctors, helping their clients prevent small problems (like a missed social security check) that can lead to big ones. Thus, instead of following the traditional legal services model of figuring out if the applicants’ issues fit into the narrow boxes of cases in Legal Aid’s practice areas, the Project’s goal will be to assist folks with whatever brings them through the door – from filling out public benefits applications, to contacting their case manager, to drafting letters to their landlords letting them know self-help eviction is illegal, and many other issues.
The Rossotti Family Foundation will be funding 50% of the two new lawyers’ salaries over the course of the first two years of the Project.
