Pro Bono & Community Service

Williams Montgomery & John Ltd. and many of the firm’s individual attorneys dedicate significant time, talent and resources each year supporting worthy community and charitable organizations and providing pro bono legal services to those in need. We are particularly active with organizations that assist children and families, provide educational opportunities, offer volunteer legal services and improve the quality of life for people in the Metropolitan Chicago area including:

  • Providing pro bono representation of indigent clients in civil rights, employment, housing,  family law, criminal and other types of cases.
  • Working on the Chicago Legal Clinic, Inc. Foreclosure Defense Project to assist pro se litigants with motions, responses and other legal documents.
  • Serving on the Young Professionals Board of the Center for Disability and Elder Law, which provides pro bono legal services to the elderly and disabled in Cook County, Ill.
  • Working with Lutheran Social Services in its Family Connections Program, taking children to visit their incarcerated parents once a month as part of the prison ministry programs at the First Presbyterian Church of Evanston, Ill.
  • Supporting the Boy Scouts of America by volunteering with the Chicago Chapter of the National Eagle Scout Association and serving on the Executive Board of the Northwest Suburban BSA Council.
  • Serving on the Muskingum University and Monmouth College Board of Trustees, providing expertise in governance and ensuring the long-term well-being of these institutions. 
  • Serving on the Associate Board of the Daniel Murphy Scholarship Fund, which provides high school scholarships to economically disadvantaged Chicago 8th graders. 
  • Supporting school reform and academic excellence at the primary and secondary school levels, including the South Loop Elementary School and Namaste Charter School.
  • Serving as a member of the Community Design and Review Commissions of the Village of Oak Park, Illinois.

The firm participates in The Salvation Army’s “Adopt-A-Family” Program, which provides gifts and donations to needy families during the holiday season. The past two years, we have fulfilled the “wish list” for a mother and her three children as well as provided them with warm coats and clothing and grocery store gift certificates.

We field a team each year for the Chicago Volunteer Legal Services’ Race Judicata 5k Run, which raises funds to support involvement of the Chicago legal community in voluntary pro bono representation. The team also participates in the annual Bastille Day 5K/8K race to benefit Chicago’s Mercy Home for Boys & Girls.

In April 2011, partner Thomas Neuckranz and his wife received the “Governor's Volunteer Service Award” in recognition of their efforts on behalf of Erika’s Lighthouse. This organization, founded in their daughter’s memory, has a presence in more than 54 schools in the Chicago area and strives to educate young people about depression and good mental health.

Additional organizations and causes in which our attorneys have been actively involved include Golden Apple Foundation for Excellence in Teaching, John Fischetti Scholarship Fund Advisory Board, JUF Uptown Café, Literacy Chicago and the U.S. Peace Corps. Williams Montgomery & John attorneys also have raised thousands of dollars for the Chicago Bar Foundation, Y-Me National Breast Cancer Organization, Susan G. Komen for the Cure, American Cancer Society and National Multiple Sclerosis Society, Illinois Chapter. 

Click on the links throughout this description for more information about these organizations and their programs.