Co-Managing Partner Randy Mehrberg and Partners Megan B. Poetzel, Wade A. Thomson, and Joseph J. Torres have been named 2021 “Notable Nonprofit Board Leaders” by Crain’s Chicago Business for being leaders who “present an admirable picture of grace, not to mention resilience, under extreme pressure.”
Mr. Mehrberg’s profile recognizes his work as a board member of the United Way of Metropolitan Chicago. He serves on its Stronger Neighborhood Committee, which seeks to transform communities by helping residents identify priorities and set a strategy. Mr. Mehrberg also serves as the chair of the Lincoln Park Zoo’s Diversity & Inclusion Committee and Operations Committee, as well as a member of its Executive Committee.
Ms. Poetzel’s work as Board Co-Chair of Legal Aid Chicago, which provides Cook County residents with access to justice, is highlighted in her profile. During the pandemic, in addition to its ongoing work providing legal services to individual clients, Legal Aid Chicago has assisted the broader Chicago community by providing clinics, events and updates on the changing landscape of health benefits, housing, debt collection, food access, and employment.
As Leadership Board member of the National Immigrant Justice Center (and former co-chair of the board), Mr. Thomson worked to raise the NIJC’s profile by recruiting corporations to get involved with asylum cases. His profile highlights his collaboration with in-house lawyers at Chase, General Motors, Exelon, and McDonald’s to help increase critical legal assistance for indigent clients.
Mr. Torres is the longest-serving board member of the Illinois Equal Justice Foundation. The foundation distributes state funding to nonprofit legal aid programs, and Mr. Torres helped to address the pivotal need for to legal services in Illinois: “When other social service programs were forced to close during the 2015 state budget crisis, the foundation was able to help legal aid organizations assist more than 54,000 vulnerable families, seniors and veterans,” the profile states.
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