Lisa
Palumbo
Nominated by Katherine W. Shank
"Lisa Palumbo has dedicated her 35-year career, including 32 years at Legal Aid Chicago, to serving low-income people. Her leadership, dedication and outstanding client representation have been instrumental in our successes. She is the director of Legal Aid Chicago's Immigrants & Workers’ Rights Practice Group where she leads a team of 30 attorneys and paralegals in four core areas: immigration, employment, migrant workers, and human trafficking survivors.
Lisa is well known for her superior lawyering, client-centered practice, excellence in supervision and staff development, and strategic thinking. She is highly respected and routinely called upon, both at Legal Aid Chicago and by advocates locally and nationally, for her expertise and guidance. Staff at all levels of the organization truly value and enjoy working with Lisa.
Lisa has an amazingly deep and sophisticated practice. She handles many cases, for example, closing numerous extended representation cases every year in diverse areas such as unemployment benefits, adjustment of status, sexual harassment, U visa, VAWA self-petitions, wage claims, removal representation, H2B visas, DACA, and more immigration relief related work. Legal Aid Chicago serves migrant farmworkers statewide. Lisa has always been a champion of this work and is responsible for our outreach and service to these vulnerable low-wage workers.
Lisa excels at handling complex litigation and high volume representation. She has led multiple, highly involved pieces of litigation, including leading investigations, drafting and filing the initial complaint and subsequent motions, preparing for depositions and settlement conferences, and handling press communications, finding, interviewing, and working with experts, travelling from Illinois to Texas to meet with migrant clients, and managed communications with state and federal agencies.
Lisa is also closely involved in our representation of survivors of human trafficking, cases which regularly involve working with the FBI and other federal agencies.
Lisa has a remarkable ability to steer her team in providing comprehensive, long-range services across multiple areas of practice. She truly works tirelessly and is trusted entirely by her staff. Lisa is also actively involved in training and supervision. Lisa's dedication to staff development and her willingness to share her knowledge and expertise have been invaluable in fostering a culture of learning and growth within our organization.
Lisa is actively involved in community outreach and advocacy efforts, and is repeatedly asked to present at local and national conferences, contributing to important discussions on immigration reform and worker rights.
Lisa also played a crucial role in addressing the challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic. She spearheaded efforts to disseminate information about unemployment eligibility, and her team's work became a trusted resource in the legal community.
Lisa's creativity and energy in developing new ideas and seeking new sources of funding have raised significant funds for our organization and allowed us to take on new work and increase staffing levels to better serve our clients.
Lisa's outstanding advocacy, leadership, innovation, and significant contributions to Legal Aid Chicago make her an exceptional candidate for this recognition."
