RECIPE FOR HOPE

The North Suburban Legal Aid Clinic—founded by Highland Park Mayor Nancy Rotering—celebrates its 10th anniversary.

In 2020, Highland Park Mayor Nancy Rotering was unted by the presence of a second and silent pandemic—a spike in the rate of domestic violence during the COVID-19 lockdowns.

Houses, sanctuaries to most during the worldwide sread of a new disease, were inescapable prisons for ctims of abuse. “They were trapped at home with their abusers,” recalls Rotering. 

“Unfortunately, domestic violence,” she observes, “is still pervasive.”

For those impacted by domestic abuse in Lake County and north suburban Cook County, the North Suburban Legal Aid Clinic (NSLAC) is a godsend, providing accessible, quality, and equitable legal aid. All legal services are free, regardless of income, as abusers commonly limit access to financial resources as a form of control.

Rotering, who is in her fourth term as mayor, founded the Highland Park-based organization five years before the onset of the pandemic and later served as its board chair.

“It pained me that many people were living in the shadows and facing obstacles to services that should be accessible to all,” Rotering says, adding NSLAC—formerly named the Highland Park-Highwood Legal Aid Clinic—started with a small grant, used free space from the City of Highland Park, and was run by a volunteer executive director.

Today, the organization, thanks to a generous network of donors, is made up of 45 full-time employees, including 24 licensed attorneys as well as social workers, and more than 200 pro bono attorneys. In addition to its domestic violence services, the clinic offers free, quality legal services in the areas of housing and immigration to give low-income, at-risk community members access to the legal system and an opportunity to live productive and secure lives. Susan Shulman of Highland Park serves as the clinic’s executive director, and Laura Ulrich of Glencoe is its board chair.

Last year, clients hailed from 53 countries, lived in 193 ZIP codes, and spoke 14 languages. The clinic opened its 10,000th case in 2024.

NSLAC celebrates its 10th anniversary on May 3 with a celebration/fundraiser at Independence Grove in Libertyville. The event’s title, Recipe for Justice, recalls two innovative ways NSLAC reached people in need during the pandemic.

“Domestic violence survivors needed access to legal services without being obvious, especially at that time,” Rotering explains. “In addition to online cooking classes— Chloé Mendel Corgan (co-owner of Madame ZuZu’s in Highland Park) helped us with those—that offered opportunities to chat with attorneys, we also connected people to a banana bread recipe that provided untraceable links to legal assistance. Abusers are known to keep their victims under constant surveillance and check their search histories. So, we also provided an emergency exit from the site near the bottom of the banana bread recipe.”

Rotering will be honored at Recipe for Justice, as will the clinic’s founding board members—Tatiana Alonso, Kathryn Vanden Berk, Gail Feiger Brown, Steve Elrod,

and Terry Horwitz Kass. A highlight of the event, which includes dinner, wine, music, and a silent auction, will be a panel featuring chefs and restaurateurs invested in NSLAC’s mission moderated by Fox News 32 Chicago’s Natalie Bomke.

Learn more about Recipe for Justice and the clinic at nslegalaid.org or by calling 847-737-4042. The NSLAC is located at 3500 Western Avenue, Highland Park.