EFE to Open Southern Illinois Office with Lawyer's Trust Fund Support

A 2005 study entitled "The Legal Aid Safety Net" comprehensively reviewed the legal needs of low-income people in Illinois, including people with disabilities. Among other things, the study documented the huge unmet legal needs of people with disabilities in southern Illinois. In order to address this compelling need, Equip for Equality will be opening a new regional office in Carbondale, Illinois, this fall. The location of an office in Carbondale is particularly strategic for several reasons: It will provide an effective base for serving several downstate metropolitan areas and their rural surrounds; it will provide an excellent opportunity to tap into the area's richest resource of law students and teaching attorneys, at the Law School of Southern Illinois University; and it will be located near individuals with disabilities who are residing in several problematic institutions that have a history of abuse and neglect and unjustified segregation.

The Lawyers Trust Fund of Illinois, which co-sponsored the study, is a major supporter of the new Carbondale office, with an investment of $176,062 that combines with continuing support of Equip for Equality's Springfield office. "We are very excited about bringing muchneeded legal advocacy services to southern Illinois and the generous investment received from the Lawyers Trust Fund to help build this capacity," says Zena Naiditch, President and CEO of Equip for Equality. The Carbondale Regional office will initially house two attorneys and a part-time administrative assistant. Jeff Plesko has been already been hired for one of the attorney positions, and Equip for Equality is currently recruiting for the second position.

Jeff has a strong background in disability issues. Since 1998, he has been the director for Legal Advocacy Service of the Illinois Guardianship and Advocacy Commission (GAC), where he was responsible for 16 attorneys and two paralegals in nine regional offices throughout the state, serving as many as 9,000 individuals with mental disabilities per year. Prior to becoming director, Jeff was a managing attorney at GAC from 1982-1998, and a staff attorney there from 1980- 1982. Jeff began his career as an assistant defender at the Office of the State Appellate Defender, Fifth Judicial District. Currently, Jeff serves as an adjunct professor at the Southern Illinois University Law School, where he teaches Mental Health Law.

"We are thrilled that Jeff Plesko will be joining Equip for Equality in our efforts to advance the civil and human rights of people with disabilities in southern Illinois," says Barry Taylor, Legal Advocacy Director at Equip for Equality. "Jeff has a wealth of experience serving people with disabilities, especially people with mental illness, and this experience will help us to better address the disability community's unmet legal needs."

Equip for Equality expects to identify the new office location and full staff over the next several months.

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