WHO WE ARE AND WHAT WE DO

Lawyers for the Creative Arts is a not-for-profit, 501(c)(3) tax exempt organization, which provides pro bono legal services to qualifying individuals and organizations in the arts, including the visual, literary and performing arts, and provides educational programs as well. Since its inception, in 1972, LCA has provided legal services and educational programming to tens of thousands of artists and cultural organizations, including many who are now among the most prominent in the area. LCA is the only pro bono provider of legal services in the Chicago metropolitan area limited to, and expert in, the arts.

The basic problem is that artists need knowledgeable, sophisticated legal and business advice they cannot afford to pay for. This has always been true and undoubtedly will be true in the future. This kind of information is not "second nature" to many artists. We serve artists in all disciplines.

LCA advises artists and arts organizations in the full array of legal areas they encounter such as: registration and protection of intellectual property via copyright, trademark and such; drafting contracts of all kinds for their products and services; landlord/tenant and other personal issues such as collection of money due to them, immigration issues and resolving disputes. LCA advises about the formation and operation of not-for-profit corporations and obtaining tax exemptions. LCA works on the full panoply of legal issues these individuals and organizations encounter.

LCA also runs the Arts Mediation Service, providing low-cost, private mediation of disputes within the arts community.

LCA has a wide variety of educational and outreach programming for the arts community and in the high schools.