about Lawyers for the Creative Arts
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OUR STORY

 In 1972, a group of young lawyers formed what was then called “Creative City Committee” to determine how to relate more to the life of Chicago. Soon they targeted the artistic community, and created a pro bono art and law organization Lawyers for the Creative Arts. Its mission: to provide legal assistance to artists and arts organizations financially unable to retain legal counsel. Under the leadership of its first president, James N. Alexander, LCA received grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Illinois Arts Council and the Borg Warner Foundation. Within two years, the group established offices in the Illinois Arts Council, recruited an executive director, and boasted an annual budget of $38,000. Fifty-three volunteer lawyers processed 100 cases.
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Since then, LCA has mushroomed, enlisting over the years more than 600 attorneys to provide pro bono assistance. LCA has established non-profit incorporation workshops, tax exemption workshops, music publishing seminars, theater and copyright clinics and on the attorney side, a mentoring program for new volunteers. In the past twelve months, LCA responded to almost 2,000 requests for advice from artists in the Chicago area, and the phones continue to ring with artists in dire need of legal assistance. Over 500 clients each year have come into the office for formal appointments. We are continuing our outreach to high school students interested in the arts and have established our Arts Mediation Service to resolve disputes within the arts community.

The dedicated individuals who make up LCA’s Board of Directors and Honors Council, and the longer list of volunteer attorneys, are the soul of LCA. With their support, artists are free to do what it is they do – bring color, texture and wondrous sounds to all of our lives.

Repeatedly we hear artists who have benefited from LCA praise these attorneys for taking care of the legal side of their work. As a result, these individuals can concentrate on creating and delving deep into their hearts to produce the most provocative, most beautiful, most audacious art they can find inside of themselves. They can do this because someone else is taking care of the paperwork, filing the forms, negotiating on their behalf, and watching out for them. We will continue to nourish this creative spark.