Kimberly Mills, 2025-2026 Chair of PILI’s Alumni Network Leadership Council
PILI’s Alumni Network consisting of nearly 5,000 former PILI Law Student Interns and Graduate Fellows is led by the Alumni Network Leadership Council (ANLC), a group of PILI Alumni committed to staying connected to PILI and public interest law, and to giving back to their community.
With PILI’s new fiscal year beginning on September 1st, PILI welcomed new leadership for the Alumni Network Leadership Council. Kimberly Mills of the Law Office of the County Public Defender assumed the position of Chair and is joined in leadership by Chair-Elect Casey J. Nelson of McGuireWoods and Vice Chair McKenna Deutsch of Grund & Leavitt, PC.
When asked about what she is looking forward to in the upcoming year, Kim had this to say, “I look forward to working with the current ANLC members and PILI staff to increase Alumni engagement, foster a community of PILI Alumni dedicated to PILI and public interest, and ensure the council is meaningfully contributing to PILI and the legal community throughout the state of Illinois by organizing and participating in events and trainings that reflect our mission to engage, inspire, and empower those advancing equal access to justice.”
Kim is a native of Los Angeles California and graduated from the University of Southern California. She received her Juris Doctor from Tulane University Law School. After graduating from law school, Kim clerked at the Orange County Public Defenders Office and for the Honorable Suzanne G. Bruguera in the Superior Court of California in Los Angeles. She received her LL.M. in Child and Family Law from Loyola University Chicago School of Law. While pursuing her LL.M., Kimberly was selected as the recipient of the Mary C. Russo Memorial PILI Law Student Internship affording her the opportunity to represent foster youth in special education and school discipline matters as a member of Legal Aid Chicago’s Education Project. Kim previously worked at Matt Cohen & Associates, as a faculty fellow and assistant director of Loyola University Chicago School of Law’s Life After Innocence program, and at Cabrini Green Legal Aid. Currently, Kim is with the Law Office of the Cook County Public Defender as an Assistant Public Defender and also serves as the Director of the Professional Identity Formation Program at Loyola University Chicago School of Law and is also an Adjunct Professor in the Law School Externship Program.