At the July 28, 2016 meeting of PILI’s Board of Directors, the board elected four new board members: Mark O’Meara of Chapman and Cutler and Katherine W. Shank of LAF, as well as two new representatives from the Chicago Bar Association Board of Managers, Pamela Sakowcz Menaker of Clifford Law Offices and Allison L. Wood of Legal Ethics Consulting.
Mark O’Meara is a partner in Chapman’s Banking and Financial Services Department and a member of the Commercial Lending Group. Mark’s practice focuses on representing banks and other financial institutions in structuring and documenting secured and unsecured transactions. He is also the firm’s Pro Bono Partner and manages the volunteer efforts of Chapman attorneys.
Kate Shank is the Director of Volunteer Services at LAF, and oversees all of LAF’s pro bono efforts including project development, volunteer recruitment, volunteer training, law firm and corporate relations, law student recruitment and management, and volunteer recognition. She began her career at LAF in 2001 representing clients in family law matters and spent several years as a general litigator also handling bankruptcies and subsidized housing eviction defense. As a supervising attorney, Kate concentrated her practice in the areas of family law, domestic violence, and custody matters.
The board also elected two new representatives from the Chicago Bar Association Board of Managers. PILI always has two CBA appointees on our board and they serve for one year.
Pamela is the Communications Partner at Clifford Law Offices, and she handles all of the media relations, website, public relations and marketing for the firm. Being a lawyer and a journalist makes her uniquely qualified for this position, which she has held since 1991. Prior to this, she has worked for the Chicago Tribune as a reporter as well as a writer/producer for ABC-TV in Chicago.
Allison L. Wood is the founder of Legal Ethics Consulting, P.C., which serves as ethics counsel to solo attorneys and firms. A seasoned trial attorney with litigation experience in both the private and public sectors, she was appointed to serve as a Hearing Board Chair of the Attorney Registration and Disciplinary Commission (ARDC). She also served as Litigation Counsel with the ARDC, where she investigated and prosecuted cases of attorney misconduct and handled hundreds of ethics inquiry calls from Illinois lawyers. She is a Certified MCLE Ethics Providers, a frequent presenter of ethics programs to bar associations throughout Illinois, and she writes a monthly ethics column in The Chicago Daily Law Bulletin.
Welcome to all our new board members!
At the July meeting, PILI also said goodbye to directors Daniel Lindsey of LAF, Joe Lombardo of Chapman and Cutler, and last year’s CBA Representatives, Karina Ayala-Bermejo and Dave Scriven-Young. Thank you to these board members for their service!
See a list of PILI board members »
Learn more about PILI’s mission and vision »