Joshua joined PILI as our External Relations Manager in September 2025. In this role, his responsibilities include managing all aspects of PILI’s external relations, including fundraising and development, relationship management and communications.

Joshua most recently served as Research & Business Specialist for Visit Frisco/City of Frisco, TX. He previously worked as Assistant to the City Manager in Aledo, TX and Martinsville, VA; as a Management Analyst for the City of Duncanville, TX; and as Communications Coordinator with the IndyEast Promise Zone in Indianapolis. Across these roles, he built a strong foundation in stakeholder engagement, content development, grant writing and reporting, and project coordination. Joshua has led high-impact external relations efforts, including writing strategic reports, developing branded content, and cultivating relationships with donors, media, and community partners.

With experience spanning the public and nonprofit sectors, Joshua brings the expertise and values to strengthen PILI’s external engagement, fundraising, and communications strategy. A systems thinker and strategist passionate about creating lasting, people-centered improvements, he holds dual master’s degrees in Public Affairs and Public Policy and a Certificate in Program Evaluation from the University of Texas at Dallas, along with a BA in International Relations from the University of London’s Birkbeck College.

Joshua can be reached by email or at 312-832-5126.

Meet the rest of the PILI staff here »

PILI began its new fiscal year on September 1st and in the budget adopted by its Board of Directors, PILI will grant $442,000 to fund 80 Law Student Interns at 33 public interest law agencies across Illinois in the coming year. For the 2025-2026 school-year, PILI will fund 24 Law Student Interns over the course of the two semesters for 200 hours with the school-year stipend set at $3,250. In Summer 2026, PILI will fund 56 Law Student Interns for 400 hours with the stipend set at $6,500. PILI previously increased its stipend amounts over the prior two fiscal years.

PILI’s Law Student Internship Program remains at the center of PILI and provides a start for a new generation of lawyers to learn about and commit to public interest law and pro bono service. PILI has operated its Law Student Internship Program since its founding in 1977, and it is the only program of its kind that attracts law students from across the country to serve at public interest law agencies in Illinois. While PILI is a funding source for stipends, PILI also works closely with Interns to ensure quality placements, supervision and continuing education through extensive programming along with networking opportunities for Interns to connect and learn from each other.

In 1983, PILI established its Graduate Fellowship Program to place new associates from Chicago law firms at public interest law agencies in Illinois, where they are typically paid by their hiring firm to work for 300 hours between graduation and joining the firm. PILI ensures quality supervision by experienced attorneys and provides extra educational, networking and advising opportunities for the Fellows.

The Internship & Fellowship Programs help PILI’s participating public interest law agencies serve more clients and increase their impact while also helping law students and recent law school graduates develop their legal and client interaction skills, build their professional networks, and strengthen their commitment to public interest law and service. Over the last year, our community of Law Student Interns and Graduate Fellows have collectively provided an additional 43,700 hours of legal assistance to those in need. And since PILI was founded, over 5,000 former Law Student Interns and Graduate Fellows make up PILI’s Alumni Network to maintain a careerlong connection to PILI, to each other and the public interest law community.

“PILI’s Law Student Internship and Graduate Fellowship Programs are just as critical today as they were when PILI first established them,” said PILI Executive Director Michael Bergmann. “These programs ensure that law students and recent law school graduates have the opportunity and support to gain invaluable practical experience in the public interest law sector, to increase their awareness of the legal needs of underserved and underrepresented communities, and to assist in the critical work of PILI’s participating agencies across Illinois.”

Learn more about PILI’s Law Student Internship Program » & Graduate Fellowship Program »

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.

PILI 2025-2026 Young Professionals Board Chair Anthony M. Lewis of Kovitz Shifrin Nesbit

Established in 2017, PILI’s Young Professionals Board (YPB) is a group dedicated to empowering PILI through fundraising and by serving as PILI’s ambassadors in their communities. YPB members are emerging leaders who have begun their professional careers in the past fifteen years.

With the start of PILI’s new fiscal year on September 1st, new leaders took the helm of the YPB. Anthony Lewis of Kovitz Shifrin Nesbit will serve as Chair and is joined by Brandon Knop of Molson Coors who will serve as Chair-Elect and Cara Lawson of Steptoe LLP who will serve as Vice Chair.

As he begins his role as Chair, Tony said, “I am looking forward to continuing the success of the YPB’s past chairs and finding ways to keep improving upon established events such as our annual Arcade for Legal Aid. At the same time, I am also looking forward to finding new and exciting opportunities to further PILI’s mission and expanding our already diverse group of YPB members.”

Tony is currently a Principal at Kovitz Shifrin Nesbit where he concentrates his practice in the area of property tax and assessment law. He is also a member of the Illinois Property Tax Lawyers Association (IPTLA) and the CBA’s Real Estate Taxation Committee and the Assessment and Appeals Subcommittee. A passionate advocate for advancing equal access to justice, Tony has been an active member of the Young Professionals Board since 2018, most recently serving as Chair-Elect.

With the start of our new fiscal year, we are excited to welcome four new members of our Board of Directors!

Barbara A. Bertini

Legal Aid Chicago

Barbara is the Director of Pro Bono & Community Partnerships Practice Group at Legal Aid Chicago and oversees the agency pro bono program where she supports volunteers, manages resources, and ensures it aligns with organizational priorities and goals. Barbara also manages relationships with law firms and corporate legal departments to expand pro bono opportunities. She supervises practice group staff for a variety of agency legal projects, including community legal clinics and court-based help desks. Barbara has also served as agency representative on the Cook County Justice Advisory Council 2023 Racial Equity Cohort.

Barbara is an attorney with several years of holistic experience in the criminal justice system, ranging from work as a police officer to legal representation for post-conviction relief. Various stakeholders have encouraged her to work towards criminal justice reform. She hopes to help level the playing field and allow equal access to justice for all. Barbara received her Juris Doctor and Bachelor of Science in Criminal Justice from Yale University from Northeastern University.

Julian M. Dibbell

Mayer Brown LLP

Julian is a Partner at Mayer Brown and leverages his deep understanding of contemporary technological developments to help clients develop, buy, and sell technology products and services. For more than a decade, Julian has advised clients on a range of complex commercial transactions, involving IT outsourcing, digital platform and other hosted service agreements, business process outsourcing, facilities management outsourcing, data center leasing, technology licensing, cloud computing, and privacy and security issues. He has represented companies in many different industries, including financial services, health care, insurance, food and beverage, audit and assurance, publishing and information technology. Julian is the host of Mayer Brown’s Tech Talks Podcast, which provides insight on legal issues relating to technology & IP transactions and touches on relevant and timely topics.

While in law school, Julian was a staff member of the University of Chicago Law Review and co-founder of the Law and Technology Society. Mayer Brown sponsored Julian as a PILI Graduate Fellow at Lawyers for the Creative Arts before joining the firm. He received his Bachelor of Arts from Yale University and his Juris Doctor from The University of Chicago Law School.

Brandon E. Peck

Peck Ritchey, LLC

Brandon is a Partner with Peck Ritchey, LLC where he represents individuals, families, financial and medical institutions. Brandon advises fiduciaries charged with the administration of estates and trusts as well as guides them through the probate process. He vigorously represents all parties in contested guardianships including minors and disabled adults. For the past five years, Brandon has been selected by his peers in multiple statewide surveys of Illinois attorneys as a “Super Lawyer”, an attorney to whom other attorneys would refer their family. From 2015-Present he has also been selected by Leading Lawyers Magazine as a top emerging lawyer in Elder Law, Trust, Will and Estate Planning. He also was a contributor to the book Alzheimer’s and the Law, which was published by the American Bar Association in 2013.

Brandon is an active member of the Chicago Bar Association, currently serving on its Board of Managers and having served as Chair of the Young Lawyers Section from 2018-2019. He lectures frequently in the areas of trust and estate litigation, guardianships, special needs and estate planning before his colleagues and other professionals, including at The Chicago Bar Association, National Academy of Elder Law Attorneys, as well as numerous hospitals, nursing homes, assisted living facilities and community organizations. Brandon received his Juris Doctor and Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from the University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana.

Elise Tincher

University of Chicago Law School

Elise is the Associate Director of Public Service and Pro Bono at the University of Chicago Law School. Immediately before joining the University of Chicago Law School, Elise was the Associate Director of Pro Bono & Programs at the Chicago Bar Foundation (CBF), where she oversaw the court-based Cook County Legal Aid for Housing and Debt (CCLAHD) program, as well as led the CBF’s pro bono efforts, working with lawyers, firms, corporations, the courts, and pro bono and legal aid organizations to maximize the impact of pro bono work.

Prior to joining the CBF, Elise served as Pro Bono Counsel at Kirkland & Ellis LLP where she managed the pro bono program in Kirkland’s Chicago and California offices. Before joining Kirkland, Elise began her legal career as a Staff Attorney at Legal Aid Chicago, working first in the Family Law Group with a focus on representing domestic violence survivors, and then in the Consumer Practice Group during the height of the mortgage foreclosure crisis. She received her Juris Doctor from the University of Wisconsin and a Bachelor of Arts in English and French from the College of Wooster.

Check out the August 2025 PILI Post here »

PILI is grateful to Bide Akande of the Office of the Cook County Public Defender, who has been serving as Chair of our Young Professionals Board for the last year and will conclude his term at the end of this month.

Prior to serving as an Assistant Public Defender with the Office of the Cook County Public Defender, Bide was a Senior Associate at Porter Wright Morris & Arthur LLP where he focused his practice on litigating reinsurance claims, commercial contract disputes and product liability claims. Bide graduated from the University of Illinois School of Law and was a member of the Student Bar Association, Phi Alpha Delta Mock Trial Team, International Law Organization as well as the American Civil Liberties Union.

Bide has been an active member of the Young Professionals Board for many years, serving in a variety of leadership roles before becoming Chair and has been instrumental in the fundraising and planning of Young Professionals Board events like Giving Day and Arcade for Legal Aid.

As Bide concludes his service as Chair, we asked him a few questions about her involvement with PILI.

WHAT DREW YOU TO PILI AND ITS MISSION?

I was drawn to PILI because of its fundamental and direct approach to a critical flaw in our justice system: the lack of a constitutional right to counsel in civil matters. The fact that tens of thousands of Illinoisans facing dire circumstances, like housing instability or discrimination, are left to navigate the complex legal system alone is a profound injustice. PILI’s mission to engage, inspire, and empower the legal community to advance equal access to justice isn’t just aspirational; it’s a practical and necessary intervention. I was particularly compelled by PILI’s role as a facilitator, connecting those who need help with those in the legal community who have the skills and desire to provide it.

HOW HAS YOUR COMMITMENT TO PRO BONO SERVICE  AND ACCESS TO JUSTICE PLAYED A ROLE IN YOUR LIFE AND CAREER?

My commitment to pro bono service and access to justice has been a grounding force in both my life and career. Professionally, it has served as a constant reminder of why I chose to practice law—to help people and ensure our system is fair and accessible. It has provided me with practical experience in areas of law I might not have encountered otherwise, sharpening my skills and broadening my perspective. On a personal level, it has been incredibly fulfilling. Using my skills to directly assist someone facing a daunting legal challenge provides a sense of purpose that transcends daily work. It reinforces the belief that our profession has a responsibility to serve the community and that ensuring equal access to justice is a core tenet of being a lawyer. I partially blame my work with PILI for inspiring my choice to work for the Cook County Public Defenders Office, a choice for which I will never financially recover.

As PILI’s Fiscal Year 2025 comes to an end, we want to extend our greatest appreciation for the leadership of several individuals who are concluding their service on PILI’s Board of Directors at the end of August. Each individual has given their talents and dedicated their time to serve PILI in its mission to engage, inspire and empower those advancing equal access to justice.

We have three directors departing the PILI Board of Directors as of August 31st.

• Joseph M. Callaghan of Mayer Brown LLP
• Josie M. Gough, Chicago Bar Association Representative
• Stephen D. Libowsky of Manatt, Phelps, & Phillips, LLP

Additionally, Paul Drake-Stockard of Kirkland & Ellis LLP who was the 2023 Graduate Fellow Representative and Isabelle Rosado who 2023 Law Student Intern Representatives are completing their two-year terms as of August 31^st. We are very thankful for their service and wish them well in their future, while looking forward to celebrating their accomplishments as PILI Alumni along the way!

Finally, Anthony Lewis of Kovitz Shifrin Nesbit who has served as the Liaison from the Young Professionals Board and Kimberly Mills of the Office of the Cook County Public Defender who has serve3d as the Liaison from the Alumni Network Leadership Council are concluding their service as representatives on the board. Both will assume their respective chair positions for their leadership bodies as of September 1st. We look forward to continuing to work with them in their new leadership positions.