Bullying in the Legal Profession: A Study of Illinois Lawyers’ Experiences and Recommendations for Change

This report and recommendations are part of the Commission’s larger initiative to address bullying in the legal profession, which will include additional educational tools that build upon this research. 

The study was administered by The Red Bee Group, LLC, under the leadership of Principals Stephanie A. Scharf and Roberta D. Liebenberg, who also co-authored the report.

Advisory Council

The Commission assembled a diverse group of attorneys and judges from across Illinois to serve on the initiative’s Advisory Council. The Advisory Council provided thought leadership and guidance in the creation of the survey, focus groups, and report.

• Adrian Barr, Managing Attorney of Prairie State Legal Services’ Bloomington Office; member of the Immigration Project’s Board of Directors
• Jennifer L. Crespo, Immediate Past President of HLAI – Serving the Hispanic Lawyers of Illinois; General Counsel of the Illinois Torture Inquiry and Relief Commission
• Mollie Dahlin, Founder of M. Dahlin, P.C.; Prosecutor for the Village of Lakewood; Administrative Law Judge for the City of McHenry, Village of Holiday Hills, City of Marengo, Village of Island Lake, Tower Lakes, and the Village of Lake Barrington; member of the advisory council for the social work program for McHenry County
• John N. Gallo, Partner at Gair Gallo Eberhard LLP; former CEO and Executive Director of Legal Aid Chicago; former Head of Litigation for Sidley Austin LLP’s Chicago Office
• Maria C. Green, retired Senior Vice President and General Counsel of Ingersoll-Rand; Independent Director of WEC Energy Group, Tennant Company, and Littelfuse; Past Chair of the Chicago Urban League Board of Directors
• Judge Corinne Cantwell Heggie, Cook County Circuit Court; Past President of the Women’s Bar Association of Illinois (WBAI)
• Justice Michael B. Hyman, Illinois Appellate Court, First District; Chair of the Illinois Supreme Court Committee on Equal Justice
• Brandy L. Johnson, Assistant Professor of Law, Southern Illinois University Simmons Law School; Of Counsel, Early & Miranda, P.C.; Chair of the Illinois State Bar Association’s (ISBA) Disability Law Committee; member of the ISBA General Assembly and Diversity Leadership Council
• Shawn S. Kasserman, Immediate Past President of the ISBA; founding member of Tomasik Kotin Kasserman, LLC
• Ray J. Koenig III, Immediate Past President of the Chicago Bar Association (CBA); Partner at Clark Hill PLC
• Antonio Lee, Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Indiana (Civil Division); former Assistant State’s Attorney at the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office; President Elect of the Cook County Bar Association
• Meredith R. Mandell, Associate at Greenberg Traurig, LLP; previously a legal affairs producer at a national television news network
• Christopher McCall, President and Owner of McCall Law Offices, P.C.; Co-President of Halliday McCall
• Huy Nguyen, Chief of Staff for Illinois State Representative Hoan Huynh; former Senior Associate at Factor; 1st Vice-President of the Asian American Bar Association of Greater Chicago
• Judge Antara Nath Rivera, Cook County Circuit Court; former Arbitrator for the Illinois Workers’ Compensation Commission; member of the WBAI Board of Directors
• Whitney K. Siehl, Ex-Officio of the WBAI; Associate, Hagens Berman Sobol Shapiro LLP Shane Schmidt, Associate at Simmons Hanly Conroy; former intern in the homicide and domestic violence divisions for the Clark County District Attorney’s Office in Las Vegas, NV
• Justice Debra B. Walker, Illinois Appellate Court, First District; Past Chair of the Commission on Professionalism
• Mariah Whitner, Associate at Barnes & Thornburg, LLP; member of the Leadership Council on Legal Diversity Pathfinder Program; volunteered with the Chicago Domestic Violence Legal Clinic
• Sonni Choi Williams, ISBA President; City Attorney for the City of Lockport; former Commissioner on the Commission on Professionalism
• Sterling Williams, Associate at Much Shelist, P.C.; Associate Board Member of the Chicago Committee on Minorities in Large Law Firms; member of the Emerging Leaders Council of the Legal Services Corporation (LSC)
• Lauren L. Witkowski, Senior Trial Attorney at Zurich North America; former WBAI President
• Judge Kenya Jenkins-Wright, Circuit Court of Cook County; former General Counsel of the Illinois Guardianship and Advocacy Commission; former President of the Black Women Lawyers’ Association of Greater Chicago, Inc. (BWLA)