Executive Director / Community Lawyer Jack E. Bentley
As Executive Director, Jack Bentley looks forward to expanding the reach of the CAC, promoting CAC's successes, identifying new stakeholders, and creating an expansive team environment throughout CAC's service area. He has a deep appreciation for CAC's innovative and catalytic "Community Lawyer" model through which CAC delivers its services. Jack brings enthusiasm and a spirit of innovation to his work in advancing CAC’s mission and goals.
Jack sees his role as a lawyer not only through the lens of being an experienced litigator and practitioner of law, but also through the lens of community leadership, building relationships, and proactively engaging others in addressing causes and being philanthropically active.
We are thrilled that Jack has returned full circle to the CAC, now as our newest Executive Director/Community Lawyer. Jack first joined the CAC in 2011 as a legal intern from Chicago-Kent College of Law. After graduating from law school, Jack worked in the Cook County States Attorney's Office and, more recently, at Johnson & Bell, Ltd. Jack has also held board leadership positions in a variety of Bar Associations and nonprofit organizations about which he is passionate, including A Just Harvest and Grey Ghost Theater.
Community Lawyer Jackson Paller
"Open, transparent, and accountable government is critical to a functioning democracy," Jackson Paller asserts in his Linkedin profile. Now at the Citizen Advocacy Center he is able to continue working to protect such vital civic values.
Jackson recalls having a great, enlightening internship experience at the Citizen Advocacy Center during his 1L summer.
Having recently been recently admitted to the Illinois bar, Jackson has now embarked on the legal practice part of his duties.
Supervising Attorney David Schrodt
David Schrodt has provided support to the Citizen Advocacy Center for over a decade. He currently serves as the Supervising Attorney for CAC and directly supervises CAC staff who are not yet admitted to practice law in Illinois.
David recently retired from Chapman and Cutler LLP, where he was a partner for over twenty years in the firm’s Banking and Financial Services Practice. He is Vice President and Treasurer of the Chicago Council of Lawyers, is a board member of the Appleseed Network, and provides pro bono legal services to a number of non-profit organizations.