Managing Director, Community Holistic Defense

Lawndale Christian Legal Center is pleased to partner with DRG to conduct this search.

Lawndale Christian Legal Center (LCLC) is a community-rooted, justice-centered organization serving North Lawndale through holistic legal defense, restorative justice, housing, and wraparound support. With an annual operating budget of approximately $10 million and a multidisciplinary staff of about 70 people, LCLC works at the intersection of public safety, community stability, and human dignity.

You can learn more on the organization’s website,

North Lawndale is central to LCLC’s identity and work. The organization is committed to serving the community with respect, consistency, and accountability, and to building solutions alongside the people most impacted by the justice system.

The community is rich in local leadership, long-standing relationships, and neighborhood-based organizations working together to strengthen safety, stability, and opportunity.

For the Managing Director of Community Holistic Defense, community engagement is not about residency, but about presence and partnership. The successful candidate will take the time to listen, learn, and build authentic relationships with community members, clients, staff, and local partners, and will be able to speak about North Lawndale with care, fluency, and respect.

LCLC reaches over 350 minors and emerging adults in the criminal justice system annually with the following services and pilots:

• Community Holistic Defense (CHD):
  Free legal representation for juvenile and emerging adult clients grounded in holistic defense practices which acknowledge that quality of representation and criminal legal outcomes are improved for youth when their unique developmental needs are simultaneously addressed by an integrated, interdisciplinary team of attorneys and social service providers. LCLC is one year from completing a Randomized Control Trial evaluation with the University of Chicago Inclusive Economy Lab comparing the legal and social impact of our CHD model with our local public defender’s model of defense.
  
  LCLC envisions building a specialized youthful defender unit serving all juveniles and emerging adults in Cook County in partnership with our local public defender’s office one day.
• Deer Housing Pilot
  : LCLC owns and operates 20 units of studio style housing for emerging adult men, 18-25 years old, to complete terms of probation inside the Dr. Dennis Deer Community Justice Center as an alternative to incarceration. Our vision is to build more Deer Housing programs and fewer prisons for emerging adults. The Managing Director of CHD works closely with the Managing Director of Deer Housing to coordinate services and representation.
• Restorative Justice Community Court
  : LCLC was the lead agency that gathered numerous community members and cook county court stakeholders together to design and launch the first Restorative Justice Community Court (RJCC) in the country in North Lawndale in September 2017. This court is based upon the tradition of restorative justice circle keeping and other restorative justice practices to enable repair and community integration for emerging adults, 18-25, facing qualifying felony criminal legal charges.
  
  Three new RJCC’s for emerging adults have been created throughout Cook County since we launched the RJCC in North Lawndale. LCLC plans to expand the RJCC for emerging adults and add a juvenile RJCC to serve juveniles 17 and younger under the same model. The Managing Director of CHD works closely with the Managing Director of Restorative Justice to coordinate services and representation.
• Juvenile Diversion Pilot: Since 2020, LCLC has worked with the mayor’s office…