Location
Date & Time
2:30pm CDT - 4:00pm CDT
About This Event
Few things are as personal to any of us as our name. Maybe your name is a family name, frequently used throughout your family tree or bestowed to honor a particular relative. Or perhaps yours is a relatively common name that necessitates using a middle initial to distinguish you from others who share your given name and surname. Or maybe you use a nickname which better suits your personality or temperament. Some of us like our names, others not so much. Regardless, our names connote who we are and often, who the rest of the world views us to be.
What if your name, however, is a total mismatch from who you are? What if your name doesn’t match your gender identity, or worse, conveys an incorrect gender identity? What do you do? This isn’t an issue of vanity. It has been a problem throughout history for some in the LGBTQ+ community. More recently, some individuals find themselves being called upon to present official identification much more frequently than others. It can become a source of annoyance, irritation, stress, and anxiety to frequently be asked to show identification that does not reflect who you are, beginning with something as simple as your name.
If you’re fortunate to be a privileged individual who can afford to retain the services of a lawyer with the experience of helping facilitate a name change, you can correct your name and official identification documents. But what if you’re not?
That’s an area where pro bono legal services have become ever more important. It’s not a difficult area of law to master and the impact on the clients one can serve can be enormous. If you’re someone who desires to help people but have limited bandwidth to take on more complex types of pro bono work, helping people secure legal name changes can prove to be an emotionally and professionally rewarding way to give back to society. Join the Institute for Inclusion in the Legal Profession (“IILP”) as we mark LGBTQ+ History Month and explore why identity matters, why this kind of pro bono work is so important, what it entails, and how you can get involved.
The program will begin with a 30-minute fireside chat between Shane McCammon and Nikki Marcotte on non-binary gender identity and why it’s so important to have official identification that reflects who one is. That will be followed by a 30-minute discussion, moderated by Shane, about what pro bono name changes to accurately reflect gender identity entails and why/how individual lawyers and organizations can find satisfaction in pro bono projects to support name changes.
Speakers:
Barbara Bertini (she, her, hers)
Director, Pro Bono and Community Partnerships Group
Legal Aid Chicago
Judy Hale (she/her)
Director of Pro Bono Services
Pennsylvania Bar Association
Adam J. Heintz (he/him)
Director of Pro Bono Services
Legal Services NYC
Shehnaz I. Mansuri
Pro Bono Counsel
Mayer Brown LLP
Nikki Marcotte (they/them)
Associate
Laurie & Brennan LLP
Shane McCammon
Senior Litigation Career Associate
Orrick
About This Event
Few things are as personal to any of us as our name. Maybe your name is a family name, frequently used throughout your family tree or bestowed to honor a particular relative. Or perhaps yours is a relatively common name that necessitates using a middle initial to distinguish you from others who share your given name and surname. Or maybe you use a nickname which better suits your personality or temperament. Some of us like our names, others not so much. Regardless, our names connote who we are and often, who the rest of the world views us to be.
What if your name, however, is a total mismatch from who you are? What if your name doesn’t match your gender identity, or worse, conveys an incorrect gender identity? What do you do? This isn’t an issue of vanity. It has been a problem throughout history for some in the LGBTQ+ community. More recently, some individuals find themselves being called upon to present official identification much more frequently than others. It can become a source of annoyance, irritation, stress, and anxiety to frequently be asked to show identification that does not reflect who you are, beginning with something as simple as your name.
If you’re fortunate to be a privileged individual who can afford to retain the services of a lawyer with the experience of helping facilitate a name change, you can correct your name and official identification documents. But what if you’re not?
That’s an area where pro bono legal services have become ever more important. It’s not a difficult area of law to master and the impact on the clients one can serve can be enormous. If you’re someone who desires to help people but have limited bandwidth to take on more complex types of pro bono work, helping people secure legal name changes can prove to be an emotionally and professionally rewarding way to give back to society. Join the Institute for Inclusion in the Legal Profession (“IILP”) as we mark LGBTQ+ History Month and explore why identity matters, why this kind of pro bono work is so important, what it entails, and how you can get involved.
The program will begin with a 30-minute fireside chat between Shane McCammon and Nikki Marcotte on non-binary gender identity and why it’s so important to have official identification that reflects who one is. That will be followed by a 30-minute discussion, moderated by Shane, about what pro bono name changes to accurately reflect gender identity entails and why/how individual lawyers and organizations can find satisfaction in pro bono projects to support name changes.
Speakers:
Barbara Bertini (she, her, hers)
Director, Pro Bono and Community Partnerships Group
Legal Aid Chicago
Judy Hale (she/her)
Director of Pro Bono Services
Pennsylvania Bar Association
Adam J. Heintz (he/him)
Director of Pro Bono Services
Legal Services NYC
Shehnaz I. Mansuri
Pro Bono Counsel
Mayer Brown LLP
Nikki Marcotte (they/them)
Associate
Laurie & Brennan LLP
Shane McCammon
Senior Litigation Career Associate
Orrick
Location
Date & Time
2:30pm CDT - 4:00pm CDT