Venable LLP is pleased to announce that the firm was selected as the Center for Disability & Elder Law (CDEL) 2025 Partner of the Year.
The Partner of the Year Award honors a corporation and/or law firm that has provided exceptional assistance and volunteer support to CDEL and its clients. All 2025 Winter Awards honorees will be recognized at CDEL’s “Light up the Loop” Winter Awards Benefit on February 27.
CDEL provides free legal services to low-income seniors and people with disabilities throughout Chicago and Cook County, Illinois. The organization focuses on matters related to financial and housing stability, estate planning and end-of-life planning, divorce, and adult guardianship. CDEL relies on volunteers for all programming and handled nearly 2,900 cases in 2024.
Venable has contributed to CDEL through its Foundation, pro bono volunteerism, and board participation. In total, nearly half of the firm’s attorneys in the Chicago office have volunteered with CDEL, providing legal services to dozens of CDEL clients through multiple community workshops.
“For the past several years, Venable has been a strong supporter of CDEL, participating consistently and skillfully in multiple forms of volunteerism,” said Caroline Manley, CDEL’s executive director. “The firm is an outstanding partner.”
Venable partner and CDEL director emeritus Erin McCloskey Maus, who forged the partnership with CDEL when she joined Venable in late 2022, said: “I am proud to practice at a firm and alongside colleagues who are so dedicated to CDEL’s impactful mission. As a longtime CDEL advocate, I am passionate about this work and the community members whom CDEL serves. Thank you to my colleagues who have dedicated their time, resources, and energy to helping CDEL clients and deepening this partnership.”
Venable partner Jeremy S. Goldkind, who serves on CDEL’s Board of Directors and as a member of the organization’s Nominating Committee, said: “It is truly an honor to be selected for this award. We are excited to carry this momentum forward and find ways to expand our impact in 2025.”
Members of Venable’s Chicago office volunteered at CDEL’s Power of Attorney Workshops, during which CDEL representatives prepare Powers of Attorney for Health Care and Property, as well as Illinois Living Will Declarations, for low-income seniors; and at CDEL’s Transfer on Death Instruments Workshop offered through its Housing Preservation Project, which provides legal assistance to cost-burdened senior homeowners, helping to ensure seniors' ability to age in place.
###
Venable LLP is an American Lawyer Global 100 law firm headquartered in Washington, DC that serves as primary counsel to a worldwide clientele of large and mid-sized organizations, nonprofits, high-net-worth entrepreneurs, and other individuals. With more than 900 professionals across the country, including in California, Colorado, Delaware, Florida, Illinois, Maryland, New York, Virginia, and Washington, DC, the firm strategically advances its clients' objectives in the United States and around the globe. Venable advises clients on a broad range of business and regulatory law, legislative affairs, complex litigation, and the full range of intellectual property disciplines. For more information, please visit https://www.venable.com/.
In its over 40-year history, more than 30,000 people with disabilities and low-income senior citizens have been provided free legal services from CDEL, with its staff of 20 staff members, and hundreds of volunteer lawyers. Those services include adult guardianship, landlord/tenant disputes, end of life planning, divorce, financial elder abuse, consumer fraud, property tax, and assistance at the Pro Se Adult Guardianship Help Desk. In addition, CDEL runs workshops and assists seniors with end-of-life planning and housing preservation.
Media Contact: Helen Lucaitis, HHL@corboydemetrio.com, 312.550.2077