Office of the Cook County Public Guardian

Kina Arnold, a senior attorney in our Juvenile Division, was elected and installed this week as the Vice President of the Black Women Lawyers' Association of Greater Chicago, Inc. (BWLA). BWLA is representative of African-American female attorneys, judges, law professors, and law students in the Chicago metropolitan area and across the Midwest. BWLA provides mentoring and networking opportunities, performs community outreach, and grants scholarship awards to law students in and around Chicago. BWLA is committed to promoting excellence in the profession and encouraging the inclusion of African-American attorneys in law firms, the judiciary, governmental agencies, and corporations. Congratulations, Kina!

Sarah Hawkins, Director of our Domestic Relations Division, and senior attorneys Colleen Littmann and Kejai McNeal presented at the Association of Family and Conciliation Courts' annual conference last week. They discussed innovative strategies for navigating high-conflict domestic relations and custody cases using a multidisciplinary approach.

Wendy Cappelletto, senior attorney and director of the public benefits program in our Adult Guardianship Division, received the President’s Recognition Award from the National Academy of Elder Law Attorneys. Wendy was recognized for her career-long, passionate, and compassionate commitment to improving the lives of seniors and people with disabilities. Congratulations to Wendy for this national recognition for her tireless work.

Public Guardian Charles Golbert presented this week at the Advanced Elder Law Review, an intensive pre-session of the annual conference of the National Academy of Elder Law Attorneys. Golbert spoke about advanced health and personal care planning.

Thank you to Michelle Silverthorn of Silverthorn Strategies who provided an outstanding training for our staff, pro bono, about best practices for communicating in a multigenerational office with staff members who are boomers, millennials, and Gen X, Y, and Z. A former director of diversity and education for the Illinois Supreme Court Commission on Professionalism, Michelle is a globally recognized keynote speaker, author, and workplace culture strategist who helps organizations build environments where people feel they belong, thrive in their work, and succeed.

Colleen Littmann, senior attorney in our Domestic Relations Division, presented last month as part of a panel organized by the Circuit Court of Cook County, on the importance of home visitation and home studies for attorneys who represent children. Littmann presented with Daniel Hunter, director of Family Court Services for the Circuit Court, and William Wigoda, an attorney in private practice.

Today we celebrated the 25th work anniversary of Ulysses Rosales, a supervising attorney in the Juvenile Division. Ulysses is known for his zealous advocacy, and he has been particularly impactful working on behalf of our LGBTQ clients and Spanish-speaking children and families protected by the Burgos federal consent decree.

Ulysses does a wonderful job focusing on our workplace culture and morale at the OPG, and he goes out of his way to organize positive events and activities for our staff.

Congratulations and thanks to Ulysses for his years of service to the office and our child clients.

May is National Childhood Drowning Prevention Month. Drowning is responsible for more deaths among children age 1 to 4 than any other cause except birth defects. Ten people die each day from unintentional drowning, and on average two of them are under 14 years old. It can happen in seconds and is often silent. Drowning can happen to anyone, any time there is access to water.

Please take a moment to review the attached tips from the Centers for Disease Control and share this information to help keep children safe.

Preventing Drowning Drowning is a major public health issue that can be prevented.

The Chicago Tribune is continuing its outstanding series on the hospital-to-guardianship pipeline that harms seniors with dementia by bypassing family members and through unnecessary guardianships, full guardianships when only a limited guardianship might be necessary, and permanent guardianships when only a temporary might be necessary. In addition, if the patient has money, the hospital almost always nominates an expensive private guardianship corporation, which can rapidly drain the person's assets.

The latest installment focuses on legislative reforms our office helped draft and champion that recently passed out of the Illinois House by an overwhelming majority (81-28) and is now in the Senate. Among other protections, the bill requires criminal background checks and certification for employees of guardianship corporations, and regular independent corporate audits. The bill also precludes the corporations from having financial ties with other entities involved in the cases, requires disclosures of budgets and fees, and requires three-year notice to the court when the individual will run out of money if fees are continued to be paid to the corporation.

Still in the air is a provision requiring that a private guardianship corporation meet with and assess the person before being appointed, which is standard best practice and is something our office does in every case. This is opposed by the Illinois Hospital Association. In the article, Public Guardian Charles Golbert notes that more than 20% of guardianships in our office are limited, not full. The Chicago Tribune's series exposed that, for hospital-initiated guardianships to corporations, it's only 2%. Golbert said, "That's scandalous in my mind, and that's what happens when guardianship corporations accept appointments for people they have never met."

You can read the latest installment, by the Tribune's Christy Gutowski, here:

Restrictions on private guardianship of vulnerable adults advance in Springfield Legislation inspired by a Chicago Tribune investigation into some hospitals’ questionable guardianship petitions has advanced from the Illinois House.

National Foster Care Month is an opportunity for us to celebrate foster youth and the people who provide them with love and support. More than 15,000 children are in foster care in Illinois. It is our duty to help vulnerable children, and child welfare professionals and the families they serve. Through education, volunteering, and partnerships, we can strengthen our communities and ensure that youth in foster care have the support they need for a future they deserve.

Foster parents are the backbone of child welfare, and we offer heartfelt thanks to those who bring children into their homes. Please consider becoming a foster parent or mentor, volunteering for an organization that works with youth in care, or donating to support programs that assist children in foster care. Now, more than ever, all of us should find a way to help children in our community.