My Nonprofit Reviews

PBN vets and then partners with a variety of Chicago-area non-profits to match volunteers (in pairs or small groups) with legal-aid type projects and other opportunities. Despite large #s of stay-at-home moms (SAHMs) among its volunteer ranks, PBN is *not* exclusively for SAHMs...so all you prospective male & other non-mom volunteers out there should feel more than welcome to check it out.
The model of the organization was indeed built around the needs of SAHMs but can certainly work well for others: solo practitioners, other lawyers with flexible schedules...essentially, anyone interested in doing legal volunteer work who wants the group benefits of collaboration, training, emergency back-up, etc.) ...and even a few non-lawyers who volunteer other types of services to make this growing organization continue to run smoothly).
As a formerly unhappy big-firm attorney who left law for several years while raising kids, I was at one time very doubtful that I'd ever return to the profession. I'd started a very part-time solo practice but just wasn't all that excited about resuming life as an attorney. Happily, in the midst of my soul-searching, the initial chapter of PBN cropped up in my hometown (Oak Park) at the start of 2011 & has proven to be just what I (and apparently many others) needed. It's given me the opportunity to dust off that part of my brain, put my legal skills to good use, meet some absolutely fantastic people, and get a feel for various areas of the law that I'd never have tried otherwise, all while serving those in need.
PBN has a great variety of projects going at any time (especially late August through early June); check out their Meetup & FB pages for more info. Over the past 3 1/2 years, I've really enjoyed working on their senior clinics, immigration project, legislative monitoring for the homeless, and jail clinic (helping inmates, yes, but more compelling in my mind is that you're really helping kids who are unlucky enough to have a mom who's incarcerated). I have a feeling I'm forgetting one or two, but all have been good experiences. And I'm hoping to try my hand at some of their other projects during this coming school year....things slow down on most of their projects during the summer and get revved up again during the school year--perfect for anyone with kids (or even just a busy summer travel schedule).
As a bonus, the women who started this group almost 4 years ago and who still run it today are very impressive professionally, but they're also funny, warm, kind, super-intelligent individuals. It's always a lot of fun to work with them, which makes PBN socially rewarding, on top of everything else.