Never before has the role of non-profit board members been so important. With many non-profits stretched beyond the capacity trying to meet serious community needs with constricting financial resources, board members must provide both strategic leadership and steady stewardship, with a focus on financial sustainability. This panel discussion will address why it is important for lawyers to be engaged in the community through non-profit board service and how to get involved.

Moderator: 

Richard L. Sevcik ’85, is a partner at K&L Gates.  He concentrates his practice in exempt organizations and health care law.  His board service includes Board of Trustees and Planned
Giving Advisory Council for the Ravinia Festival Association; Board of Trustees and Chair of the Planned Giving Advisory Council for the Lincoln Park Zoological Society; Member of the Northwestern Memorial Foundation Professional Council for Philanthropy; Secretary of the National Merit Scholarship Corporation; and Member of Board of Advisors, Strategic Planning Committee, and Children, Youth and Family Services Committee for the Catholic Charities of the
Archdiocese of Chicago. 

Panelists:

Thomas A. Cole ‘75 is a partner in Sidley’s Chicago office, where he focuses his practice on public company mergers and acquisitions and corporate governance. For 15 years ended in April
2013, he served as Chair of the firm’s Executive Committee, the committee that exercises general authority over the affairs of the firm.  He is a member of the Board of Trustees of the University of Chicago; Chairman – Emeritus of the Board of Trustees of Northwestern Memorial HealthCare; Director of World Sport Chicago; and member of the Economic Club of Chicago, the Commercial Club of Chicago and its Civic Committee, and the Law Club of Chicago.  He is the former Chair of Northwestern University’s Garrett Corporate and Securities Law Institute and former co-chair of the Tulane Corporate Law Institute.  During the Spring Quarter, he will again teach a seminar in Corporate Governance at the Law School. 

Jesse Ruiz ’95, is a partner in the Corporate and Securities Group at Drinker Biddle, where he also serves as the firm’s Marketing Partner.  In addition to serving as a member of the board of directors of Commonwealth Edison, an Exelon Company, he is Vice President of the Chicago Board of Education, a Commissioner on the U.S. Department of Education Equity and Excellence Committee, Chairman of the Council on Re-enrolling Students Who Dropped Out of School, and serves on the Executive Committee of the Chicago Community Trust.  He is past chairman or president of the Illinois State Board of Education, Chicago Committee on Minorities in Large Law Firms, Hispanic Lawyers Association of Illinois, and the Hispanic Lawyers Scholarship Fund of Illinois Board of Trustees.  He serves on the board of directors of the Chicago Bar Foundation, Chicago Legal Clinic, Inc., Illinois Association of School Boards, Metropolitan Planning Council, Museum of Science and Industry, National Museum of Mexican Art, and Rush University Medical Center. 

Courtney VanLonkhuyzen is Lead Procurement Counsel of Motorola Mobility and Executive Director of the Motorola Mobility Foundation.  She was a member of the Board of Directors of the former Eleanor Foundation and is now a member of the Board of Directors of the Chicago Foundation for Women, a nonprofit organization that focuses on improving the lives of women and girls through expanding economic security, ensuring freedom from violence, and enhancing access to health services and information.  She was recently named a member of the Crain’s Chicago Business 40 Under 40 Class of 2013.

Organized by the Office of the Dean of Students.