Attorney Jim Lemonds was presented with the Land of Lincoln Joseph R. Bartylak Pro Bono Award on October 27, 2011 at a meeting of the St. Clair County Bar Association. Mr. Lemonds is lead trial attorney with Brown and Crouppen in St. Louis and has spent over 200 volunteer hours in the past six years assisting attorneys in the Central Regional Office of Land of Lincoln in East St. Louis. Mr. Lemonds has participated in multiple trial advocacy skills trainings held for Land of Lincoln attorneys, performed demonstrations, and provided critiques of individual staff performances during these intensive, multiple-day trainings. In addition, he has also served as a consultant on a number of predatory lending cases in the Central Region, helping our attorneys to evaluate damage claims.
"Jim has dramatically improved the quality of our skills training, because of his vast deposition and trial experience," states Richard Chase, Litigation and Training Specialist with Land of Lincoln. "He has handled more than 1,000 depositions and tried more than 100 jury trials to verdict. He is able to draw on this experience to give our attorneys invaluable advice on how to improve their litigation skills."
"I very much appreciate the Board recognizing my work," Jim Lemonds states. "But the real award goes to the lawyers and staff of Land of Lincoln who work their hearts out every day, just as Joe Bartylak did, to serve those among us who would otherwise be denied access to our justice system because of a lack of financial resources."
The Land of Lincoln Joseph R. Bartylak Pro Bono Awards were created in 2011 in memory of Joseph R. Barylak, who was Land of Lincoln's Executive Director from 1976 to 2003. The Board of Directors of Land of Lincoln created these awards to honor a volunteer attorney from each of its five regions who has directly achieved outstanding results for our clients or who has supported Land of Lincoln staff in their delivery of high quality legal services.
