This is an independent archive. It is not the SAEF Legal Aid charity, which no longer operates this domain, and it is not affiliated with or endorsed by the University of Chicago. Nothing here is legal advice — here is where to get real help.
SAEF Legal Aid Archive & referral

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Chicago, Illinois · Archive

A charity that tried to make family law navigable — and where to go now.

SAEF Legal Aid built a free tool that asked people what had gone wrong in their family and told them which Chicago organization could actually help. It won the University of Chicago’s Social New Venture Challenge in 2021, and stopped publishing the year after. This site records what it was, and does the one thing it did that still matters: point people somewhere real.

I need legal help now Read the UChicago story

If you came here for help

You have probably arrived from a link that is several years old. The tool that used to sit at this address is gone, and this site cannot advise you, take your case, or look anything up on your behalf. What it can do is hand you the current list, which is short and which works:

  • Illinois Legal Aid Online Start here.

    A statewide, free, plain-language guide to Illinois civil law, with an online intake that refers you to the legal aid program covering your county and your problem. It also publishes court-approved do-it-yourself forms for divorce, parentage, custody and child support, which is the closest current equivalent to what this site used to host.

  • CARPLS Legal Aid Free advice by phone, Cook County.
    312-738-9200

    A free legal aid hotline staffed by lawyers, serving Cook County since 1993. Illinois Legal Aid Online lists its hours as Monday to Friday, 9am–4:30pm, extended to 7:30pm on Mondays and Wednesdays, and its eligibility as household income up to 350% of the federal poverty level. If CARPLS cannot take the matter itself, it tells you who else to call.

  • Legal Aid Chicago Free civil representation, income-qualified.
    312-341-1070

    Free civil legal assistance for low-income people in Cook County. Applications are taken by phone at the number above and online through Illinois Legal Aid Online.

  • Cook County Circuit Court help desks Free lawyers, inside the courthouse.

    Several Cook County courthouses run help desks where a lawyer will give free advice to people representing themselves. Locations and hours move, so check the court's own site for the current list rather than travelling on the strength of an old one.

  • Greater Chicago Legal Clinic Domestic violence, housing, benefits.
    312-726-2938

    Its own site lists 24-hour intake on the number above, and its practice areas as domestic violence, Social Security disability and SSI appeals, foreclosure, eviction and consumer matters — not general family law, so call Illinois Legal Aid Online or CARPLS first for custody or child support. Illinois Legal Aid Online's directory also lists it on 773-731-1762 with fees that scale to income. This is the clinic where SAEF's founder worked in 2019, the summer before starting SAEF.

  • Justice Entrepreneurs Project (JEP) Fixed-fee private lawyers.
    312-546-3282

    A network of solo and small-firm lawyers offering fixed fees and limited-scope representation — being hired for one hearing or one document rather than the whole case. Not free, but priced against the gap this site was originally built to describe.

More detail on each of these, and what to have ready before you call →

What SAEF was

SAEF stood for Support, Advocacy, Education for Families. It was started by a University of Chicago student, Eamonn Keenan, after a summer working at the Greater Chicago Legal Clinic in 2019, where he noticed that the problem was often not that no help existed but that people could not describe their situation well enough to be routed to it (South Side Weekly, “The High Price of Family Law”).

The product was a survey. You said what had happened; it told you which organization to contact and why — “a next step and contact, instead of leaving the litigant to call countless services.” Alongside it the site published a plain-English glossary of Illinois family law terms and a small library of explainer articles. Those glossary pages are the reason other sites still link here.

Why it mattered

  • $11,000–$14,000What a contested divorce costs in Illinois
  • 63,573Divorces filed in Cook County, 2010–2016
  • 86%Of low-income Americans with a civil legal problem who got no or inadequate help (2016 Justice Gap Survey)

Figures as reported by South Side Weekly, “The High Price of Family Law”. Contested family matters are rarely taken on for free, because they consume far more attorney time than most pro bono work — which is precisely the gap SAEF was aiming at.

The University of Chicago connection

SAEF came out of the University of Chicago’s startup machinery rather than its law school. It won first place and $75,000 in the 2021 Social New Venture Challenge, the social-impact track of Chicago Booth’s New Venture Challenge, run with the Rustandy Center for Social Sector Innovation.

The full story — the Challenge, the 2021 results, and the University’s own legal clinics →

What happened to it

SAEF was granted 501(c)(3) status in September 2021. Its site stopped being updated during 2022, it no longer appears in the IRS list of tax-exempt organizations, and the domain lapsed and was later registered by the operator of this archive. No public dissolution notice was found. If you know more, the about page explains how to correct this record.