CAL Co-Founder & Executive Director, Chlece Walker-Neal-Murray, receives Jean Crowe Pro Bono Award
From the American Bar Association:
Chlece Walker-Neal-Murray, JD, MSW, MS is the Co-Founder and Executive Director of Chicago Advocate Legal, NFP (CAL), a nonprofit law firm created to expand access to justice in family law for low-income and underrepresented populations. For over a decade, she has provided pro bono and low-cost legal services to families navigating domestic relations, child welfare, and parenting disputes, often in communities where legal resources are scarce. Chlece has also been a longtime volunteer with Chicago Volunteer Legal Services (CVLS), serving as both a Guardian ad Litem and Child Representative. Through her career and volunteer commitments, Chlece has shown sustained commitment to protecting the rights and well-being of vulnerable children and families. Through Chlece’s leadership, CAL has received grants from the Illinois Chapter of the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers, the Illinois Lawyers Trust Fund, and the Polk Brothers, to name a few. Currently, Chlece plans to lead CAL to create a supervised parenting time agency, targeting low-income families.
Beyond the practice of law, Chlece is the creator of the Preventative Law Initiative (PLI)—an exploratory model that uses legal education, cognitive-behavioral tools, and anticipatory planning to reduce court involvement and promote self-advocacy, particularly among Black families and low-income parents. PLI reimagines how legal services can be delivered through community workshops, peer advocacy, and technology-driven early intervention, helping people navigate conflict before it escalates into crisis and court involvement.
Chlece is also a doctoral candidate in social work at the University of Illinois-Chicago, where her research focuses on health equity and access to justice in domestic relations courts. In addition to being a volunteer with CVLS, Chlece is also an approved court-appointed Guardian ad Litem and Child Representative in the Circuit Court of Cook County, where she brings a trauma-informed and equity-centered lens to every case.
Her work reflects the spirit and legacy of Jean Crowe, who fiercely advocated for those most overlooked by the legal system. Like Jean Crowe, Chlece integrates deep community commitment with visionary leadership—fighting not only for individual clients, but for systemic transformation in how the law serves those it too often fails. Her work goes “above and beyond,” not just offering representation, but building structures for sustainable, dignified justice.
Chlece did not simply fall into her career. On the contrary, her commitment to advocating for low-income and underrepresented populations guided her throughout law school and her master of social work program, and also into obtaining a Master of Science in Software Engineering specifically to learn how to design online tools to improve outcomes for self-represented litigants.
Furthermore, Chlece’s innate ability to completely immerse herself into the spirit and legacy of Jean Crowe has also led her to be an Adjunct Faculty member at Loyola University Chicago (LUC) School of Law, and previously as the Child Trafficking Coordinator of the Center for Human Rights of Children at LUC School of Law. Previously, Chlece was awarded the 2022 Illinois State Bar Association Young Lawyer of the Year and the 2021 Loyola University Chicago School of Law Public Service Merit Award.
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