About me
Avani Patel is the Supervising Senior Manager of the Illinois Court Help Program at the Administrative Office of the Illinois Courts (AOIC) and a Project Specialist at the Institute for Inclusion in the Legal Profession (IILP). In her role at AOIC, she leads a team of court guides dedicated to assisting court users on state court matters in all 102 Illinois counties via phone, text message, and webmail. Her team helps with navigating court processes and court forms and answering court-related inquiries. Avani also plays a crucial role in collecting and analyzing user data and stories to identify system gaps, making recommendations to simplify and standardize court procedures and forms. As a member of the Access to Justice Division management team, she contributes to the oversight of the Illinois Courts’ statewide access to justice strategy and programs.
Before joining AOIC, Avani built a robust career in business development and legal recruitment with organizations that provide support services to the legal profession. Shortly after law school, she joined the Chicago Volunteer Legal Services Foundation (CVLS) as a supervising attorney for the Economic Issues Program, where she managed the program, represented clients in bankruptcy, family law and contract disputes, supervised interns and volunteers, and conducted trainings throughout Chicago.
In 2023, Avani was appointed by Illinois Supreme Court Chief Justice Theis to the Supreme Court of Illinois Committee on Equal Justice. She currently serves as a board member of the National Asian Pacific American Bar Association (NAPABA), the president of the South Asian Bar Association (SABA) of Chicago Foundation and is a past-president of SABA Chicago. Her leadership experience includes serving four years on the SABA-DC board, serving as a former president of Women in eDiscovery’s DC chapter, and formerly co-chairing a DEI committee for the Women's Bar Association of Washington, DC, as well as the sponsorship committee for the Chicago chapter of the Coalition of Women's Initiatives in Law.