LGBTQ+ Current State of Affairs

Pride Month CLE

 

Join us for an engaging and timely Continuing Legal Education (CLE) event in honor of Pride Month, featuring distinguished speakers, legal experts, and activists discussing the current state of LGBTQ+ rights and issues.  This CLE is FREE for active members of LAGBAC, the Alliance of Illinois Judges (AIJ), the Chicago Bar Association (CBA) and the Cook County Bar Association (CCBA).  Non-Members are $35.00.  Reserve or purchase your tickets here.

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To receive CLE credit for this event, please enter your ARDC number in the “Order Notes” section at checkout.

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Date: Wednesday, June 18, 2025

Time: 5:00 P.M.

Location:

Bernstein Chicago
227 West Monroe Street, Suite 5900
Chicago, IL 60606

 

Special Guest

 

Precious Brady-Davis
MWRD Commissioner & LGBTQ+ Rights Activist

Precious Brady-Davis (she/her) was appointed to the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago by Governor JB Pritzker in July, 2023 and was elected as Commissioner in 2024. She is the first Black openly trans woman appointed and elected to public office in Cook County history and the first to serve on a water reclamation district in the US.

Commissioner Brady-Davis is a lifelong social justice advocate, communications professional, environmentalist, author of the memoir “I Have Always Been Me” and cares passionately about reaching the marginalized through her extensive career in nonprofit management and public speaking.

For the past six years she has served as the Associate Regional Communications Director at Sierra Club leading campaigns that champion renewable energy, hold corporate polluters accountable, and fight climate change. She counts fighting to protect the water supply in Oklahoma from pollutants; Minneapolis committing to transitioning to run on 100% renewable energy by the end of 2023; along with holding former EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt accountable during the Trump years as solid victories for the environment under her leadership.

She started her professional career serving as the Youth Outreach Coordinator at the Midwest’s largest LGBTQ community resource center, the Center on Halsted, where she coordinated youth programming surrounding HIV prevention, transgender advocacy, and LGBT leadership development. Under Commissioner Brady-Davis’ tenure she launched a $1.6 million CDC grant which provided outreach, education, and testing services to over 3,000 African American and Latino gay, bi, and trans youth across Chicagoland between the ages of 13 and 29.

Commissioner Brady-Davis also previously served as the Assistant Director of Diversity Recruitment Initiatives at Columbia College Chicago, where she implemented the campus-wide diversity initiative and provided leadership and oversight on national diversity recruitment and strategic policy initiatives.

Commissioner Brady-Davis believes strongly in protecting the primary source of drinking water, Lake Michigan, and is invested in advancing green infrastructure to improve community resilience and prevent flooding across Cook County.

A Nebraska native of multiracial background, Commissioner Brady-Davis graduated from Columbia College Chicago with a degree in Interdisciplinary Studies and resides in Hyde Park with her husband Myles where they are raising their two daughters Zayn and Zyon.

Panelists

 

Doug Curtis
Regional Director, Lambda Legal

Douglas F. Curtis (he/his) is an accomplished attorney and civil rights leader with over three decades of experience in high-stakes litigation, corporate governance, and legal strategy. He currently serves as the Midwest Regional Director for Lambda Legal, where he oversees operations and development in the region for the nation’s leading legal organization advocating for the LGBTQ+ community and people living with HIV.

Previously, Doug held senior roles in both law firms and global corporations, including serving as partner at the law firms Arnold & Porter in Chicago and WilmerHale in New York.  His legal career spans numerous trials across industries such as finance, media, pharmaceuticals, and telecommunications.  Among his notable pro bono representations, Doug represented six Guantanamo detainees in the landmark case Boumediene v. Bush.

Doug also brings a wealth of in-house legal leadership from his time at Reuters, where he served as Global Head of Ethics and Compliance and Regional General Counsel for Continental Europe, the Middle East, and Africa.

A graduate of Harvard College and Harvard Law School, where he was an editor and treasurer of the Harvard Law Review, Doug is fluent in French and actively engaged in nonprofit governance, serving in board leadership roles at organizations including the National Center for Law and Economic Justice and the New York-based theater company Elevator Repair Service.

Greg Fosheim
Partner & Advocate for Healthcare & Gender-Affirming Care, McDermott Will & Emery

Jennifer Levi
Senior Director of Transgender & Queer Rights, GLAD Law

Jennifer L. Levi (they/them) is the Senior Director of Transgender and Queer Rights and a nationally recognized expert on transgender legal issues. Jennifer is actively in the fight against President Trump’s anti-LGBTQ+ executive orders.  In two lawsuits, Talbott v. USA and Ireland v. Hegseth, they are litigating a ban on transgender people joining or serving in the military in his second presidency. Jennifer is also co-counsel in three lawsuits challenging an executive order that attempted to force transgender women in prison to be housed in men’s facilities.  They led the legal fight against the first Trump Administration’s military ban in both Doe v. Trump and Stockman v. Trump.

Jennifer’s role is that of architect and advocate for state legislative and policy reform. Their work also involves challenging new legal issues or interpretations brought before the court. Jennifer has represented clients in cases challenging improper denials of medical care as well as improper placement of transgender people in prisons and jails. Other precedent-setting transgender rights cases Jennifer has worked on include:

Rosa v. Park West Bank, a case brought on behalf of a transgender woman denied a bank loan under the federal Equal Credit Opportunity Act that laid the foundation for the recent Supreme Court decision in Bostock v. Clayton County;

O’Donnabhain v. Commissioner of Internal Revenue (2010), which established that medical care relating to gender transition qualifies for a medical tax deduction; and Doe v. Clenchy (2014), in which the first state high court ruled that a transgender girl must be fully integrated into her public elementary school as a girl, including having full and equal access to restrooms.

Jennifer was co-counsel in two landmark marriage equality cases, winning the freedom to marry for same-sex couples in Massachusetts (Goodridge v. Department of Public Health, 2003) and Connecticut (Kerrigan v. Department of Public Health, 2008), and has led a number of key family law cases establishing important protections for families headed by LGBTQ parents including Sinnott v. Peck and Miller-Jenkins v. Miller-Jenkins, both decided by the Vermont Supreme Court.

Jennifer is a law professor at Western New England University, co-editor of Transgender Family Law: A Guide to Effective Advocacy (2012), and serves on the Legal Committee of the World Professional Association for Transgender Health. They are a graduate of the University of Chicago Law School and a former law clerk to the Honorable Judge Michael Boudin at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit.

Allison Siebeneck
Senior Supervising Attorney in LGBTQ+ and Women’s and Reproductive Rights, ACLU

Allison Siebeneck (she/her) is a Supervising Attorney in the LGBTQ+ and Women’s and Reproductive Rights Projects at the ACLU of Illinois.  She leads litigation, policy, and public education efforts to safeguard and expand access to full-spectrum, affirming reproductive health care, protect and promote bodily autonomy more broadly, and advocate for the rights of women, pregnant individuals, and nursing parents in the workplace and in public accommodations.

Howard Suskin
Partner & LGBTQ Forum Co-Chair Emeritus, Jenner & Block

Howard Suskin (he/his) is a litigator and partner at Jenner & Block with substantial first-chair experience in civil and criminal securities matters. Howard co-chairs Jenner & Block’s Investor and Securities Litigation Practice and the Class Action Practice and previously served on the firm’s Management Committee.  He serves as Co-Chair Emeritus of Jenner & Block’s LGBTQ Forum and is a long-time member of the firm’s Diversity Committee. He was the first winner of the firm’s Mentor Award.

Howard has been listed in “Best Lawyers in America” over ten times for commercial
litigation. Illinois Super Lawyers has named him a “Top 100 Illinois Super Lawyer” over ten times since 2007 and a “Top 10 Super Lawyer” in 2015. Business Today has listed him among the Top 10 Most Influential Securities Litigators in Illinois, and the prestigious international ratings service Chambers rates him “Band 1” for Securities Litigation.

In the community at large, Howard has had leadership roles with the Chicago Bar Association, including serving on its Board of Managers and, for the past ten years, as its General Counsel. Howard also is a board member of the ACLU of Illinois and serves on its Executive Committee and Co-Chair of its Investment Committee.

Howard also is very active in many civil rights and charitable organizations within the LGBTQ community nationally and in Illinois and is a frequent panelist addressing diversity issues, including for the Illinois Judges Association and the Illinois Supreme Court Commission on Professionalism. In 2019, Crain’s Chicago Business included Howard on its list of “Notable LGBTQ Executives”.

In 2022, Howard received the Chicago Bar Association’s prestigious Vanguard Award for service to the legal community and promoting access to justice.

Jared Reynolds
Moderator

This Pride CLE is Graciously Sponsored by:

 

Franco La Marca and Bernstein Private Wealth Management

LAGBAC – Chicago’s LGBTQ+ Bar Association

The Alliance of Illinois Judges (AIJ)

 

The LGBTQIA+ Committee of the Chicago Bar Association

The LGBTQ Section of the Cook County Bar Association