Sonnenschein Partner Natalie Spears Receives MLHRC* Award

Sonnenschein partner Natalie Spears received the Midwest Light of Human Rights Award at the Sixth Annual Midwest Light of Human Rights Awards on May 25, 2005. Natalie has represented eight asylum seekers and their families, including individuals from the Democratic Republic of Congo, Guatemala, Pakistan, Palestine, Togo and Tunisia, and has mentored attorneys representing many others.

In recent years, she secured asylum for a number of women: survivors of domestic violence, rape, and other forms of gender-based persecution, including one of the first grants of asylum in Chicago involving a threatened “honor killing”—a punishment sanctioned in certain parts of the world for perceived harm done to patriarchal family honor by a wife, sister or daughter.

Natalie is the co-chair of the Leadership Council of the Midwest Immigrant and Human Rights Center (MIHRC) and has served as a MIHRC pro bono attorney since 1996. As Leadership Council co-chair, she has strengthened MIHRC’s programs, resources, policy and advocacy work, and pro bono recruitment efforts and has been a leader in advancing the rights of immigrants and asylum seekers in the Midwest. Combining her compassion with her strategic vision and advocacy skills, Natalie has made invaluable contributions to her clients and the legal community.

* The MLHRC is now known as the National Immigrant Justice Center.