Roman Seckel was nominated by Administer Justice, a local legal aid organization with an office in Elgin, IL, and has received the Kane County Bar Foundation Award for Pro Bono Service for 2019. Roman follows two other recipients of the KCBF Pro Bono Award in recent years. Mark Brent received the Pro Bono Award in 2015. The Drendel & Jansons Law Group nomination as a firm and received the the John C. McAndrews Pro Bono Service Award from the Illinois State Bar Association in 2016.
We have not sat on our laurels, as all the attorneys in the Drendel & Jansons Law Group are committed to the principal that we have a professional responsibility to give back to the community and to people who can’t afford access to justice with the skills, experience and knowledge that we have acquired and that allow us to support our families in relative comfort compared to many in our community who don’t have the same luxury. We very much take seriously the Preamble to the Rules of Professional Conduct that govern the legal profession:
“It is … the responsibility of those licensed as officers of the court to use their training, experience, and skills to provide services in the public interest for which compensation may not be available. It is the responsibility of those who manage law firms to create an environment that is hospitable to the rendering of a reasonable amount of uncompensated service by lawyers practicing in that firm. Service in the public interest …. include[s] but [is] not limited to pro bono representation of persons unable to pay for legal services and assistance in the organized bar’s efforts at law reform.”
Roman Seckel has embraced that responsibility and is exemplary in the consistency of his dedication to that principal of providing legal services in the public interest, not just in providing pro bono representation to individuals, but in fostering an environment in the legal profession that is hospitable to the provision of uncompensated legal services and reform of the law for the betterment of society.
Therefore, we are very honored to acknowledge the recognition that Roman has received from the Kane County Bar Foundation that is inherent in the KCBF Pro Bono Award. That Roman is one of three attorneys in the Drendel & Jansons Law Group to receive the award since 2015 speaks as highly to the Firm’s commitment to the professional responsibility of giving back as it does to Roman’s own commitment to that principal. May the legal profession live up to that responsibility, and all the more as our society strains under the pressure of polarizing forces that threaten to undo us.
For Roman, this commitment to the provision of pro bono services is not a new thing. He has always embraced that professional responsibility from the beginning of his career, as is evident in the short interview and feature of Roman as the Illinois Pro Bono Attorney of the Month in December of 2010: