Yelena Cristine Duterte earned her B.A. at the University of Illinois in Chicago in 2007 and her J.D. at The John Marshall law School in 2012. She currently practices at The John Marshall Law School Veterans Legal Clinic in Chicago, Illinois.
Barbara Goeben is a 1996 graduate from Northwestern Law School where she focused on fair housing and poverty law issues. While an undergraduate at Washington D.C., Ms. Goeben interned at C.N.N. and Amnesty International. Upon graduation from law school, she worked at Land of Lincoln Legal Assistance Foundation, Inc. with a specialty on consumer and housing issues. While at Land of Lincoln, she helped established the consumer information desk at the Madison County Small Claims Court docket and a program to do direct legal outreach at homeless shelters throughout Madison County. Since 2006 Ms. Goeben has worked at the Legal Advocacy Service representing clients at both the trial and appellate level. The Legal Advocacy Service, which is part of the Illinois Guardianship and Advocacy Commission, represents those who face involuntary civil commitment or medication and patients' denial of rights and services.
Diane M. Goffinet is a senior supervisory attorney at Land of Lincoln Legal Assistance Foundation, Inc. in the Southern Regional office. She deals primary with health and welfare issues, but also works in family law, consumer and estate law as well. From 1992-1994 she was a judicial clerk to US District Court Judge J. Phil Gilbert, during which time she was assigned to his social security appeals docket. She joined Land of Lincoln in 1994, and from the Fall of 1997 through 2007, she served as the Health & Welfare Task Force Coordinator and SSI specialist for Land of Lincoln. She has handled hundreds of Title II and SSI cases at all levels of the application and appeal process. She is also the co-founder and Legal Supervisor for the Medical Legal Partnership of Southern Illinois. She is a member of the Illinois State Bar Association, as well as the Jackson County Bar Association, of which she previously served as secretary, vice president and president. She is a 1992 graduate of SIU School of Law and was previously a member of the advisory board for the National Center for Medical-Legal Partnership, located in George Washington School of Public Health and Health Services.
Brandy L. Johnson was born in Carbondale, Illinois is 1976. In 2000, she graduated from Southern Illinois University Carbondale with a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science with a minor in the Administration of Justice. Ms. Johnson received her Juris Doctorate, magna cum laude, from Southern Illinois University School of Law in 2003. She was admitted to practice law in Illinois in 2003 and in Missouri in 2004. Mrs. Johnson is admitted to practice law in all courts in the states of Missouri and Illinois. She is also admitted to practice before the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri, the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit, and the United States District Court for the Southern District of Illinois. Ms. Johnson is a member of the Illinois State Bar Association and was appointed a member of the Association s Standing Committee for Disability Law in 2012. She is a member of the Missouri Bar Association and has been a member of its Workers Compensation Commission for several years. Ms. Johnson currently hold the position of Secretary of the Jackson County Bar Association. Mrs. Johnson concentrates her practice in workers compensation and employment law, but has experience in the areas of tort litigation, including premises liability, personal injury, appellate practice, insurance law, and medical malpractice. Ms. Johnson has authored appellate briefs in appeals to the United States Supreme Court, the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit, the Missouri Supreme Court, the Missouri Court of Appeals for the Southern District of Missouri, the Missouri Court of Appeals for the Eastern District of Missouri, the Missouri Labor and Industrial Relations Commission, and the Illinois Court of Appeals for the Fifth District. Mrs. Johnson has published articles in the Journal of Legal Medicine, the Journal of Health Law, the Hematology Oncology Clinics of North America Health Law and Policy, the Encyclopedia of Women s Health, the Encyclopedia of Aging and Public Health, the Missouri Medical Law Report, the Encyclopedia of Immigrant Health, Public Risk Magazine, the HIV/AIDS Desk Reference for Mental Health Professionals, and Forensic Epidemiology in the Global Context. Ms. Johnson has served as a speaker at numerous seminars, both nationally and in Missouri, related to workers compensation. Ms. Johnson lives in Carbondale with her husband.
Joan Spiegel earned her J.D. at Washington University Law School in 1981. She currently serves as the Managing Attorney for the Land of Lincoln Legal Assistance Foundation, a role she has filled since 1997. Prior to this, Ms. Spiegel was a staff attorney at the Land of Legal Assistance Foundation from 1981-1987 and 1989-1996. She was also an attorney at Becker & Motil in Granite City, Illinois from 1987-1988. Ms. Spiegel s practice concentrates on the areas of family law, public benefits, social security disability, and the educational rights of children with disabilities. She is a member of the Madison County Bar Association, Third Judicial Circuit Pro Bono Committee, and Illinois State Bar Association.
Thomas Yates is General Counsel at Health & Disability Advocates, an advocacy group in Chicago that works to preserve and improve public benefits programs for children, low-income elderly and persons with disabilities. Mr. Yates has been affiliated with Health & Disability Advocates since 1996. He also has been in practice with Jeffrey Rabin & Associates in Chicago in 1998-99, the Legal Assistance Foundation of Chicago from 1985 to 1996, and Northeast Kentucky Legal Services in Morehead, Kentucky from 1983 to 1985. His legal practice has focused on Social Security, Supplemental Security Income, and Medicaid issues. Mr. Yates received the Child Health Advocate Award from the American Academy of Pediatrics in 2005, the Distinguished Service Award from National Organization of Social Security Claimants Representatives in April 2006, the Excellence in Pro Bono Group Service Award from the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois and the Chicago Chapter of the Federal Bar Association in June 2006, the Trial Lawyer of the Year Finalist Award from the Trial Lawyers for Public Justice in 2006, and the Thomas H. Morsch Public Service Award from the Chicago Bar Foundation in 2013. Mr. Yates is a graduate of the University of Iowa College of Law in 1983 and Cornell College in 1980.