In the Community

Barack Ferrazzano is strongly committed to community service through its BFKN Foundation.

The BFKN Foundation was created in 2005 to facilitate the firm's goal to become more active in the community and dedicate time and resources to those most in need of our support.  Through the BFKN Foundation, the firm is involved in community programs that provide our professionals and staff with opportunities to have a positive impact on the lives of disadvantaged people.

Sharon Krista McAuliffe School

Since 2005, the firm has partnered with the Sharon Krista McAuliffe School, a Chicago inner-city pre-K through sixth grade school.  The majority of the McAuliffe School’s 1,000  students are African-American or Hispanic, and roughly half live below the poverty line. 

Our ongoing partnership with the school is organized around four annual events:

• A back to school kickoff event to encourage increased school attendance, at which each student receives a backpack filled with school supplies donated by the firm;
• A winter holiday party thrown by the firm, at which all students receive gifts of warm winter clothing and the neediest also receive new winter coats, donated by the firm;
• Tutoring sessions led by BFKN volunteers to help students prepare for standardized testing; and
•  A spring career day for older students to visit the firm and learn about legal careers from firm professionals and staff and friends of BFKN.

Restorative Justice Program

The firm also provides volunteers and financial support to the Restorative Justice Program in Chicago’s public high schools.  The Restorative Justice Program, which is administered by the non-profit organization Alternatives, Inc., assists high schools with establishing peer jury programs as an alternative to traditional, more punitive discipline.  Students trained by the Restorative Justice Program present and defend cases to a jury of their peers, which determines an appropriate resolution. Throughout the year, firm professionals and staff volunteer to meet with and advise students who have taken on leadership roles in the program.  The majority of student leaders and participants in the Restorative Justice program are members of racial minorities and come from disadvantaged backgrounds.