Chicago attorney Michael G. Bergmann, Pro Bono Initiative director for the Public Interest Law Initiative, has been named Young Lawyer of the Year for Cook County. Sycamore solo practitioner Heather M. Fritsch is Young Lawyer of the Year outside of Cook County.

Both will be honored Friday, June 22, at an awards luncheon during the 131st Annual Meeting at The Abbey Resort, Fontana, Wis.

Bergmann, a 2002 graduate of the DePaul University College of Law, serves on the ISBA Assembly, is secretary of the Child Law Section Council, and a member of the Committee on Delivery of Legal Services.

He joined the PILI program in July 2006 after three years as a staff attorney and court-appointed Probate Division guardian ad litem with the Chicago Volunteer Legal Services Foundation.

Bergmann's work involves promoting and coordinating pro bono service by members of law firms and corporate legal offices, and law students, with efforts of the organized bar and legal assistance agencies to serve eligible individuals.

“Michael has earned his growing reputation as a rising star in the public interest/poverty law arena,” said PILI executive director Susan J. Curry in her letter of nomination.

“He is a leader within his agency, a role model for PILI interns and fellows that we place at agencies throughout the city, and an inspiration even to his more senior colleagues.”

Bergmann has received a Kimball and Karen Anderson Public Interest Law Fellowship from the Chicago Bar Foundation and a Rising Star Award from the CBA Young Lawyers Section.

Fritsch, a 2000 graduate of the Chicago-Kent College of Law, serves on the ISBA Young Lawyers Division Council and the Committee on Women and the Law, and is on the steering committee for the 2007 Solo and Small Firm Conference.

She opened her Sycamore law office in August 2006 after three years with The Foster & Buick Law Group in DeKalb and two years with Dreyer, Foote, Streit, Furgason & Slocum, Aurora.

Fritsch is a pro bono volunteer with Prairie State Legal Services, a board member of Opportunity House, and vice chair of the Kishwaukee United Way Campaign. In 2006, she organized a benefit for Hurricane Katrina relief.

“Heather's decision to establish her own firm was made, in part, because she wanted to be able to devote more time to farming with her father (in Shabbona), and to increase her participation in volunteer and pro bono work,” said Sycamore attorney Mary F. Petruchius in her nomination letter.

“She believes an attorney's role is not only to be a strong advocate who zealously protects and pursues her clients' rights, but to also remember that the attorney is dealing with the lives of clients, not just theoretical situations or sets of facts.”

Fritsch has written several insightful articles for newsletters of the Young Lawyers Division and Committee on Women and the Law.