David J. Chizewer, attorney at Goldberg Kohn Ltd., was recently elected to serve as president of The Chicago International Charter School (CISC) network. Goldberg Kohn is one of Chicago Scholars' High-Five Sponsors, an organization that donates $55,000 over the course of 5 years to alleviate our scholars' costs of attending college. Congratulations to David, and thanks again to Goldberg Kohn for their continued generosity!

April 26, 2010 Volume: 156 Issue: 81

Trial attorney balances his work with state charter school system

By Jerry Crimmins

An award-winning Chicago trial lawyer with the law firm of Goldberg, Kohn Ltd. is also the recently elected president of the largest charter school system in Illinois.
Asked how he manages to be a trial lawyer and the president of a school system, David J. Chizewer said, "I don't sleep a lot." Chizewer also co-founded the Illinois Network of Charter Schools, an advocacy group that tries to educate people about charter schools.
When he's balancing a career as a trial lawyer, plus the school involvement, plus being a husband and a ather of two elementary school boys, he said, "I think it imposes a discipline on you that you might not otherwise have that really seems to make everything work." Chizewer, 44, was elected in February as president of The Chicago International Charter School. CICS operates 13 campuses that serve more than 8,000 students from pre-kindergarten to 12th grade. He said that, in addition to his regular law practice, he puts in about 500 hours a year leading CICS and working for the Illinois Network of Charter Schools. "I personally have never billed an hour of my time to this charter school or to any other charter school that I frequently get calls and questions for," he said. "I get called all the time because I've been doing this work so long, and I'm a lawyer. I probably know more than any other lawyer in the city about the
Illinois charter school law."

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