Lambda Legal Expands Advocacy for LGBT Youth as Skadden Fellow Kara Ingelhart Joins Midwest Regional Office

Lambda Legal is pleased to welcome 2015 Skadden fellow and former legal intern Kara Ingelhart to its Midwest Regional Office team. Ingelhart, a University of Chicago Law School graduate, was awarded the fellowship to assist LGBTQ youth with juvenile or criminal records by addressing the many barriers low-income LGBTQ youth face in accessing housing, employment and educational opportunities.

“We are excited that Kara has returned to the Midwest Regional Office (MRO),” said Jim Bennett, MRO Regional Director. “Kara was a vibrant part of Lambda Legal’s Midwest team as a legal intern, and we’re thrilled to have a powerful and passionate new attorney in Chicago to tear down the barriers that can block LGBTQ youth from reaching their full potential.”

“I can’t put into words how happy I am to be back at Lambda Legal and doing this important work,” said Ingelhart, who served as a Lambda Legal intern in 2013. “Lambda Legal is the best place for me to put my skills to work as an advocate for LGBTQ youth who urgently need support.”

At the University of Chicago, Ingelhart was the president of Outlaw and vice president of Law Students for Reproductive Justice. She previously worked for the National LGBTQ Task Force, received grants from the Lesbian and Gay Bar Association of Chicago and the Cook County State’s Attorney's LGBT Pride Celebration Scholarship program and held an internship at the Kinsey Institute for Research in Sex, Gender & Reproduction.

Established in 1988, the Skadden Fellowship Program provides funding for graduating law students to pursue public service legal projects. Ingelhart is one of 28 fellows in the program’s 2015 class. At Lambda Legal, Ingelhart will focus her efforts on providing post-dispositional advocacy to LGBTQ teens and young adults who enter the juvenile and criminal justice systems at disproportionately high rates, receive harsher and more restrictive sentences and are frequently low-income persons of color.

Read the press release.