Building Strong Foundations with Gould & Ratner

For the past 25 years, Gould & Ratner has provided Habitat Chicago with pro bono legal services, allowing us to focus on investing in affordable homeownership in the city while providing Gould & Ratner’s lawyers with fulfilling opportunities to give back to their community. 

The array of work Gould & Ratner does with us is felt in every part of the organization. They have provided general counsel, helped us secure and negotiate our lease for ReStore Chicago South, assisted with the closing process for all our homebuyers, and will help set up a homeowners association for our new townhome development. 

In each of these projects, Gould & Ratner’s team interprets dense legal contracts and helps us make decisions with confidence.

 “The partnership [with Gould & Ratner] gives us additional capacity to focus on moving our work forward,” said Cortland Smith, our Director of Finance and Operations. “We have the peace of mind knowing that they are looking through all our legal contracts and protecting us and the people we work with.” 

As “pro bono” implies, Gould & Ratner provides Habitat Chicago over $120,000 in cost-free services each year. Instead of spending that money on legal services, we are able to invest more in our programs, including building new homes and funding resident-led projects in our focus neighborhoods. 

Though we receive counsel at no charge, our staff has always felt like a priority. Staff members who have worked with Gould & Ratner’s lawyers all expressed how timely and thorough their responses are. 

Jen Parks, our Executive Director, explained, “I never feel like we're an afterthought. They treat us just like they treat all their other clients.” 

Parks (left) at an event with Lingertat (right) and her colleague (middle).

It was no surprise to us that this past August Gould & Ratner attorneys Jessica Lingertat and Tamara Hibbard were recognized in the 2026 Edition of The Best Lawyers in America®. We recently celebrated the one-year anniversary of ReStore Chicago South, and we couldn’t have done it without Hibbard’s negotiation skills and commitment to our mission. As for Lingertat, our general counsel, she is the glue to our partnership. Lingertat fields all questions and concerns our Executive Director has and ensures Gould & Ratner's current projects are going smoothly. 

“[The partnership] is a perfect embodiment of our values of community engagement and collaboration. The work we do for Habitat allows us to put those values into practice, bringing together teams with different skill sets to help further their cause,” said Lingertat. 

While most of the partnership work occurs between our staff and Gould & Ratner’s lawyers, Jean Kenol, a partner at Gould & Ratner, helps our homebuyers with their closing processes. Buying a home is a decision that can be overwhelming without prior legal or real estate knowledge, so he ensures our homebuyers are comfortable every step of the way. If buyers do not have legal representation, Kenol assumes the role of their lawyer and explains the hundreds of legal documents during the final step of the homebuying process. 

Habitat Chicago homebuyer Belinda (left) at her closing with Kenol (right).

The relation between the two organizations is truly a partnership, not just a donation of services. Both parties have received numerous benefits from the work accomplished over the years. 

“I think it's become part of our culture. When we interview people to hire them or they interview us to hire us, one of the things we tell them is our support for Habitat. We're very proud of it,” said John Mays, the Gould & Ratner partner helping us set up a homeowners association for our townhome development. 

For Kenol, our partnership was a factor when he was deciding to accept his current role at Gould & Ratner. His predecessor helped our homebuyers with the closing process for more than 15 years, and he took it over with delight. 

“It’s a rewarding feeling to be able to give back to the community. I think that it makes you a better person. It makes you a better a lawyer. It brings more passion to what you do,” said Kenol. 

Gould & Ratner team on a Habitat Chicago build site.

The Gould & Ratner team loves working with us because it is an opportunity to make a direct impact on our Chicago neighbors. When a group of Gould & Ratner lawyers came out to the build site to volunteer, it was not only a great team bonding experience, but also a physical example of what our partnership helps us create together. One of Lingertat’s favorite projects was helping set up our small grants program, funding resident-led projects aiming to improve the physical, social, and economic landscape of the neighborhoods we work with. 

“I’m very proud to be a part of [Habitat’s] process and to show my kids how important it is to make time to give back and find a community of people doing work that you believe in,” said Lingertat. 

We are so grateful for our longstanding partnership with Gould & Ratner. Their contributions have been invaluable to us, and we are happy to know how much this work has meant to them as well. 

“I've gotten just as much out of the partnership as you have gotten from me,” Kenol said. “I'll do it for as long as you'll let me.”