Elena Marcheschi has joined The John Marshall Law School’s Academic Achievement Program as assistant director.
She will be working with students to help prepare them for the bar exam through various programs run by the Academic Achievement Program. She brings to the job skills she has used to help laid off employees in the arts community, and those developed as program director for the Chicago Center for Arts Policy at Columbia College Chicago. Many of those skills are transferrable to the work she’s doing now in helping students look toward a goal and learn how best to accomplish the goal.
Marcheschi at one time worked in the scenic arts, and then moved into representing her co-workers through their union’s regional office. When the office merged with the national office, Marcheschi decided to earn a law degree.
She enjoyed her work with labor unions and negotiations and clerked for a labor law firm while at John Marshall. She was hired there after graduation in 1991 and worked for several years before accepting the position at Columbia College. She later opened a solo practice.
Marcheschi still is a card-carrying member of the Chicago Federation of Labor and has served in various capacities on its board. She also has been a member the past 18 years of the Illinois Arts Council.