Mark J. Heyrman recently retired after forty-one years as a Clinical Professor at the University of Chicago Law School. The primary focus of his work at the Law School was to teach law students to be effective advocates through their supervised litigation on behalf of indigent clients with mental illnesses and legislative advocacy on behalf of mental health organizations. In addition to providing legal assistance to thousands of persons with mental illnesses, Mr. Heyrman and his students drafted and helped to enact more than one hundred bills designed to improve mental health services in Illinois. In 1988 he served as Executive Director of the Governor's Commission to Revise the Mental Health Code of Illinois.
Mr. Heyrman is currently of counsel to the Monahan Law Group. He also serves as General Counsel to Mental Health America. He continues to work on public policy and legislative advocacy as:
- a member of the Public Policy Committee of Mental Health America
- a Board member and chair of the Public Policy Committee of Mental Health America of Illinois
- Facilitator of the Mental Health Summit, a coalition of mental health service providers and advocates for persons with mental illness
- a member of the Chicago Bar Association’s Mental Health and Disability Law Committee
- a member and legislative liaison of the Section on Mental Health Law of the Illinois State Bar Association.
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In Remembrance
We lost our dear friend Joseph De Raimses, III on July 10, 2020, after his many years of service as Pro Bono General Counsel to MHA. We mourn that loss, and celebrate his many contributions to our field.