In 1973, our agency began as the Evanston Defender Project in response to a critical incident involving the death of a young man. The City Council established the organization as an alternative indigent defense program for Evanston residents because of findings for a lack of representation for the poor in the community by the Chicago Law Enforcement Study Group, the League of Women Voters, and the Northwestern University Department of Urban Affairs.
The Evanston Defender Project participated as a neighborhood office of a consortium of indigent defense service providers, the Criminal Defense Consortium of Cook County, which administered seeking of federal funds. In 1981, the agency became the Evanston Community Defender Office and was chartered a charitable organization with 501(c)(3) status.