Last week, CAASE and our incredible community gathered for our annual fall fundraiser, Celebrating Allies, an event that Skadden Arps has graciously and generously thrown for us for more than a decade! Every year, we come together to celebrate the work of ending sexual harm and to honor people who are making a difference. Together, our supporters, advocates, allies, champions, and survivors celebrate and connect with one another, united by a commitment to seeing and ending sexual harm.
Our supporters and attendees helped us raise over $100,000! This broke the record for most money raised at a CAASE fundraiser, and in a period of time when CAASE is facing real threats to many of our funding streams, is an achievement for which we are profoundly grateful! All the dollars we raised will go to supporting the critical work that CAASE does, in service of our mission to end all forms of sexual exploitation, including sexual assault and the commercial sex trade.
The night included an award ceremony for the Visionary Award, the Pro Bono Luminary Award, and the Pro Bono Excellence Award. These awards honor transformational leadership in culture change and critical legal work for survivors of sexual harm. Making space to honor incredible leaders like Chapman and Cutler, Nathan Henderson, Trina Reynolds-Tyler and Sarah Conway is both a fun way for our community to come together in celebration and gratitude—and an important way to showcase how all of CAASE’s successes are inextricably tied to the artists, journalists, private law firms, corporations, allied non-profits, and individual and institutional funders who inspire, partner with us, and blaze trails for justice in the world..
Sarah Conway and Trina Reynolds-Tyler were this year’s recipients of the Visionary Award. Their Pulitzer Prize-winning reporting on the Chicago police’s response to missing Black women and girls in Invisible Institute exposed realities happening here in our own city. CAASE is grateful for their work and the critical role they play in bringing awareness to the ways in which Black women and girls are disproportionately exploited and harmed.
Nathan Henderson, an Associate in the Litigation Department at Saul Ewing, was awarded the Pro Bono Luminary Award, in recognition of his work using a new Illinois law that allows survivors of “deep fakes” to sue their abusers. With support from CAASE attorneys Deb Hogan and Emily Jones, Nathan led one of the first lawsuits filed under this new law on behalf of an incredibly brave and resilient survivor. With exceptional compassion and dedication, Nathan’s innovative strategies and strong negotiation skills resulted in a settlement that exceeded the client’s expectations and laid new paths for other attorneys to follow.
Chapman and Cutler LLP was awarded the Pro Bono Excellence Award for their dedicated history of pro bono service. Partner Rebecca Wallenfelsz and Pro Bono Counsel Sara Ghadiri lead the firm’s pro bono work that supports gender-based violence-related matters, along with a wide range of legal aid needs. This year, CAASE and Chapman Partner Eric Silvestri and Sara Ghadiri represented a survivor of sex trafficking in a groundbreaking lawsuit brought under the Trafficking Victims Protection Act, a federal law allowing survivors to sue those who profit from their trafficking.
We’re thrilled that Sarah, Trina, Nathan, and Chapman and Cutler graciously accepted these awards at Celebrating Allies. Their fantastic work and partnerships are invaluable to CAASE, our clients, and our mission.
CAASE shares our deep gratitude with this year’s survivor speaker, as well as Sauntè Harden-Tate, our colleague and spoken-word performer. Thank you for sharing your words with our community at Celebrating Allies.
CAASE sends our sincere appreciation to the Celebrating Allies sponsors who make this event possible! Our genuine gratitude goes out to: Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP, Saul Ewing LLP, The Friedman Family Fund, The Silver Foundation, Ulta Beauty, ArentFox Schiff, Baker McKenzie, Bally’s Chicago, Denise Fogus Gibson, Kelley Drye & Warren LLP, King & Spalding, Latham & Watkins, Mayer Brown, Mercer, Corboy & Demetrio, P.C., Horween Leathers, Hughes Socol Piers Resnick & Dym, Ltd., Sidley Austin LLP, and the Law Office of Symone Shinton. Thank you to in-kind sponsors Heaven’s Door Whiskey and Right Way Signs. We are deeply grateful for your partnership and support.
Thank you to every person who attended, gave, sponsored, spread the word, and uplifted Celebrating Allies and our work! CAASE’s mission, work, and program are not possible without supporters like you. Thank you for uplifting our work, helping us spread the word, donating, and supporting all of our programs and services.
During an especially challenging and heavy year, it was more important than ever for our community to come together for Celebrating Allies. It’s imperative that we all continue to show up for one another and protect the most vulnerable among us. Thank you to our community for championing CAASE, believing that a world free from sexual harm is possible, and showing up to do the work to achieve this goal. We are in awe of the way you showed up for survivors at Celebrating Allies 2025.
If you have not supported Celebrating Allies 2025 yet, please consider making a donation today.
This piece was published on October 17, 2025. It was authored by Lizzy Springer and edited by Kaethe Morri Hoffer. Learn more about our staff here.
