Danielle Hirsch
Principal Court Management Consultant, National Center for State Courts
Danielle brings a broad range of relevant professional experiences to her work at the National Center for State Courts. Immediately prior to joining NCSC, Danielle served as the assistant director of the Civil Justice Division of the Administrative Office of Illinois Courts. In this role, Danielle was responsible for leading and managing the judicial branch's work to promote, facilitate and enhance access to justice in Illinois, with a particular emphasis on efforts to remove barriers and increase the ease of interacting with courts by persons who cannot afford lawyers to represent their interests and needs. She was also the executive director of the Illinois Supreme Court Commission on Access and before that the director of advocacy at The Chicago Bar Foundation. Among many highlights of her work, Danielle developed and managed an innovative new program, Illinois JusticeCorps, which places college and law students in courthouses to provide procedural assistance to people without lawyers. Danielle has authored numerous articles in law reviews, bar journals and other publications. She is frequently called upon to speak at legal, academic and nonprofit meetings and events. At the beginning of her career, Danielle clerked for the Honorable William Wayne Justice of the US District Court for the Western District of Texas and Justice ZM Yacoob of the Constitutional Court of South Africa. She was also an associate with the K&L Gates law firm in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania for several years. Danielle has taught at Loyola University Chicago School of Law, the University of Illinois College of Law and John Marshall Law School.