Davina DiPaolo

Davina Rae DiPaolo focuses her practice on employees’ rights. She assists clients in a range of employment discrimination matters related to gender, pregnancy status, sexual orientation, disability, race, and more. Since joining the firm in 2022, Davina has successfully negotiated pre-litigation severance agreements for her clients, successfully negotiated post-litigation settlement agreements through mediation for her clients, represented clients before the Illinois Human Rights Commission (“IHRC”) and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (“EEOC”), as well as before the Cook County Circuit Court and Northern District of Illinois, Eastern Division. In December 2024, Davina served as the lead attorney on a 6-day trial before the IHRC. Davina was also honored by Illinois Super Lawyers as a 2025 Rising Star, which is a ranking based on peer nominations, evaluations and independent research under the age of 40 or with a tenure practice of 10 years or less, only recognizing no more than 2.5% of lawyers in each state. 

Prior to joining the firm, Davina completed a two-year fellowship with the Women’s and Reproductive Rights Project of the ACLU of Illinois. There, Davina served as Lead Coordinator of the Illinois Judicial Bypass Coordination Project, a hotline that helps young people navigate the now-repealed Illinois Parental Notice of Abortion Act. Through this hotline she worked with hundreds of young people and represented clients in over 55 judicial bypass hearings, where she successfully secured judicial bypasses for all her clients. During her fellowship, Davina also worked on employment issues related to lactation accommodation issues in the workplace, as well as reproductive healthcare access issues based on health providers’ religious refusals.

Davina was appointed 2019-2023 Intern Representative on the Public Interest Law Initiative (PILI) Alumni Network Leadership Council. As a two-time PILI grant recipient, Davina is passionate about encouraging law students to pursue public interest work.

During law school, Davina served as a PILI legal intern with Lambda Legal, an LGBTQ+ civil rights organization. She also served as a PILI legal intern with the ACLU of IL, and as an extern with the Minnesota-based civil rights organization, Gender Justice. Davina was a member of the University of Minnesota’s Civil Rights/Civil Liberties Moot Court, and worked with the Innocence Project of MN clinic.

Prior to joining law school, Davina worked at the Institute for Latino Progress in Chicago, IL. There, she worked with Chicago’s Latino community to help expand access to education and employment opportunities. Davina also worked for the Chancellor’s and Powers-Knapp Scholarship Programs at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, her alma mater. This program supported students of color and low-income students. Davina’s desire and passion to work with young people first began while working at these organizations.