Maduff & Maduff - Christina D. Hatzidakis

Christina Hatzidakis Christina D. Hatzidakis’ background in employment law and related areas was significant well before she ever graduated from law school. She served as an intern investigating complaints of discrimination for the Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination (the Massachusetts state version of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission), assisting with everything from intakes of discrimination charges to collecting evidence to actually making determinations as to whether the evidence justified a finding of probable cause of discrimination. Christina also clerked for a well respected employment firm in Boston where she prepared materials for continuing legal education programs for employment lawyers, and prepared an anti-discrimination and harassment training program for a large corporation.

Christina also has a background as an advocate for victims of domestic abuse. She worked with Legal Advocates for Abused Women (LAAW) and later for the Court Appointed Special Advocates (CASA) of St. Louis County, Missouri. Her work with these organizations included not only immediate crisis intervention, but also working with law enforcement agencies, advocacy groups, and community and school organizations. At CASA, she managed speaking engagements and fundraising events for abused children, and single handedly researched, redesigned, and produced the handbook for CASA’s Board of Directors.

During law school, Christina was selected as a Rappaport Fellow in Law and Public Policy. Through this fellowship, Christina personally interviewed and worked with national experts in child welfare and domestic violence, and she developed policy proposals for domestic violence victims at the Suffolk County, Massachusetts Family Justice Center.

Christina earned her Bachelor’s degree from Oberlin College, Oberlin, Ohio in 2001 where she was a Cole Scholar and an associate editor of the school’s publication on feminist philosophy. Having earned a competitive grant to study electoral politics in 2000, Christina worked for a prominent political consulting firm in Seattle, Washington, where she managed aspects of judicial campaigns. During college, Christina also interned at the National Women’s Law Center in Washington, DC, where she researched state policies for a publication on women’s health, and at the National Clearinghouse on Marital and Date Rape, where she researched state laws regarding marital rape.

Christina earned her J.D. from the New England School of Law in 2006 where she was an editor of the distinguished New England Law Review. Christina was active in the school’s Women’s Law Caucus and its chapter of the National Lawyers Guild. She also served as a student mentor for first-year law students.

As she was in her undergraduate career, Christina was also an active writer in law school, summarizing changes in the ever changing landscape of the law surrounding victims of domestic and sexual violence for the Sexual Violence Legal News.

In addition to building a reputation in discrimination and Family and Medical Leave Act work, Christina has already distinguished herself in the difficult area of school law working on behalf of both teachers and students, and becoming one of the few attorneys in the state handling domestic violence leave cases under Illinois’ new Victim’s Economic Safety and Security Act (VESSA).

Christina holds licenses to practice law before all courts of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and the State of Illinois as well as before the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois. She is a member of the Illinois State Bar Association, the American Bar Association, and the National Lawyers Guild.