40 Under Forty 2026

2026 ILLINOIS ATTORNEYS TO WATCH

“

Colleen is a top-notch litigator who has wonderful counseling skills and creativity. ”

COLLEEN KILBRIDE

AGE: 39 FIRM : Chicago Laborers’ District Council LAW SCHOOL : Georgetown University Law Center AREA(S) OF PRACTICE: Labor law as Union in-house counsel

C olleen Kilbride’s legal career has never been about finding the most lucrative opportunity. Instead, Kilbride has fo- cused on representing people who often have no one else to advocate for them. This has been a constant for Kilbride, from her work in feder- al immigration court and immigration detention centers across the country to her current role as in-house counsel for the Chi- cago Laborers’ District Council, which represents over 20,000 union members working in the construction, municipal and in- dustrial sectors. “Colleen is one of the kindest, most thoughtful, most ground- ed young lawyers I know,” said Adam Vaught, partner with Croke Fairchild Duarte & Beres. “She has chosen impact over income every time, and she has done it without making it about her.” Kilbride's path to the law was anything but traditional. After graduating magna cum laude from Augustana College with a degree in Spanish, she worked as a non-profit paralegal. Then she relocated to Washington, D.C., where she worked full time while attending Georgetown University Law Center's evening program, earning her law degree in 2017 with Pro Bono Honors.. From 2017 through 2023, Kilbride served as a senior attor- ney with the National Immigrant Justice Center, representing detained and released asylum seekers, unaccompanied minors and families fleeing persecution. She became an expert in family separation matters representing parents separated from their children in their fight to be reunited.

“For those who have handled immigration cases, those are some of the most difficult cases to handle,” said Aurora Austriaco, with Chicago’s Valentine Austriaco & Bueschel, P.C. “For Colleen to handle complicated removal defense cases for asylum seekers and representing unaccompanied minors as well as advocating for detained immigrant mothers sepa- rated from their children in southern Texas, survivors of do- mestic violence in Milwaukee, and family-based immigration petitions in El Paso and multiplying that by hundreds, that work is very commendable.” Kilbride continued to represent immigrants while working for Innovation Law Lab, a legal services organization responsible for a state-wide universal representation program for Oregon residents facing deportation. Kilbride worked on class action lit- igation efforts while also handling complex asylum and humani- tarian cases remotely from Chicago. “Colleen is a top-notch litigator who has wonderful coun- seling skills and creativity,” said Lee Ann Russo, retired partner with Jones Day. Now serving as counsel to the Laborers’ Union, Kilbride nego- tiates wage and benefit recoveries, handles arbitrations involving disciplinary and jurisdictional disputes and provides immigration guidance to the Union’s leadership and members. Kilbride’s cur- rent role sits at the intersection of workers’ rights and immi- grants’ rights — two passions that have shaped her career.

40 Under Forty 2026

CHICAGO LAWYER & CHICAGO DAILY LAW BULLETIN