Cabrini Green Legal Aid (CGLA) has always been close to the people it serves. The organization’s roots trace back to Chicago’s Cabrini Green neighborhood, where founder Chuck Hogren and other attorneys listened to people talk about the charges, records, registries, and legal barriers that followed them long after a case was over. What began in a church and in conversations with people from the neighborhood grew into a legal aid organization with a clear purpose: help people move forward when the legal system has made that harder than it should be.
Today, CGLA continues that work across Chicago and Illinois, serving people impacted by the criminal legal system through legal services, social support, advocacy, and policy work. Its attorneys and staff help with issues tied to criminal records, housing, family stability, and other matters that can affect a person’s ability to work, live safely, care for family, and rebuild.
THE WORK BEHIND THE WORK
For Rocky Harder, Operations and IT Manager at CGLA, that mission is personal. “Working here, you’re part of something bigger,” Rocky says. “We’re helping people whose lives are being impacted in real ways.”
Carrying that mission forward is a team of about 50 employees, including roughly 30 attorneys. The organization receives dozens of calls each day from people seeking help. Each call represents someone navigating a stressful moment, often with legal, personal, and financial stakes attached.
When an attorney needs a file, it has to be accessible. When a new employee joins, they need a laptop, accounts, and permissions ready to go. When staff communicate with clients, partners, courts, donors, and community members, those systems need to be secure and reliable. And when the organization handles sensitive legal and personal information, the right access controls and security practices matter deeply.
That is why CGLA turned to Net at Work Managed IT Services for support that could be responsive, secure, and steady enough for the work behind the mission.
For Rocky, the goal boils down to making sure technology supports the work rather than slowing it down. “Our lawyers and staff rely on technology,” he says. “They need to access information, they need to communicate, they just need things to work.”
WHEN SUPPORT BECOMES ANOTHER BURDEN
CGLA had worked with another managed services provider for years, but the relationship had become increasingly difficult. Support was slow and communications were inconsistent. Then, a major move from physical servers to SharePoint and OneDrive became far more complicated than expected.
CGLA’s move to the cloud was supposed to take about five months. Instead, it stretched to 18 months and was still not fully resolved.
For CGLA, the problem was not simply the delay. The organization needed to preserve folder permissions and access controls as files moved into the cloud. Instead, Rocky says permissions became messy and unreliable. Some staff could not access what they needed, while others could see information they should not.
For any organization, that kind of confusion creates frustration. For a legal aid nonprofit handling sensitive client information, it also creates risk.
Rocky found himself doing more and more internally because he did not fully trust the provider to handle it. He created onboarding sheets. He walked new employees through setup steps. He managed access questions. He fielded staff support issues that should have gone elsewhere.
The whole point of working with a managed services partner was to reduce that burden. Instead, CGLA was spending too much time managing the partner. “We really wanted a managed services provider and a strong operations presence,” Rocky says. “We needed people to be able to get what they need and keep moving.”
NO GAP IN SUPPORT
CGLA’s leadership was already familiar with Net at Work, and the organization began to take a more serious look at making a change. The timing was delicate. CGLA was still associated with its previous provider, and moving from one managed services provider to another can feel risky even in the best circumstances.
Net at Work understood that CGLA was coming from a difficult experience. They reviewed what CGLA had, mapped the services it needed, and helped create a clear path forward. Just as important, Net at Work provided support from day one.
CGLA could not afford a service gap while contracts, tools, systems, and responsibilities changed hands. Staff still needed help and new employees still needed to be onboarded. Meanwhile, security still had to be monitored. The organization’s work could not pause while the technology relationship caught up.
Net at Work brought a dedicated team and a practical approach: help CGLA get through the transition, stabilize the environment, and rebuild confidence. “They said, ‘We’ve got you,’” Rocky says. “That was huge.”
A DIFFERENCE STAFF COULD FEEL
The difference showed up quickly. Onboarding is one example. CGLA uses Rippling heavily for HR and operations, and Net at Work helped make the technology side of onboarding far smoother. Instead of Rocky building step-by-step instructions and walking employees through each part of the process, Net at Work coordinates device setup, shipping, tracking, and account readiness.
Now, new employees can receive laptops already configured and ready to use. Staff notice. Rocky does, too. “People love that new devices are ready to go,” he says. “I get fewer of those calls now.”
The change also gave employees a trusted support option. Instead of every IT question landing on Rocky’s desk, staff can contact Net at Work directly and expect a responsive, human answer.
That is especially valuable in an organization where internal roles carry significant weight. CGLA’s attorneys and staff are working with people in stressful situations. They need technology support that feels calm, competent, and quick.Rocky describes it as “white glove” service for the attorneys and staff. “They know they can call Net at Work,” he says. “There’s a team of humans on call.”
HOURS INSTEAD OF WEEKS
One of the clearest early tests came during CGLA’s spring fundraiser, Lights, Camera, Legal Aid!, an event that brings the community together in support of the organization’s work.
The year before, CGLA had needed technology support for a similar event, including laptops, MiFi, and credit card machines for registration and merchandise sales. The previous provider took about three weeks to prepare the setup. But when the team arrived at the event, the configuration failed because the work had been done on a nonlocal drive, leaving staff unable to sign in.
It was exactly the kind of preventable problem that makes an event team anxious. With Net at Work, Rocky asked for a similar setup: three computers and an iPad ready for event use. This time, the work took about three hours. Everything was ready to go.
For Rocky, the contrast was hard to miss. This was still early in the transition, and he admits he was hopeful the event setup would work the way it should. It did. That moment gave him confidence that CGLA had made the right move.
STRONGER PROTECTION, LESS GUESSWORK
Security was another important factor in the decision to work with Net at Work. CGLA had seen increasingly sophisticated email scams and other attempts that made cybersecurity feel immediate rather than theoretical.
The organization needed stronger protection, but it also needed security support that employees could understand and use. Rocky knows that technology tools matter, but user awareness matters too.
Net at Work helped CGLA improve its phishing reporting and security training. When employees use the phishing button, Rocky receives alerts and can see how staff are responding. Net at Work also brings current cybersecurity knowledge to the relationship, including awareness of how AI is making scams more convincing and harder to spot. “I know they’ve improved our security,” Rocky says. “People are getting smarting about what to look for.”
He appreciates that Net at Work treats security as an ongoing practice rather than a one-time setup. The cybersecurity team is available, engaged, and up to date on emerging threats. “I’ve seen it working,” he says. “They trained our staff too, because so much of it is on the user.”
MORE VALUE, MORE TRUST
CGLA chose Net at Work’s Managed IT Services offering with cost in mind, but the decision was never only about price. Rocky wanted value, responsiveness, better protection, and a partner he could trust enough to stop holding every piece of IT himself.
“Net at Work gives us exactly what we need: responsive support, stronger protection, and a team our staff can trust,” Rocky says. “They’ve taken a lot off my plate, and that gives us more time and confidence to focus on the work we’re here to do.”
Net at Work delivers stronger support at a more cost-effective rate than CGLA had before. But the larger value is the trust the organization is rebuilding around technology.
A NETWORK FOR THE WORK AHEAD
CGLA’s work has always been about helping people move through systems that can feel overwhelming, confusing, and unforgiving. The organization brings legal knowledge, social support, advocacy, and persistence to people who need a way forward.
Net at Work plays a quieter role in that mission, but an important one. It helps keep the systems behind CGLA’s work stable, secure, and responsive. It gives Rocky and his team more confidence. It gives staff a better experience. And it helps make sure technology does not become one more obstacle in the path of the work.
Rocky describes CGLA’s spirit with a little humor and a lot of pride. “We’re kind of fighting against the machine,” he says. “So it’s nice to have a network that can help with our network.”
