Rachel Koch
Rachel Koch is an Assistant Public Defender of Cook County, Illinois. She currently works in the Child Protection Conflicts Division where she represents parents when the state petitions to take their children from their care. Her work consists of all the tools in the civil toolbox to get parents reunited with their children. Some highlights of her work include a trial win for a former Roma refugee who lived in Baltimore and was in Chicago on vacation, his baby rolled off the motel bed, broke her leg and was treated by a biased doctor. Because of her work on the case, he was reunited with his children. Prior to her work for Cook County, Ms. Koch had a solo practice where she represented clients in at all stages of litigation in criminal defense, family law, civil forfeiture, family law, civil and administrative cases; she also worked in private practice. Rachel attended DePaul University College of Law, where she was a Sullivan Fellow at the International Human Rights Law Institute and an assistant to the late Professor Emeritus M. Cherif Bassiouni. She also attended programs abroad in Costa Rica and Italy, focusing on International Law. Ms. Koch comes to the law after twenty years of experience teaching both young people and adults in New Mexico, Chicago, and Ecuador; Rachel was inspired to study law while working for a teacher training organization where the evolution of International Human Rights Law is a focus.