Business and Professional People for the Public Interest (BPI)

Business and Professional People for the Public Interest (BPI)
25 E Washington Street, Suite 1515
Chicago, Illinois 60602
312.641.5570
info@bpichicago.org



In 1969 several business and professional people established the Business and Professional People for the Public Interest "as a Public Interest Law Center to serve the collective needs of the Chicago Metropolitan area," including issues of fair housing, clean environment, and effective education. Thus, the BPI is something of a paradox: "it was Chicago's and the nation's first public interest law firm supported by the business and professional community, the very community that is most often the target of its investigations" (Tamarkin, 1979).

The BPI's activities are as varied as most general public interest law firms. Its most recent appearances before courts and administrative agencies, however, include issues of housing discrimination and energy policy. Racial segregation in housing has been its long-term interest. In 1976, for example, it participated in a major U.S. Supreme Court case, which established the principle "that metropolitan-wide remedies are permissible for central city housing segregation." Many of its recent housing suits, however, have focused on what the BPI terms "rapid resegregation," that is, on areas which have radically changed racial composition. In one case, for example, the BPI and the Leadership Council for Metropolitan Open Communities have challenged such "resegregation" in a Chicago neighborhood that went from 100 percent white to 90 percent black over a three-year period.

In addition to housing, the BPI has focused on issues of energy and utility rates. Recently with several like-minded organizations and the City of Chicago it successfully fought a $660 million rate increase requested by Consolidated Edison and supported by the governor and several large corporations. Among the strategies it used to fight the rate increase were well-developed arguments presented to the Illinois Commerce Commission (ICC) and letters to the Chicago Tribune. In 1986, BPI again intervened in ICC hearings this time in issues of consumer interest, such as "energy conservation programs for Consolidated Edison and the development of a 'generic' methodology for determining the cost-effectiveness of conservation programs for all Illinois utilities." In a 4-to- 3 vote, the ICC ordered the utility company to adopt the conservation programs developed by BPI. According to BPI, "this was the first case in which a state regulatory commission... ordered a utility to implement... programs that were independently designed and promoted by a consumer organization."

In addition to its legal and administrative representation, the BPI performs a number of other activities. It works with various state agencies to develop and implement programs of interest to consumers; it represents other organizations before government; it cooperates with trade associations in hopes of developing safe environmental programs; and, it holds conferences.

In sum, as BPI itself notes, it "used more than traditional lawyering to accomplish its objectives. It is a research center... a community organizer [and] a watchdog." To accomplish all these objectives, the BPI retains a staff of 11 full-time and 2 part-time personnel.

FURTHER INFORMATION:

Ranii, D. (1982). "Rights Group Gets Fees in 16-Year-OId Case," National Law Journal 5:2, September 20.
Tamarkin, C. (1979). "The White Knights of BPI," Chicago Tribune Magazine, No-vember 25.