As part of Novack and Macey's pro bono program, lawyer Kenny Abell won SSI benefits for a nine-year old boy who had been turned down for benefits four times before.

In a hearing before the Social Security Administration's Office of Hearings and Appeals, Kenny argued that his client's severe asthma rose to the level of a disability under the Social Security Act, thereby entitling him to Social Security Benefits.

In the hearing on February 25, 2004, Kenny cross-examined the doctor who was presented by the state as its medical expert. The doctor expressed doubts as to whether the young man's asthma qualified as a disability under the Act but Kenny was able to extract statements that proved that the frequency and severity of his client's asthma attacks, coupled with his frequent absences from school as a result thereof, qualified his client for disability benefits under the Social Security Act.

The memorandum Kenny submitted on behalf of his client addressed three disability listings under the Social Security Act that his client's asthma met and/or functionally equaled. The first listing related to the frequency of his client's asthma attacks requiring emergency medical treatment. The second and third listings dealt with the specific types of steroids that his client was forced to take in an effort to control his asthma. At the hearing, Judge Denise Martin ultimately agreed that the young man met the first of the three disability listings and granted him disability benefits on that basis.

Kenny's client and his mother were ecstatic with the result. They had been fighting to get the young man benefits since 1999.

Founded in 1984, Novack and Macey is now one of Chicago’s best-known business litigation firms.