Holly E. Jacobs

Holly E. Jacobs

Holly counsels employers on many aspects of labor and employment law, including employee discipline, internal investigations, federal and state employment discrimination matters, labor relations, and Title IX investigations and compliance. She represents both private and public sector employers and advises school districts, municipalities, and institutions of higher education.

Prior to joining Robbins Schwartz, Holly clerked at a private higher education firm, interned with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and Chicago Public Schools, and served as a judicial extern for the Honorable Judge Virginia M. Kendall of the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois. She received her Juris Doctor from Loyola University Chicago, where she also completed a master’s degree in Cultural and Educational Policy Studies. Her master’s thesis focused on legal reparations and decolonization efforts regarding Indigenous boarding schools in Canada and the United States. During law and graduate school, she served as the Editor-in-Chief of the Loyola International Law Review, and published articles at Loyola University Chicago and Columbia University. Prior to law school, Holly taught English as a Second Language in Nordhorn, Germany.

Holly is a member of the American Educational Research Association, which is a national research society dedicated to advancing knowledge about education and promoting the use of research to improve education and serve the public good. She was selected as a peer reviewer for research paper submissions to AERA’s 2024 Annual Meeting.

Awards

• American Educational Research Association – selected reviewer for submissions to AERA 2024 Annual Conference; Panels reviewed: De/Colonization and Transformative Curriculum Studies; Legal and Judicial Issues for Equity and Access; Decolonial, Postcolonial, and Anti-Colonial Studies in Education; Indigenous Peoples of the Americas; and Law and Education.

Education

• J.D., cum laude, Loyola University Chicago
• M.A., Loyola University Chicago
• B.A., magna cum laude, University of Montana

Admitted to Practice

• Supreme Court of Illinois

Organizations

• Member, American Educational Research Association

Recent Publications

• Contributing author, “Employee Discrimination,” Illinois School Law, IICLE (2024)
• Decolonizing a Settler Colonial State: How Canada and the United States Have Approached Investigations into Indigenous Boarding and Residential Schools, Loyola University Chicago (2023)