Jenner & Block’s commitment to providing assistance to those who are in critical need but unable to pay for legal services dates back to the very beginnings of the Firm.  The Firm’s late name partners, Albert E. Jenner, Jr. and Samuel W. Block (pictured, top right), worked on many pro bono cases for civil and constitutional rights and were widely recognized for their contributions to public service.  For example, Bert Jenner served as legal counsel to the Warren Commission to investigate the assassination of President Kennedy, and also as a member of the Presidential National Commission on the Causes and Prevention of Violence.  The late Hon. Prentice Marshall (pictured, bottom right), who is often called the “father” of Jenner & Block’s pro bono program, handled more than two dozen criminal trials and appeals on a pro bono basis before being appointed to the federal bench.  Some of the Firm’s most notable pro bono matters include:

• The landmark death penalty case Witherspoon v. Illinois in 1968 in which the United States Supreme Court invalidated the death sentence of William Witherspoon.  Albert E. Jenner, Jr. argued before the court that the jury was tainted with members who favored the death penalty due to an Illinois statute that provided for challenges for cause in murder trials “of any juror who shall, on being examined, state that he has conscientious scruples against capital punishment, or that he is opposed to the same.”  The Court’s ruling on constitutional grounds stopped a planned execution just a few weeks before the sentence was scheduled to be carried out and saved 350 people on death row across the country, all of whom received new sentences.  The Firm’s team included Chairman Jerold S. Solovy (Pictured, right, second from top) and Partner Thomas P. Sullivan (Pictured, right, third from top).
  
  
• Partner Joan M. Hall (Retired) (Pictured, right, fourth from top) was also very active in the earliest days of the Firm’s pro bono program.  In one notable example, she led a landmark class action litigation case on behalf of inmates in protective custody at Stateville, alleging that conditions of confinement constituted cruel and unusual punishment.  After retiring from the practice of law, Ms. Hall went on to be the founder and President of the Board of Directors of the Young Women’s Leadership Charter School of Chicago, the only all-girls public school in the city.  Jenner & Block is a major supporter of the school.
  
  
• The 2003 United States Supreme Court decision in Wiggins v. Smith.  In this case, the Firm’s Donald B. Verrilli, Jr. convinced the Justices to find for only the second time in 20 years that a death row inmate had received ineffective assistance of counsel. Click here to read the Firm’s brief.
  
  
• In a historic case affecting fundamental constitutional rights of privacy and equality, Jenner & Block worked closely with Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund in Lawrence v. Texas to convince the United States Supreme Court to strike down Texas’ “Homosexual Conduct” law.  The law had criminalized sexual intimacy by same-sex couples but not identical conduct by opposite-sex couples.  The Chicago Tribune called the Court’s decision, “one of the most important gay rights decisions in more than a generation.”  Learn more |  Click here to read the Firm’s brief.
  
  
• Jenner & Block took an active role in the national debate in Grutter v. Bollinger and Gratz v. Bollinger – two landmark cases that involved the University of Michigan’s affirmative action admission policies.  In a historic 5-4 decision, the Court expressly relied upon an amicus brief filed by a Jenner & Block team led by Partner David W. DeBruin on behalf of 65 major companies in upholding the admissions program at the University of Michigan Law School.  Click here to read the Firm’s brief.
  
  
• Jenner & Block’s Partner Thomas P. Sullivan was Co-Chair of Illinois Governor George Ryan’s Commission on Capital Punishment, which authored a report that was widely considered to be an influencing factor in the then-Governor’s historic decision to grant clemency or pardon all of the individuals on the state’s Death Row and the state legislature enacting several important reforms.  Click here to learn more about Mr. Sullivan’s career.