Edward R. Johnston, known as the “Chief,” is one of the country’s most prominent antitrust lawyer in the ‘20s.  He forms the Antitrust Section of the American Bar Association and serves as its first Chair in 1952-1953.

In the early 1920s, Floyd E. Thompson is elected as a member of the Supreme Court of Illinois and also serves as the Court’s Chief Justice.

In the 1930s and ‘40s, Floyd E. Thompson serves as president of the Illinois State Bar Association and president of the Chicago Bar Association. 

In 1947 at the age of 40, Albert E. Jenner, Jr. becomes the youngest president of the Illinois State Bar Association. He is also president of the American College of Trial Lawyers. 

Thomas P. Sullivan, Prentice H. Marshall and Jerold S. Solovy launch the Firm’s commitment to the defense of indigent criminal defendants.  All three attorneys join, and Mr. Sullivan later chairs, the Chicago Bar Association Defense of Prisoners Committee.

Albert E. Jenner holds various prominent public positions. Among other things, he serves as senior counsel to the Warren Commission that is created to investigate the assassination of former President John F. Kennedy. 

Thomas P. Sullivan and Albert E. Jenner represent clients in a historic confrontation and extended civil and criminal litigation with the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Un-American Activities. The committee is later abolished in large part due to these proceedings.

The U.S. Supreme Court rules that states must pay for trial transcripts so indigent defendants can appeal their convictions.  In response to the ruling, Thomas P. Sullivan and other Jenner & Block lawyers spearhead the recruitment of lawyers in Illinois to handle the hundreds of appeals of past cases.

In this landmark death penalty case, the Jenner team, led by Albert E. Jenner, Jr., helps stop a planned state execution of Mr. Witherspoon on constitutional grounds just a few weeks before the sentence is scheduled to be carried out.  Mr. Jenner argues that the jury selection process is unconstitutional and impermissible.  The U.S. Supreme Court agrees.  After this ruling an estimated 350 people on Death Row across the country are re-sentenced.

Jerold S. Solovy successfully argues this case that goes all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court regarding whether an indigent person is entitled to appointed counsel during a pre-indictment lineup.

John C. Tucker, a lawyer and partner at Jenner & Block from 1958-1985, argues this case in the U.S. Supreme Court, which strikes down Chicago’s patronage system.  Mr. Tucker helps win $1.2 million in back pay for Republican deputies fired when Democrat Richard Elrod became sheriff in 1970.

Partner Thomas P. Sullivan serves four years as United States Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois and then rejoins the firm. 

In 1978, associate Jeffrey D. Colman argues this case in the U.S. Supreme Court.  The case arises out of the need for a special mayoral election in Chicago following the death of Mayor Richard J. Daley. The issue is a disparity in signature requirements for independent candidates running for statewide versus local office. The Supreme Court unanimously (albeit in 5 different opinions) adopts our argument that the signature requirement disparity violates equal protection guarantees.

Partner Joan M. Hall is very active in the earliest days of the Firm’s pro bono program. She leads a landmark class action case on behalf of inmates in protective custody at Statesville, alleging that conditions of confinement constitute cruel and unusual punishment.  The case is filed in 1977 and settled with a comprehensive consent decree in 1981.

In 1982, partner Joan M. Hall becomes the first female chair of the American Bar Association Section of Litigation.  That same year she is the fourth woman elected as a Fellow to the American College of Trial Lawyers. From 1985-1991 she serves on the ABA’s Federal Judiciary Committee.  After retiring from the practice of Law, she goes on to be the founder and President of the Board of Directors of the Young Women’s Leadership Charter School of Chicago, which opens in 2000 and is the only all-girls charter public school in the city.

As U.S. Attorney, Thomas P. Sullivan conceives and implements the “Greylord” investigation of the Cook County court system in Illinois, which uncovers widespread corruption and results in numerous indictments and convictions of public officials.

Partner Jerold S. Solovy is recognized as an enduring leader in the movement for court reform in Chicago and Illinois.  The “Solovy Commission” makes approximately 200 reform proposals and by 1988, it issues numerous reports on the judicial selection process and the financial interests of judges.  In 1992, Mr. Solovy is Chairman of the Illinois Supreme Court Special Commission on the Administration of Justice, now known as the “Solovy Commission II.” 

Partner Anton Valukas serves four years as United States Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois and then rejoins the firm. 

In 1988, seven-year-old Jaclyn Dowaliby is taken from her home and murdered. Her parents, David and Cynthia Dowaliby, are charged and tried in 1990 represented by private counsel.  The trial judge dismisses the case against Mrs. Dowaliby at the close of the State’s evidence, but allows the jury to deliberate as to Mr. Dowaliby.  The jury convicts and Mr. Dowaliby is sentenced to 45 years of imprisonment. Jenner & Block agrees to take over the representation of the family on appeal.  In addition, the Firm represents Mr. Dowaliby in a week-long evidentiary post-trial hearing and in a separate week-long custody trial in which the State attemps – and fails – to take custody of the Dowalibys’ other two children.  In 1992, the Illinois Appellate Court reverses Mr. Dowaliby’s conviction – finding that there was insufficient evidence to support a conviction – and he is released from prison. The Jenner & Block team includes partners Robert L. Byman, J. Kevin McCall, Terrence J. Truax.

Partners Jerold S. Solovy and Robert L. Byman represent the adoptive parents in this highly publicized and controversial case involving a child known as “Baby Richard.”  After an extended custody fight, Baby Richard is returned to his birth parents by the Illinois Supreme Court.

Partner Robert L. Byman represents Dennis Williams, one of The “Ford Heights Four” who is released after serving 18 years on death row as a result of a wrongful conviction. 

Jenner & Block partners Jeff C. Colman and Thomas P. Sullivan lead a team of Firm lawyers that continue to be significantly involved in litigation and national debate surrounding the legal status of the prisoners being held at the U.S. Naval Base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

Partner Robert L. Byman represents Patrick Sykes, the defendant in the infamous “Girl X” case.  The girl, who becomes known as Girl X, was raped and beaten in a Cabrini-Green high rise.

Partner Donald B. Verrilli, Jr. convinces the Justices of the United States Supreme Court to find, for only the second time in 20 years, that a death row inmate has received ineffective assistance of counsel. 

Jenner & Block is co-lead counsel with Lambda Legal Defense & Education Fund in a civil rights decision overturning a Texas anti-sodomy law.  Partner Paul Smith argues the case before the U.S. Supreme Court.  The Court’s decision is widely considered to be the most important gay rights decision in a generation. 

Jenner & Block takes an active role in the national debate in two landmark cases that involve the University of Michigan’s affirmative action admission policies.  The Court relies on 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.