Jenner & Block received the Justice Impact Partner Award at the MacArthur Justice Center’s 40th Anniversary Gala on October 14 in Chicago. Partner Terry Truax, who served as the firm’s managing partner from 2014 through 2019, accepted the award on the firm’s behalf, and Partner David Bradford, Chair of the Center’s Board of Directors, delivered remarks.
“When I proposed to the MacArthur family that we start this Center, I was inspired in part by Jenner & Block’s historic commitment to indigent defense,” said David. “The Center’s relationship with Jenner began in 1985 with a single client facing execution and a conviction that no one should lose their liberty, let alone their life, without effective representation. That conviction still guides how Jenner & Block and MJC show up for their clients in the courtroom and in the community. It is beyond gratifying that this shared belief has made a difference in so many lives over four decades.”
The award honors a partnership as longstanding as the Center itself. David served as its first lawyer when it was founded in 1985 and led it for nearly a decade as it grew from a single Chicago office into a national civil rights legal organization. Over the past 40 years, Jenner has worked alongside the Center on matters including Guantanamo detainee litigation, a 2020 voting rights case in Florida, and a precedential Third Circuit prisoners’ rights ruling secured earlier this year. Today, the Center has a more than 50 attorneys, paralegals, investigators, communications, operations, and administrative staff advancing a docket of more than 100 cases across their offices.
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