LOEVY - Key Persons
Amy Robinson Staples has spent much of her career representing the wrongfully accused and ensuring the constitutional rights of those criminally charged are protected, first as an attorney and manager with the Post-Conviction Branch of the Kentucky Department of Public Advocacy (DPA) and as an attorney and manager of the Kentucky Innocence Project (KIP). There, Amy was involved in the exoneration of multiple men and women and successfully obtained pardons and commutations for numerous individuals, including imprisoned victims of domestic violence. She also successfully briefed Hollon v. Commonwealth, the case establishing the procedure for claims of ineffective assistance of appellate counsel in Kentucky.
While with DPA and KIP, Amy authored several articles for and was featured in The Advocate, a Journal of Criminal Justice Education & Research, including: Roper v. Simmons and Its Applicability to Youthful Offender Transfer Hearings, Vol. 28, Issue No. 5, Sept. 2006; Wrongful Convictions of the Innocent, Kentucky's Recent Experience, Response, and Reforms, Vol. 25, Issue No. 1 (January 2003); and In the Spotlight…Amy Robinson, Vol. 25, Issue No. 1 (January 2003).
In 2014, Amy was the proud recipient of the Kentucky Bar Association's Professionalism and Excellence Award. In 2010, she received the Larry Marshall Founder's Day Award for her mentorship and assistance to her colleagues. Amy graduated from the University of Kentucky College of Law in 2000, where she was a member of the Student Public Interest Law Foundation and received the Best Brief Award. She obtained a B.A. in Sociology, Cum Laude, from Georgetown College in 1997, where she was a William Graham Brown Scholar.
Since joining Loevy & Loevy in the summer of 2017, Amy has concentrated her practice in federal court on wrongful convictions, police misconduct, and other constitutional issues. Additionally, Amy continues to fight for the wrongfully convicted in state courts throughout Kentucky and to free innocent clients from prison through her work with the Exoneration Project.
Anand Swaminathan is a partner at Loevy & Loevy. He represents clients seeking justice in a wide range of matters, all over the country. Over his career, Anand has helped his clients win more than a hundred million dollars in trial verdicts and settlements.
Anand works on a broad range of constitutional and civil rights cases, including wrongful convictions, police shootings, the denial of medical care to inmates and detainees in jails and prisons, and retaliation for exercising free speech rights. In addition, he has successfully exonerated multiple innocent people wrongly convicted of crimes they did not commit.
Anand also represents whistleblowers. He has extensive experience litigating claims under federal and state False Claims Acts, including whistleblowers alleging military and other government contractor fraud, Medicare and Medicaid fraud, construction/contractor (MBE/DBE) fraud, bid-rigging, and tax fraud. He also represents whistleblowers in financial fraud cases under the Dodd-Frank financial reform bill, and in complex fraud cases under other federal and state statutes. Anand has a background in finance, and puts that experience to work in his fraud cases.
Prior to joining Loevy & Loevy, Anand worked as an associate at Vladeck, Waldman, Elias & Engelhard in New York City. The Vladeck firm specializes in plaintiff-side employment matters, where Anand worked on individual and class action lawsuits, and also represented whistleblowers in cases under federal and state False Claims Act statutes. Anand continues to represent individuals seeking representation in employment matters, both in negotiations and litigation.
Anand graduated from Harvard Law School in 2006. He was awarded the Andrew L. Kaufman Award, given each year to the graduating student who did the most pro bono work during law school, for performing more than 2,000 hours of volunteer legal work. During law school, he served as an officer and member of the Harvard Legal Aid Bureau, a student-run legal services center, and worked at the National Immigration Project as a National Lawyers Guild Haywood Burns Fellow. Following law school, Anand clerked for Judge Theodore H. Katz of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York.
Anand continues to have a strong commitment to pro bono work and enjoys partnering with non-profit organizations to advance the cause of justice. He has partnered on civil rights cases with the ACLU of Michigan, the Center for Constitutional Rights, the Asylum Seeker Advocacy Project and other organizations. He previously served on the Executive Committee of the New York City National Lawyers Guild, the board of the South Asian Bar Association of New York, and on the Legal Committee of the Center for Constitutional Rights. He currently serves as Board Vice President at Rogers Park Montessori School in the Andersonville neighborhood in Chicago, where his two glorious, nutty children go to school. Anand was born and raised in Madison, Wisconsin, and is a proud Badger.
Anand Swaminathan is a partner at Loevy & Loevy. He has worked on a broad range of constitutional and civil rights cases, and has represented whistleblowers in False Claims Act litigation. As a Harvard Law School graduate, he was awarded the Andrew L. Kaufman Award for performing more than 2,000 hours of volunteer legal work.
Job Titles:
- Director and Vice Chairman of the Executive Committee of the Amalgamated Bank of New York
Arthur Loevy graduated from the University of Michigan Law School in 1963, and has been a member of the Illinois bar continuously for more than forty years. He began his legal career practicing labor law until 1970 when he became an elected officer of a trade union, the Amalgamated Clothing and Textile Workers Union ("ACTWU"). Arthur proceeded to serve in various elected capacities for trade unions, including International Executive Vice President of ACTWU, International Secretary-Treasurer of ACTWU, and, most recently International Secretary-Treasurer of the Union of Needle-Trades Industrial and Textile Employees (U.N.I.T.E.).
Arthur Loevy has also served as a Director and Vice Chairman of the Executive Committee of the Amalgamated Bank of New York (1990-98), the President, Chief Executive Officer, and Trustee of various Taft-Hartley insurance and trust funds for almost twenty years, the President of the Amalgamated Housing Foundation (1974-98), and the President of the Sidney Hillman Health Center in Chicago (1980-98).
Since January 1, 1997, Arthur Loevy has resumed the practice of law on a full-time basis. In 1998, he joined the law firm started by his son, Jon Loevy, and has practiced here ever since.
Arthur Loevy graduated from University of Michigan Law School in 1963. He has been a member of the Illinois bar continuously for over forty years and has served as the President, Chief Executive Officer, and Trustee of various Taft-Hartley insurance and trust funds. In 1998, he joined Loevy & Loevy, the firm started by his son, Jon Loevy.
Ben Baker v. City of Chicago, et al. (U.S. District Court for the N.D. Illinois) Counsel for Ben Baker, who was wrongfully convicted of drug crimes he did not commit as a result of alleged police misconduct involving the planting of false evidence on Mr. Baker. Two of the police officers involved in Mr. Baker's wrongful prosecution were later convicted on corruption charges in federal court and served time in prison. Mr. Baker spent nearly 10 years in prison before being exonerated in 2016. Civil rights case currently pending.
Dan Twetten is a partner at Loevy & Loevy. He represents whistleblowers in False Claims Act matters, SEC fraud, IRS fraud, and other matters. Dan also represents clients in complex business and commercial litigation. Finally, he represents clients whose civil rights have been violated.
Dan Twetten is a partner at Loevy & Loevy. He handles complex litigation on behalf of businesses, individuals, and non-profits. Dan also represents whistleblowers under the False Claims Act and other anti-fraud measures. He graduated cum laude from Northwestern University School of Law and served as a judicial law clerk to Judge Tallman on the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.
Danielle Hamilton is a partner at Loevy & Loevy and has been with the firm since 2017.
Danielle represents clients in a wide range of civil rights cases, including wrongful convictions, mass actions, excessive force, lawsuits on behalf of survivors of sexual assault, and representation of protestors in the Movement for Black Lives. Danielle is an experienced attorney and has litigated cases resulting in millions of dollars of compensation for her clients.
Prior to joining Loevy & Loevy, Danielle was a law clerk to the Honorable Barrington D. Parker, Jr. on the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. She also litigated civil rights cases as Johnnie L. Cochran Fellow at Neufeld Scheck & Brustin, LLP in New York City and worked on juvenile legal system reform at the Illinois Justice Project.
Danielle received her law degree from Harvard Law School in 2012 and her undergraduate degree in Comparative Literature from Princeton University in 2007. Her pro bono commitments included mentoring Black high school, college, and law students and teaching in a college preparatory program. Prior to attending law school, she worked in development at Human Rights Watch and was a court representative for young people in Manhattan Family Court.
Danielle is a first-generation American and college graduate. She is the first lawyer in her family.
Owens joined Loevy & Loevy in 2012, and his practice is national, representing clients from Washington and California, in Wisconsin and Illinois, and throughout the South. Owens is dedicated to zealous, client-centered advocacy on behalf of those seeking vindication for the violation of their civil rights and focuses on cases involving wrongful convictions, police shootings and other excessive force, false arrests, free speech rights, race discrimination, and other violations of the U.S. Constitution.
A proud Seattle native, Owens completed his undergraduate at the University of Washington. Owens later earned his J.D. and an M.A. in Philosophy from Stanford University in 2010. At Stanford Law, Owens was the Senior Articles Editor of the Stanford Law Review, a Member Editor of the Stanford Environmental Law Journal, received the Gerald Gunther Prize for Outstanding Performance in Federal Courts, earned Pro Bono distinction, and served as a fellow in the Levin Center for Public Interest. He was also a member of the Stanford Supreme Court Litigation Clinic, where he worked on numerous cases at the United States Supreme Court, most notably representing a number of civil rights groups in banking regulation litigation and successfully representing an indigent criminal defendant in Flores-Figueroa v. United States, 556 U.S. 646 (2009), which avoided harsh application of a mandatory-minimum sentencing statute. During law school, Owens also worked for the ACLU of Washington Foundation; a nonprofit in Lagos, Nigeria institute Miranda-derived protections against coerced confessions; and a boutique firm in San Francisco specializing in environmental protection issues.
Owens is Lecturer in Law at the University of Chicago, where he co-teaches in the school's pro bono wrongful conviction clinic, The Exoneration Project. Owens is also dedicated to pro bono work. In addition to representing clients with the Exoneration Project, Owens serves as a member of the Coalition for the Fair Sentencing of Youth in Illinois; represents juveniles who were given life sentences but are now entitled to new sentencing hearings under Miller v. Alabama; and representing claimants in proceedings before the Illinois Torture Inquiry Commission. At the University of Chicago, Owens has also collaborated with other clinics, including trying a case on behalf of a criminal defendant with the Federal Criminal Justice Clinic. Other pro bono work includes writing amicus briefs in district and appellate courts in civil rights and criminal cases.
David B. Owens is a partner at Loevy & Loevy. He graduated from Stanford Law School in 2010, and clerked for Diane P. Wood of the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals and Myron H. Thompson of the Middle District of Alabama.
Debra Loevy is a partner at Loevy & Loevy. She graduated cum laude from the University of Michigan Law School in 1995, having completed her undergraduate work at Wesleyan University with a B.A. in history in 1992. After law school Debra spent years addressing poverty law issues at the Legal Assistance Foundation of Metropolitan Chicago and at Vermont Legal Aid. Debra also spent several years focusing on criminal defense appeals at the Illinois Office of the State Appellate Defender. She joined Loevy & Loevy in 2007, with a practice concentrated primarily on appeals.
Debra Loevy is a partner at Loevy & Loevy. She graduated cum laude from University of Michigan Law School in 1995. She has extensive experience addressing poverty law issues and criminal defense appeals. She is admitted to practice in the United States Supreme Court, the Illinois Supreme Court, and multiple circuit courts of appeal and district courts.
Ms. Wang has litigated cases resulting in millions of dollars of compensation to her clients. She joined the firm in the fall of 2008 and focuses her practice on representing individuals who have been wrongfully convicted, maliciously prosecuted, denied medical attention in jails and in prisons, subjected to police brutality, or had their First Amendment rights violated. She represents both civil rights plaintiffs and petitioners in post-conviction and habeas corpus proceedings. She also handles cases of individuals whose civil rights have been violated as a result of policy failures on the part of municipalities and county governments. Ms. Wang has handled many federal appeals and conducted numerous jury trials.
From 2010 to 2012, Ms. Wang was a Lecturer in Law in The Exoneration Project at the University of Chicago Law School.
Prior to joining the firm, Ms. Wang served as a law clerk for the Honorable Harry D. Leinenweber on the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois. From 2006 to 2007, Ms. Wang served as a law clerk for the Honorable Betty B. Fletcher on the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. Prior to her clerkships, she was a Legal Fellow at the American Civil Liberties Union Drug Law Reform Project. As a Legal Fellow, she represented South Asian convenience store owners in rural Georgia who were racially targeted by law enforcement in a federal criminal prosecution.
Ms. Wang graduated from the University of Chicago Law School in 2005. During law school, she worked in the Civil Rights and Police Accountability Project of the Edwin F. Mandel Legal Aid Clinic and served as President of the Chicago Law Foundation, a non-profit that raised funds for law students to do summer public interest work. She also externed at the Midwest Immigrant and Human Rights Center, winning asylum for a young Liberian refugee. Prior to law school, Ms. Wang worked at the Cato Institute, where she researched alternatives to incarceration for drug offenders.
Elizabeth Wang is a partner at Loevy & Loevy. She practices from the firm's Boulder, Colorado office and litigates civil rights and post-conviction cases around the country. She has tried numerous federal juries and argued several federal appeals. She graduated from University of Chicago Law School in 2005 and clerked on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.
Elliot Slosar is a partner at Loevy & Loevy. Elliot worked full-time as the Loevy & Loevy and Exoneration Project in-house investigator while attending DePaul University's College of Law at night. In law school, Elliot received numerous awards for his outstanding work in trial advocacy, pre-trial civil litigation, and mass media law. Elliot is the Chicago Bar Foundation's 2009 Abraham Lincoln Marovitz Scholar, a prestigious award given annually to an incoming Illinois law student who has shown a deep commitment and future dedication to public interest law.
Frank Newell joined Loevy & Loevy in 2016, where he has worked on a wide variety of matters, including representing whistleblowers in False Claims Act litigation.
Frank graduated with honors from Harvard Law School. Prior to joining Loevy & Loevy, Frank was a litigation associate at Sidley Austin LLP in Chicago, where he worked on a broad array of complex commercial litigation matters at the state and federal levels, representing both plaintiffs and defendants in actions ranging in subject matter from breach of contract to fraud to intellectual property. Also, while at Sidley Austin, Frank performed a substantial amount of pro bono work and ran a litigation skills program for summer associates.
Additionally, Frank has worked extensively as a volunteer for the Legal Assistance Foundation in Chicago. For his efforts in assisting pro se litigants with their cases, primarily civil rights actions, in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, Frank was twice the recipient of the Legal Assistance Foundation's Volunteer of the Year Award.
Frank Newell is an honors graduate of Harvard Law School who focuses on whistleblower litigation.
Ms. Horn graduated magna cum laude from New York University Law School in 2004, where she was inducted into the Order of the Coif. After receiving her J.D., she spent an additional year at NYU as a Junior Fellow in NYU's Institute for International Law and Justice. During her tenure at NYU, Ms. Horn was a Florence Allen and Dean's Scholar, and was awarded the Jerome Lipper Prize for outstanding work in international law. Following law school, Ms. Horn spent one year as a law clerk to the Honorable Milton I. Shadur in the Northern District of Illinois.
Ms. Horn joined Loevy & Loevy in the Fall of 2006 and has concentrated her practice on wrongful convictions, police brutality and other constitutional issues. She spends much of her time representing prisoners wrongfully accused of crimes in state and federal proceedings. Ms. Horn has also been a Lecturer in Law at the University of Chicago where she co-taught a wrongful conviction legal clinic with other Loevy & Loevy lawyers.
Ms. Horn has been admitted to practice by the Illinois Supreme Court, Northern District of Illinois, Northern District of Indiana and the Third and Eighth Circuit Courts of Appeals. She loves her dog, Winston, who can often be found lazing under her desk.
Gayle Horn is a partner at Loevy & Loevy. She graduated from NYU Law School, magna cum laude and Order of the Coif, in 2004. She served as law clerk to the Honorable Milton Shadur of the Northern District of Illinois. She is an experienced trial and appellate lawyer, concentrating on wrongful convictions.
Heather joined Loevy & Loevy in 2010. Before joining Loevy & Loevy, she was a litigation associate at Mayer Brown LLP. During her tenure at Mayer Brown, Heather represented large corporations in insurance coverage, anti-trust, securities and white-collar criminal defense actions. She also represented numerous pro bono clients, including an individual in a four-day criminal trial and another in a successful grant of asylum.
Heather is an experienced appellate lawyer, winning two successful appeals in the Illinois Appellate Court and submitting several amicus briefs to the United States Supreme Court on behalf of former federal judges, senior Department of Justice officials and retired military officers in litigation related to Guantanamo detainees.
Heather graduated from Yale Law School in 2004. She clerked for the Hon. Diane P. Wood of the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit. Prior to attending law school, Heather volunteered with a women's weaving cooperative in Guatemala, worked assisting refugees resettling in the Chicagoland area and attended Yale Divinity School, where she received her Masters of Divinity in 2001.
Heather is admitted to practice in Illinois and New York, as well as the Northern District of Illinois, Eastern District of Wisconsin and Northern District of Indiana.
Heather serves on the governing board of Exodus World Service, a non-profit organization dedicated to welcoming refugees in Chicago, and is a member of LaSalle Street Church.
Heather lives in Chicago with her husband, Aaron, and her son, Isaiah.
Heather Lewis Donnell is a partner at Loevy & Loevy. She graduated from Yale Law School in 2004. After graduation, she served as a law clerk for the Honorable Diane P. Wood on the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals. She has concentrated her practice on wrongful convictions, illegal searches and police brutality.
Bella is a first generation lawyer, and a life-long Chicagoan with roots in Humboldt Park.
Bella joined Loevy & Loevy as a Justice Fellow in 2021.
Jon Loevy is one of the most successful trial lawyers in the United States. He has won jury verdicts of at least a million dollars at more than 20 separate jury trials, nearly all in cases involving extremely challenging fact patterns. More than a dozen of his jury verdicts exceeded $5 million, and five separate times he was won jury verdicts of at least $20 million. Loevy's largest jury verdict was $100 million in Cook County.
Loevy's jury verdicts greater than one million dollars include: Rivera v. City of Chicago in 2018 ($17 million jury verdict in wrongful conviction case); Kuri v. Chicago in 2018 ($4.1 million jury verdict in false arrest case for 3 years in jail); Cook County v. USI in 2018 ($9 million verdict against insurance broker); Burgess v. City of Baltimore in 2017 ($15 million jury verdict in wrongful conviction case, largest of its kind in Baltimore history); Fields v. Chicago in 2016 ($22 million jury verdict in wrongful conviction case); Cook County v. AIG Insurance in 2016 ($100mm jury verdict, one of the largest in Cook County history); Jimenez v. Chicago in 2012 ($25 million jury verdict for 14 years of wrongful imprisonment); Newman v. Squire in 2010 ($6 million for wrongful death); Borsellino v. Putnam in 2009 ($11 million for fraud by the former president of the NYSE); Johnson v. Guevara in 2009 ($21 million for 11 years of wrongful imprisonment); White v. Lee's Summit in 2008 ($16mm jury verdict in wrongful conviction case); Duran v. Chicago in 2008 ($4.2 million for interference with child custody); Coffie v. Chicago in 2007 ($4 million for police brutality); Ware v. Chicago in 2007 ($5 million for fatal police shooting); Dominguez v. Waukegan in 2006 ($9 million for 4 years of wrongful imprisonment); Manning v. United States in 2005 ($6.6 million against FBI agents for wrongful conviction); Garcia v. Chicago in 2003 ($1 million for excessive force); Russell v. Chicago in 2003 ($1.5 million for fatal police shooting); Waits v. Chicago in 2002 ($1.5 million for police brutality); and Regalado v. Chicago in 1999 ($28 million jury verdict for excessive force).
Because Loevy has been so successful when his cases go to jury trial, he and his firm have also been able to secure many hundreds of millions of dollars in pre-trial settlements for their clients. This includes, for example, $20 million for Juan Rivera in his wrongful conviction lawsuit against Lake County, Illinois, and parts of the $40 million in the Dixmoore Five wrongful conviction cases and $31 million in the Englewood Four wrongful conviction cases. For more information and Loevy's trials and settlements, see Big Wins.
Loevy graduated from Columbia Law School in 1993, where he served as a Senior Editor of the Columbia Law Review. At Columbia, he was a Kent Scholar (approximately top 1% of the academic class), as well as the recipient of the Young B. Smith Prize given to the student with the top examination in torts, and the Paul R. Hayes Prize given to the student with the top exam in civil procedure.
After graduating from law school, Loevy clerked for Judge Milton I. Shadur of the Northern District of Illinois for a year, and then took a year off and travelled around the world. Upon returning home, Loevy spent a year and a half at Sidley & Austin before leaving to start his own firm.
The firm, Loevy & Loevy, is devoted to social justice and to representing those who might otherwise have no voice. Loevy started the firm out of his basement apartment, first as a solo practitioner, and then in partnership with his wife. It has since grown to nearly 50 lawyers with offices across the United States.
Loevy currently manages Loevy & Loevy with his partner, Mike Kanovitz. The firm focuses on a wide variety of civil rights issues, including wrongful convictions, police shootings, excessive force, prisoner rights, the First Amendment, freedom of information, electronic privacy, government fraud and whistleblower protection, environmental justice, and other constitutional claims. It is the largest private civil rights firm without paying clients in the country.
In addition, Loevy and some of the lawyers in the firm founded the Exoneration Project, an organization devoted to exonerating men and women wrongly convicted for crimes they did not commit. Since its founding, the Exoneration Project has won the freedom of more than 100 innocent individuals. The project is a clinic at the University of Chicago Law School, where Loevy is a Lecturer in Law.
Loevy was previously named one of the Law Bulletin's prestigious "40 under 40" attorneys to watch in Chicago, as well as one of Chicago Lawyer's "Next Generation Rising Stars of the Trial Bar."
In 2011, Loevy was awarded a Career Achievement award from the Chicago Law Bulletin, putting him in the select group of what was then 11 attorneys in the history of the State of Illinois with at least five jury verdicts in Illinois courts in excess of $5 million (Loevy now has 12 such verdicts).
Loevy also formerly served as CEO of Justice Grown, a cannabis company he co-founded with his law partner, Mike Kanovitz.
Jon Loevy is one of the most successful trial lawyers in the United States. He has won jury verdicts of at least a million dollars at more than 20 separate jury trials, nearly all in cases involving extremely challenging fact patterns. He is the founder of Loevy & Loevy, one of the largest civil rights firms in the United States, and the Exoneration Project.
Josh Loevy leads Loevy & Loevy's Disabled Rights Practice, focusing on Disabled's rights to employment, education, fair treatment by state and local government (including law enforcement), and access to technology and public accommodations.. He graduated from University of Iowa School of Law in 2013.
Joshua Tepfer is a partner at Loevy & Loevy. He dedicates most of his time to representing the wrongly convicted pro bono with the Exoneration Project. In a decade representing the wrongfully convicted, Josh has helped exonerate over 65 men and women wrongly convicted of crimes they did not commit.
Julia Rickert is a partner at Loevy & Loevy. She joined the firm as the Whistleblower Litigation Fellow to work on whistleblower protection cases in partnership with the Government Accountability Project. She graduated from Northwestern University School of Law, cum laude and in 2010, and then served as a law clerk to Judge David Hamilton of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit and Judge John Lee of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, and as a staff attorney at the Seventh Circuit.
Lindsay Hagy joined the firm in 2017. Lindsay's work in both the post-conviction and civil rights fields focuses on wrongful convictions, often involving the evolution of forensic science and government misconduct. Lindsay brings a client-centered approach to all stages of litigation.
Locke E. Bowman joined Loevy & Loevy in 2022. Bowman has been a civil rights attorney for three decades and has won over $100 million in settlements and verdicts for victims of police misconduct and wrongful conviction.
Makeba Rutahindurwa joined Loevy & Loevy as a Justice Fellow in 2020. She graduated from Stanford Law School in 2019. Prior to joining Loevy & Loevy, Makeba clerked for Judge Andrew Gordon of the U.S. District Court for the District of Nevada.
Mariah joined Loevy & Loevy as a Justice Fellow in 2019.
Mark Loevy-Reyes has litigated cases with a focus on public service since 1992. His work has focused on serving the needs of the community through representing people in civil cases, including police misconduct, wrongful imprisonment, prisoner rights, and disability discrimination.
Matt Topic is a partner at Loevy & Loevy. He is a nationally recognized leader in the Freedom of Information Act and other transparency laws, and has litigated hundreds of open government cases. He also practices general media law and commercial and intellectual property litigation. Matt graduated from Chicago-Kent College of Law as Valedictorian.
Job Titles:
- in 2018 As a Justice Fellow
Megan Pierce joined Loevy & Loevy in 2018 as a Justice Fellow. She is a graduate of the University of Michigan Law School and Columbia University. Before joining Loevy & Loevy, Megan served as a law clerk to the Honorable Ronald L Gilman of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit and the Honorable David G. Campbell of the U.S. District Court for the District of Arizona.
Merrick Wayne joined Loevy & Loevy in 2018. He works on the Freedom of Information Act & Government Transparency Team, where he primarily focuses his practice on FOIA litigation, along with Open Meetings Act, First Amendment, and election matters.
Michael Kanovitz is a partner at Loevy & Loevy, where he concentrates in class actions, constitutional law, and whistleblower protection under the federal and state False Claims Acts. His cases have resulted in verdicts and settlements of more than $125 million to his clients.
Rachel Brady is a partner at Loevy & Loevy. Rachel graduated magna cum laude from Chicago-Kent College of Law in 2013. Prior to joining the firm, she was a Skadden Fellow at Equip for Equality and a staff law clerk for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit.
Job Titles:
- in 2019 As a Justice Fellow
Renee Spence joined Loevy & Loevy in 2019 as a Justice Fellow. She is a graduate of Harvard Law School and Yale University. Before joining Loevy & Loevy, Renee worked at the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers as the Reform and Training Counsel, and served as an Assistant Public Defender in Miami-Dade County.
Ricky Jackson v. City of Cleveland, et al. (U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Ohio) Counsel for man wrongfully convicted of murder as a result of alleged police misconduct involving, among other things, withholding exculpatory evidence and eyewitness manipulation. Mr. Jackson served 39 years in prison before being exonerated in November 2014. Case currently pending.
Roshna Bala Keen is a partner at Loevy & Loevy. She handles wrongful convictions, police sexual assault claims, and unconstitutional conditions of confinement. She has tried nine federal and state jury trials, including the trial of a class action that resulted in a $55 million settlement. A 2004 graduate of Northwestern Law School, she previously worked at Sidley Austin LLP.
Russell Ainsworth is a partner at Loevy & Loevy. He has concentrated his practice on police brutality, wrongful arrest, First Amendment violations, and Constitutional issues. He has tried ten civil rights cases to juries, obtaining millions of dollars in compensation for his clients.
Ruth Brown is a partner at Loevy & Loevy. She graduated with distinction from Stanford Law School. Before coming to Loevy & Loevy, she litigated prison conditions cases at the ACLU of Illinois and clerked for Judges Sidney Thomas of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit and Matthew Kennelly of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois.
Sam Heppell joined Loevy & Loevy in 2015. Sam graduated from Harvard Law School in 2014, and following law school he clerked for the Honorable Michael Moldaver of the Canadian Supreme Court.
Samantha ("Sam") Hamilton joined Loevy & Loevy as a Justice Fellow in 2022.
Scott Drury joined Loevy & Loevy in 2018, after having served as an Assistant United States Attorney (2003-2011), Illinois State Representative (2013-2018), and Commissioner on the Illinois State Commission on Criminal Justice and Sentencing Reform (2015-2016).
Scott Rauscher is a partner at Loevy & Loevy. He graduated from the University of Chicago Law School, with honors. Before joining Loevy & Loevy, he clerked for the Honorable Rhesa Barksdale, United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, and worked at Sidley Austin LLP. His practice focuses on whistleblower and civil rights claims, as well as class actions.
Sean Starr represents clients in civil rights cases concerning wrongful convictions and other violations of the Constitution. Sean has successfully exonerated numerous innocent people wrongly imprisoned for crimes they did not commit.
Stephen H. Weil joined Loevy & Loevy in 2019. He is an attorney with the firm's Prisoners' Rights Project, which focuses on protecting the rights of men and women imprisoned in jails, prisons, and other detention facilities throughout the country.
Steve Art is a partner at Loevy & Loevy. He focuses on civil rights cases concerning wrongful convictions, deaths in jails and prisons, police killings, and other violations of the Constitution. Steve has successfully exonerated multiple innocent people wrongly imprisoned for crimes they did not commit, and he has helped his clients win more than $100 million in jury verdicts and settlements.
Theresa Kleinhaus is a partner at Loevy & Loevy. She joined the firm in 2015. She graduated magna cum laude from DePaul University College of Law in December 2010. Tess represents individuals who have been unlawfully searched, seized, brutalized, and sexually assaulted by law enforcement.
Wally Hilke joined Loevy & Loevy as a Justice Fellow in 2022.