John came out of retirement to be Legal Action Chicago’s first Director. He had retired in 2020 as the president of the Shriver Center on Poverty Law. In a long career as a poverty-fighting lawyer, he was a leader in the design and implementation of positive aspects of Illinois’ new welfare law in 1997, and he spearheaded the statewide efforts in Illinois to create both the FamilyCare program, which provides health care insurance for up to up to 400,000 working poor parents of minor children, and All Kids, the first state plan to extend health coverage to every child.

He has consulted and co-counseled with advocates in many states; helped draft numerous pieces of legislation; given hundreds of presentations; published extensively; and served as lead or co-lead counsel in numerous federal and state cases, including Memisovski v. Maram, which established substantial reforms in children’s health care in Illinois. He led litigation that compelled ongoing payments for health care during the Illinois budget impasse in 2015-17. He was chair of the Responsible Budget Coalition for many years, including for the effort to win a constitutional amendment to establish a progressive income tax.

John’s role with Legal Action Chicago is a return to roots for him. Before joining the Shriver Center in 1996, he worked for two decades at the Legal Assistance Foundation of Chicago (then the name of Legal Aid Chicago), where he supervised public benefits advocacy. Among his honors, he has received the Sargent Shriver Equal Justice Award from the Shriver Center on Poverty Law, the Kutak-Dodds Prize from the National Legal Aid and Defender Association, John Minor Wisdom Public Service and Professionalism Award from the American Bar Association’s Litigation Section, Child Health Advocate Award from the American Academy of Pediatrics, and Excellence in Pro Bono and Public Interest Service Award from the United States District Court and Federal Bar Association. A 1975 graduate of Valparaiso University School of Law and former board member of the Chicago Transit Authority, John currently serves on the boards of Michael Reese Health Trust, the Center for Law and Social Policy (Washington DC), and RRF Foundation for Aging.