Throughout his career, Jim put aside his own financial interests to defend people in need. With credentials that would allow him to work for the largest law firms in the country, he has chosen to teach and do public service work in Chicago. As you’ll read below, Jim has always been willing to sp
eak truth to power and to stand up for people who needed a voice.
- GROWING UP IN OHIO
- MOVING TO CHICAGO FOR LAW SCHOOL
- TEACHING AND PRACTICING LAW
- POLITICAL AND POLICY WORK
- TODAY
GROWING UP IN OHIO
Jim grew up in an Irish Catholic family as the eldest of three boys in a small rustbelt town called Niles, Ohio. Jim’s father ran the local AMVETS organization. Jim’s mother babysat children in the family home for extra money.
In high school Jim excelled in debate, becoming Ohio state champion in 1992. Jim went on to be elected the President of his class both in high school and in college. Jim worked throughout high school and college in jobs such as busboy, discount store cashier, waiter and nursing home maintenance man.
After growing up 
a Cleveland Browns fan, Jim moved to Cleveland to attend Case Western Reserve University. Jim worked during college for a mortuary company - because the job paid above minimum wage. He graduated with honors in Political Science and History in 1997. Jim received his degree summa cum laude and was admitted to Phi Beta Kappa.
MOVING TO CHICAGO FOR LAW SCHOOL
Jim was accepted to The University of Chicago Law School and moved to Illinois in 1997. There he was taught constitutional law by Barack Obama. Jim excelled in competitive moot court, arguing before Justice Clarence Thomas of the United States Supreme Court. He received his law degree with honors in 2000.
Even as a law student, Jim committed himself to the defense of others. He volunteered to do legal research for the attorneys who defended the gay Scout who was kicked out of the Boy Scouts of America – a case that made its way to the Supreme Court. Jim worked in Springfield with women’s rights advocates to support State Rep. Sara Feigenholtz’s bill that would give greater civil remedies to victims of domestic abuse and sexual violence.
As far back as 1998, Jim led protests of the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy. When the U.S. military insisted upon interviewing at University of Chicago Law School for the JAG Corps – in violation of university policy that only admitted employers who agreed not to discriminate on the basis of sexual orientation – Jim signed up to interview. The JAG recruiters found out that an openly gay candidate had signed up, and they canceled the visit altogether rather than reject Jim to his face.
When the Chicago City Council planned to name a street sign for Playboy magazine's Hugh Hefner in the Spring of 2000 – a few months before Jim was to graduate from law school – Jim was the only 
man to testify in opposition. Pointing out that the sign would be insulting to young women – and that the Aldermen were merely paying back a big donor to the Democratic Party – Jim publicly sparred with powerful Aldermen like Burt Natarus, William Beavers and Bernie Stone.
Speaking out carried costs. Jim had accepted a job offer from a global law firm headquartered in Chicago that had done legal work for Playboy Inc. Attorneys from Playboy called to complain about Jim’s public testimony. When the firm’s managing partner told Jim he could still join the firm so long as he didn’t take any more controversial public stands, Jim resigned before he started – giving up a six-figure salary.
TEACHING AND PRACTICING LAW
After graduating from law school in 2000, Jim accepted a two-year fellowship to teach in Hyde Park at The University of Chicago Law School for $30,000 a year.
After teaching, Jim worked for the Chicago-based law firm Goldberg Kohn. There he complemented his defense of corporate clients with pro bono civil rights cases for the incarcerated. Jim convinced the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals (one of the most conservative and respected courts in the Nation) to hold that if prison administrators refuse to respond to prisoner grievances in a timely fashion, then inmates may seek relief in court. Jim believes that the way our society treats its prisoners – who are easy to ignore and to vilify – is a mark of our maturity and compassion.
In 2005, Jim joined Lambda Legal, a national nonprofit legal organization committed to the civil rights of LGBT people and those living with HIV. Jim wrote legal briefs in state and federal courts, including the U.S. Supreme Court, to ensure that students maintained their First Amendment right to express themselves and to organize.
When anti-gay forces tried to put a referendum on the Illinois ballot, Jim represented a coalition of fair-minded citizens called Fair Illinois. Fair Illinois beat the anti-gay referendum both in the State Board of Elections and in federal court.
Much of Jim’s work at Lambda Legal focused on schools in the Midwest. He successfu
lly defended vulnerable clients including:
- Ohio college professors whose health care benefits were challenged by anti-gay politicians;
- a Chicago student organization, whose charter high school refused to recognize the group or let it advertise its group meetings; and
- a Wisconsin college student attacked and beaten near campus in a hate crime.
Today Jim teaches as an adjunct lecturer at The University of Chicago Law School and at Ohio State University’s College of Law.
POLITICAL AND POLICY WORK
Jim assisted members of the General Assembly to draft the Illinois civil union bill. Civil unions will benefit same-sex couples (who aren’t allowed to marry) and heterosexual senior citizens (who don’t marry because of the impact on their federal benefits). Civil unions will provide couples with the rights and benefits under state and local law that most married citizens take for granted.
Jim believes in being respectful of religious diversity. He wrote a provision in the civil union bill that will protect the freedom of churches, synagogues, mosques and temples to decide f
or themselves whether or not to perform civil unions.
Jim served as Interim Executive Director of Equality Illinois, the public education and political organization that works to improve the climate for all LGBT persons in our State.
He’s also served on the State’s Attorney LGBT Advisory Council as well as the policy committee of the Illinois Safe Schools Alliance, which focuses on training and anti-discrimination rules that protect students. Jim helped the Alliance draft legislation that will one day require schools to adopt serious policies against bullying.
TODAY
Like most Chicagoans, Jim lives paycheck-to-paycheck. He has student loans and debt. Jim lives in a little one-bedroom apartment in the Buena Park area of Uptown. He depends on the CTA to get to work.
You don’t have to take a chance that Jim will look out for the working class when he is our State Senator. Jim is working class.
And you don’t have to wonder whether Jim will put other people’s interests ahead of his own. He’s done so throughout his career.
