Last month, CRRJ hosted two guest speakers from the Chicago-based attorney’s office, People’s Law Office. Attorneys Flint Taylor and Brad Thomson spoke with CRRJ Clinic students about using civil rights lawsuits to advance racial justice, particularly in cases involving police violence.

They also spoke to students in CRRJ Attorney Alex Stein’s Race, Police Violence, and Law class about their extensive experiences advocating for people who have been brutalized, tortured, killed or maliciously prosecuted by police.

“These classes are designed to help students prepare to be effective attorneys who approach their work with care and principle,” said Stein. “Flint and Brad are attorneys who have certainly put those values into practice amid impressive and iconic careers at the People’s Law Office. It was a great privilege to have them meet with the students and show them real ways to use legal skills in the pursuit of racial and social justice.”

Taylor was a lead lawyer in the Fred Hampton Black Panther civil case, following Hampton’s murder in a predawn raid at his Chicago apartment by a tactical unit of the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office, aided by the Chicago Police Department and the FBI. He has led litigated cases all over the country that revealed a pattern and practice of police misconduct, including the torture and cover-up matters involving former Chicago police commander Jon Burge, former Mayor Richard M. Daley, former State’s Attorney Richard Devine, and other police and government officials.

Taylor is also an accomplished appellate advocate, having argued the civil rights cases of Cleavinger v. Saxner and Buckley v. Fitzsimmons before the United States Supreme Court.

Thomson was part of the legal team in Vodak v. City of Chicago, a class action lawsuit against the City of Chicago brought by 800 demonstrators opposing the war in Iraq who were wrongfully arrested by the Chicago Police Department. The matter was settled for $6.2 million. He has also worked on the NATO 3 trial, in which the defendants were found guilty of possessing incendiary devices but acquitted of terrorism charges, and the First Amendment challenge brought by Occupy Chicago activists in 2011. He successfully won release of political activists who spent decades in prison, including the MOVE 9 and Black Liberation elder Mutulu Shakur.