Admirers, Friends Gather to Honor Judge George Leighton and His Ideals

The John Marshall Law School Foundation has established an endowment to underwrite the George N. Leighton Fellowships for the Study of Prisoners’ Rights. The stablishment of the fellowships is part of a long-term campaign to establish the George N. Leighton Center for the Reversal of Unconstitutional Convictions.

Jerold Solovy, who introduced Leighton as he received the award, reminded guests that his dear friend “is not an African-American hero, he is a true American hero.”

“It is one thing to be admired,” he told Leighton, “but you’re loved by us with all our hearts.”

“I’m receiving so many honors lately. I appreciate this. This is the grandest one yet,” the spry 97-year-old friend of The John Marshall Law School said as the crowd gave him a standing ovation. “It’s a great pleasure and gives me deep satisfaction. I will treasure this until the day that I leave this earth.”

Leighton said since Oct. 14, 1946, he has worked as a lawyer in Chicago. “I came here only to seek the chance to prove to people that I could be a lawyer,” the Harvard-educated attorney recalled. “I was accepted. Poor people began to hire me; most couldn’t reimburse me.” But Leighton said he was unperturbed because he knew he was “defending equal justice under the law.”

He served as president and general counsel of the Chicago chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP); helped establish the firm Moore, Ming & Leighton in 1951, one of the largest predominately black law firms in the country at the time; argued numerous cases before the United States Supreme Court and various other courts; served as a Cook County Circuit Court judge from 1964 to 1968, an Illinois Appellate Court judge from 1968 to 1975, and then United States District Court judge until retiring in 1987; and returned to private practice with Neal & Leroy LLC.

Circuit Court of Cook County Chief Judge Timothy Evans (JD ’69) told the story of Leighton asking him to get a copy of his indictment. Evans said he was taken aback. How was it that Leighton, an upstanding lawyer, should be indicted?

Leighton was representing a black family’s right to lease an apartment in Cicero in 1951. When word got out, it caused panic in the community, and Leighton was indicted for conspiracy to incite a riot. His attorney of record was Thurgood Marshall, joined by attorneys Elmer Gertz, Leon Despres and Albert E. Jenner, all leaders in the civil rights movement.

“For me, that document reflected his courage and bravery,” Evans said.

For Leighton, it was proof that “you could be indicted and be innocent. I was!” he told the audience. It was one of the examples he’d used when teaching the Prisoners Rights course at John Marshall for nearly 40 years.

Evans remembered Leighton as his former professor. “He never talked down to us. He was our role model.   He was never accused of any hatred or violence. He is unfailingly gracious to the high and the low.”

His former law clerks agreed. Speaking on their behalf, attorney Andrea Zopp said the judge is always “so respectful of other human beings.” He taught them so much, but the most special “gift he gave me was love of the law. He knows the law, lives and breathes the beauty of the law…and how to respect it.”

Langdon Neal of Neal & Leroy LLC, whose grandfather, father and now he shares a law office with Leighton, said he considers himself “blessed to have George Leighton in my life. I am equally blessed to say I know George Leighton. He epitomizes what it is to be a lawyer, and he epitomizes that in every area of his life. He does everything to the best of his ability and with a commitment to excellence.”