Jon Loevy

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 six separate times he has won jury verdicts of at least $20 million. Loevy’s largest jury verdict was $238 million in Cook County.

Loevy’s jury verdicts greater than one million dollars include: Gray v. City of Chicago in 2023 ($27 million jury verdict in wrongful conviction case); Rogers v. BNSF Railroad in 2022 ($228 million jury verdict, largest ever Biometric privacy verdict); Seats v. City of Dolton in 2022 ($33 million jury verdict in police chase case); Anderson v. City of Chicago in 2021 ($7 million verdict in wrongful confession case); 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 200 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 16 such verdicts).

Loevy and his law partner, Mike Kanovitz, also co-founded a cannabis company called Justice Grown.