Litigator of the Week Runners-Up and Shout Outs

Partners Kent Hayden and Katie Lencioni and senior legal advisor Tom Kuhns received a shout out from The AmLaw Litigation Daily for their pro bono work for Lucrecious Towers.

... And one last big shout out to a pro bono team at Kirkland & Ellis. The firm has dedicated more than 1,500 hours representing Lucrecious Towers, who was convicted and sentenced to 100 years in prison after a 2007 murder trial in Chicago. U.S. District Judge John Lee last week granted Towers’ habeas petition based largely on ineffective assistance of counsel. Kirkland tracked down three witnesses who were not called at trial who provided exculpatory evidence pointing to a different suspect, who is now dead, who had a similar appearance to Towers at the time of the crime. Lee’s order granting the petition, which was issued the day the judge was elevated to the Seventh Circuit, gives prosecutors 120 days to decide whether to retry Towers or release him from prison. The Kirkland team was led by two senior associates who made partner during the course of the representation, Kent Hayden and Katie Lencioni, with support from Tom Kuhns, the firm’s former chief general counsel.