Pro Bono Advisor

Marc R. Kadish

Pro Bono, Litigation & Dispute Resolution, Social & Impact Finance

Overview

Marc R. Kadish is Mayer Brown's Pro Bono Advisor.  He served as Director of Pro Bono Activities and Litigation Training from 1999 to 2015. Marc oversaw the firm’s global pro bono program, cultivating pro bono relationships with firm clients and opportunities that benefit society while providing the firm’s lawyers with training, professional development and fulfillment. Marc also managed the firm’s contributions to legal organizations serving the public interest.

For more than 20 years before joining Mayer Brown, Marc was a clinical law professor, teaching such subjects as evidence, criminal law and lawyering skills. During his career, he has conducted more than 60 jury trials and numerous bench trials before Chicago-area state and federal courts.

Please visit www.mayerbrown.com/experience/pro-bono for additional information about the firm’s pro bono program.

Pro Bono and Litigation Training

Marc’s responsibilities include supervising and training newer lawyers. His direct representational or supervisory work has included matters pertaining to the death penalty, murder and other felonies, prisoners’ civil rights, immigration matters, and some transactional projects.

Marc works with the firm’s US Litigation Training Committee and the Chicago Pro Bono Committee. He has taught at the Firm's annual deposition training program since joining the firm.

Following is a list of litigation matters that Marc has worked on since joining the firm:

Murder cases: (1) State v. Sean Bloxton; (2) State v. Devon Brunt; (3) State v. Clifton Carroll (three separate trials); (4) State v. Patrick Carter; (5) State v. Norman Derrickson; (6) State v. Larry Filiung; (7) State v. Burrell Geralds; (8) State v. Lisa Gunderson; (9) State v. Melvin Hammond; (10) State v. Annette Harris; (11) State v. Gary Henry (post-trial motions); (12) State v. Daniel Lucas (post-trial sentencing and motions—appeal before the Illinois Supreme Court); (13) State v. Samuel Lupo; (14) State v. Gregory Madej (re-sentencing death penalty); (15) State v. Cuahtemoc Padilla; (16) State v. Deborah Taylor; (17) State v. Aaron Thurman; (18) State v. Randy Williams; (19) State v. Jesus Duran; (20) State v. Tyrice Pryor; (21) State v. Adam Gray (petition for post-conviction relief); (22) State v. Darnell West; (23) State v. Deandre Hughes; (24) State v. Dwayne Anderson; (25) State v. Michael Whitehead; (26) in re Juvenile murder case; (27) State v. Larry Estrada (death penalty); (28) State v. Anthony Hall (death penalty).

Other State Cases: (1) State v. Sean Bloxton; (2) State v. Anthony Boyce; (3) State v. Wendell Frazier; (4) State v. Samuel Garcia; (5) State v. Aurelia Gonzalez; (6) State v. Larry Lee; (7) State v. Kesheia Phillips; (8) State v. Phelixis Robinson (appeal); (9) State v. Alan Love; (10) State v. Jermaine Risper; (11) State v Malina Tate; (12) State v. Quo Vadis Thompson; (13) State v. Phillip Batie; (14) State v. Daniel Molina; (15) State v. Davion Rousseu; (16) State v. Charles Kilpatrick.

Prisoner and Civil Rights Cases: (1) Miller v. Burns; (2) Farella v. Hockaday; (3) Stephen v. Hanley, et al; (4) Rasho v. Walker; (5) Guider v. Cook County Jail; (6) Young v. Wexford Health Sources; (7) Hallam v. Anderson, et al.; (8) Cedric Smith v. U.S.; (9) Jones v. Aguinaldo; (10) Hillard v. Dart; (11) Burton v. Ghosh;  (12) Podkulski v. Inman, et al.; (13) Tripp v. Engleson; (14) Mays v. Springborn; (15) Smith v.  Holder; (16) Crawford v. Best; (17) Myles v. Reighter.

Political Asylum Cases: (1) Elba Taguta; (2) A boy named K; (3) Zarina Dhanji; (4) Roome Joseph; (5) Ndeye Penda Seye; (6) Ashoor Rasho; (7)Vazquez/Hernandez Family.

 

Teaching Experience

Marc began his teaching career in 1974, teaching criminal law to inmates at both the Pontiac and Stateville Correctional Centers in Illinois. He continued teaching as an adjunct instructor at Columbia College in Chicago. He taught introduction to law courses for undergraduate students and various seminars dealing with the criminal justice system.

From 1979 to 1999, Marc was a clinical teacher and member of the faculty at IIT-Chicago-Kent College of Law. He participated in Kent’s fee-generating clinical program, working with students on criminal cases and also taught lawyering skills courses on interviewing, counseling and negotiating.

Marc taught regular sections of Evidence for most of his 20-year affiliation with Chicago Kent. He also created a special four-credit evidence course titled Evidence and Evidence Advocacy. He also taught Criminal Law, several experimental interdisciplinary courses with engineering students from the undergraduate school, which sought to create inexpensive ways to utilize computer generated graphics in the trial of criminal cases. During his last semester at the school, he taught a seminar based on his experiences handling an Illinois death penalty case, State v. Anthony Hall.

While a teacher at Chicago-Kent College of Law, Marc also participated as an instructor in the intensive trial advocacy program at Emory Law School and the special clinical trial advocacy program at the University of Chicago Law School. In addition to his trial advocacy teaching, Marc also taught ethics classes to commodity traders at both the Chicago Mercantile Exchange and the Chicago Board of Trade.

Marc has also participated in several international rule of law programs. From 2009-2014, he participated in a two day program teaching trial advocacy skills to Cambodian University students. In 2011, he participated in a two week program in Vietnam through the American Bar Association’s Rule of Law Initiative (ROLI). In 2015, he taught a two week program on International Human Rights to Thai Judges and bar officials in Bangkok. He recently participated in a program for Armenian Judges, prosecutors and investigators where he wrote and presented on the presumption of innocence and guilt beyond a reasonable doubt, electronic evidence, cyber security and judicial management of media coverage of criminal cases. 

Marc has also spoken in classes or programs at the following law schools: Stanford, Harvard, Georgetown, Emory, Indiana, DePaul, Loyola and Chicago-Kent, Houston, Columbia, Virginia and Illinois. He also spoke at classes and visited one of Mayer Brown's early pro bono projects, the Asian University for Women in Bangladesh.

Marc has been featured by The Chicago Daily Law Bulletin for his pro bono work in Bangladesh, Chicago Lawyer magazine for his pro bono work in Vietnam and in both the AmLaw Daily and The Chicago Daily Law Bulletin for teaching trial skills to Cambodian students.

Education

  • Rutgers University School of Law, JD
  • Rutgers University, BA

Admissions

  • Illinois

Languages

  • English

Professional & Community Involvement

  • Legal Commentator, 1992-1999, national television, CNN and CNN Headline News: local TV channels, radio stations and various national shows; Court TV, 1993-1996
  • Advisory Board – Cook County Public Defender’s Office
  • Board of Directors – Chicago Bar Foundation - and member of Grants Committee
  • Board of Directors – Corporation for Supportive Housing
  • Member Special Illinois Supreme Court Committee on Pro Bono Publico Legal Service
  • Former Member Capital Trial Bar Selection Committee – (special committee established by the Illinois Supreme Court to investigate qualifications of Illinois lawyers to represent defendants charged in capital murder cases
  • Member Magistrate Judge Merit Selection Panel – United States District Court, Northern District of Illinois (2001)
  • Member Advisory Board, National Immigrant Justice Center
  • Member - Board of Directors, Lawndale Christian Legal Center
  • Member - Advisory Board of CEPI (Center for Practice Engagement and Innovation) at Northwestern Law School
  • Working Group - Marc has been appointed as a special assistant states attorney in Cook county. He is a member of an independent three lawyer panel charged with investigating claims of police torture and misconduct in 16 murder cases involving seven Chicago police detectives
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