Partner John Litchfield was named to Crain’s Chicago Business’ 2020 List of Notable LGBTQ Executives.
A member of the firm’s Labor & Employment and Business Litigation & Dispute Resolutions practices, Litchfield also co-leads the firm’s ADA & FMLA compliance team and plays a leading role in the firm’s work with cannabis companies and LGBTQA+ employment issues. Litchfield is also part of the firm’s LGBTQA+ affinity group and the firm’s asylum pro bono practice group.
Litchfield’s pro bono work is an important part of his practice. In 2018, he successfully represented a gay HIV+ Mexican immigrant in his asylum claim, and in 2017 he lead a team that won a hard-fought asylum case for a gay Russian couple escaping persecution in the U.S.
Additionally, in serving as co-counsel with Lambda Legal, Litchfield’s team successfully pursued a ground breaking litigation where the 7th Circuit, for the first time, extended protections to LGBTQA+ individuals under the Fair Housing Act.
Litchfield has also served as president of the Equality Illinois Political Action Committee for the past 5 years, and recently assumed the vice chairmanship of the Equality Illinois board. Between 2011 and 2015, Litchfield served as Chair of the Lesbian & Gay Bar Association of Chicago (“LAGBAC”), and has served as President of the Equality Illinois Political Action Committee since 2015 and Vice Chair of Equality Illinois.
