Events
October 23, 2008
The Honorable Judge George N. Leighton Recipient of the 2008
Jenner & Block Award
Neal & Leroy, LLC, a minority-owned law firm nationally-recognized for its experience and knowledge in the area of eminent domain, municipal law, and real estate law, is pleased to recognize Judge George N. Leighton, Of Counsel and Former U.S. District Judge for the Northern District of Illinois, for receiving The 2008 Jenner & Block Award. A special awards ceremony was held on Friday, November 14th at Northwestern University, Lowden Hall, 357 E. Chicago Avenue, Chicago, IL. This award was presented in conjunction with the Tenth Anniversary Celebration of the Northwestern University School of Law Bluhm Legal Clinic Center on Wrongful Convictions. A world-renowned program of the Bluhm Legal Clinic, the Center on Wrongful Convictions, is dedicated to identifying and rectifying wrongful convictions and other serious miscarriages of justices. For more information, visit the Center on Wrongful Convictions website.
The Jenner & Block Award is an annual recognition to honor career accomplishments of a distinguished public official who has made a significant contribution to the administration and advancement of criminal justice.
Judge George N. Leighton concentrates in the areas of federal litigation and appellate cases. He became counsel to Neal & Leroy, LLC in 1987 after retiring from 23 combined years of service as judge on the state and federal bench.
Judge Leighton is a 1946 graduate of Harvard Law School and a 1940 magna cum laude graduate of Howard University. Judge Leighton's early career included serving as an Assistant Attorney General for the State of Illinois and as Master in Chancery of the Circuit Court of Cook County. In 1964, he was elected to a six-year term as Judge of the Circuit Court of Cook County and five years later he was assigned by the Illinois Supreme Court to sit as Judge of the Appellate Court, First District. In 1970, Judge Leighton was elected to a ten-year term as a Justice of the Illinois Appellate Court, First District.
President Gerald Ford nominated Judge Leighton to serve as a Judge of the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois in 1975, upon confirmation Judge Leighton began serving in 1976. Judge Leighton retired from the bench in 1987.