The Rev. John J. Cavanaugh, C.S.C., Award - 2021: John N. Gallo ’83
For his work as the CEO and Executive Director of Legal Aid Chicago, John Gallo ’83 is presented with this award. The largest civil legal aid organization in the Midwest, Legal Aid Chicago fights to ensure that poverty is not an impediment to justice. Legal Aid Chicago’s work starts by making the legal system accessible to clients and concludes with a resolution that changes their lives and gets them back on track. Every day its staff of over 200 — half of whom are attorneys — fight for justice for people living in poverty. Their advocacy results in victims of domestic violence or trafficking breaking free and beginning new lives; children receiving the education services they deserve; families avoiding homelessness by preventing unfair evictions or foreclosures; and seniors keeping their life savings by ensuring they are not victims of fraud.
Prior to joining Legal Aid Chicago, Gallo was a partner at Sidley Austin LLP for 21 years. He was co-chair of Sidley’s White Collar Practice from 2010 to 2017, and head of litigation in Sidley’s Chicago Office from 2014 to 2017. In 2005, in partnership with Brian Stevenson at the Equal Justice Initiative, he created Sidley’s Capital Litigation Project, designed to ensure that inmates incarcerated on Alabama’s death row had effective legal representation. From 2000 to 2017, Gallo served as trial counsel to the Illinois Judicial Inquiry Board, the body responsible for investigating allegations of misconduct by Illinois judges. From 1989 to 1996, he served as a Criminal Assistant United States Attorney in the Northern District of Illinois, and from 1994 to 1996 as a Deputy Chief. He was an adjunct professor at Notre Dame Law School from 2002 to 2017, and he clerked for the Honorable Ann C. Williams in federal district court in Chicago from 1986 to 1988. He and his wife, Jeanne, have been married for 36 years and have four adult children and three grandchildren.
“It was as a student at Notre Dame that I first learned the inextricable connection between my faith and social justice. I am both humbled and grateful to receive this award from an institution so close to my heart.”