Lori Lightfoot

Lightfoot, a former partner at the Mayer Brown law firm, worked as a top staffer in the city’s Office of Emergency Management and Communications. Emanuel later tapped Lightfoot to serve as president of the Police Board and co-chair of a police reform task force. Lightfoot ultimately used both police oversight jobs to criticize Emanuel for not taking strong enough measures on police reform. Lightfoot was a federal prosecutor before the police disciplinary jobs, and she was formally reprimanded nearly 20 years ago for “professional misconduct” by a federal appeals judge who found that she had misled another judge in a botched extradition case. L.E. Lightfoot is a partner at Mayer Brown LLP. A trial attorney, investigator and crisis manager, Lori has extensive experience in civil and criminal litigation involving federal and state criminal violations, including mail and wire fraud, tax prosecutions, perjury, and obstruction of justice. Lori has also litigated disputes concerning products liability, business torts, employment discrimination and common law claims, among other matters. She has defended clients in federal and state criminal investigations and prosecutions; handled internal client investigations; and advised clients on a variety of matters, such as internal compliance, risk management, corporate governance, disciplinary systems, ethics, and avoidance of and preparation for potential litigation. Lori also has direct experience in designing and implementing media and marketing strategies for clients. Both as a civil litigator and as Assistant U.S. Attorney in the Criminal Division of the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Northern District of Illinois, Lori has tried over 20 federal and state jury and bench trials. She has also argued cases in state and federal appellate courts, and she has successfully conducted numerous internal investigations. In addition, Lori has considerable experience in instituting risk-management and compliance practices for municipal government departments, such as police, procurement services, emergency management, homeland security and 911 emergency call systems.