Lori Lightfoot

At 62 years old, Lori Lightfoot has this physical status:

Lori Elaine Lightfoot (born August 4, 1962) is an American politician and lawyer serving as Chicago's 56th and current Mayor.

Lightfoot spent time in private law as a partner at Mayer Brown and held various government positions in the City of Chicago before becoming mayor.

She served as president of the Chicago Police Board and chair of the Chicago Police Accountability Task Force, among other things.

Lightfoot ran for Mayor of Chicago in 2019, defeating Toni Preckwinkle in the run-off election in February 2019.

In the runoff on April 2, 2019, she defeated Preckwinkle.

Lightfoot is the first black female and first openly gay mayor of the city, and it's now the largest city to be headed by a woman in the United States.

She is the second woman to be elected mayor of Chicago and the first female to hold the position after Jane Byrne's four-year term ended in 1983.

Early life and education

Lightfoot was born in Massillon, Ohio, and was the youngest of four children. Ann Lightfoot, a nighttime healthcare assistant and school board member, and Elijah Lightfoot, a local factory employee and janitor, were among her parents. On the west side of the city, she grew up in a predominantly white neighborhood.

She attended Washington High School in Massillon, where she served as a trumpeter in the band, sang alto in choir, point guard on the basketball team, volleyball player, yearbook reporter, and Pep Club member. She was elected president of the high school class three times. "Get on the right foot with Lightfoot," the campaign's slogan when running for president of high school class president. In 2013, her high school alumni association named her a "Distinguished Citizen." Lightfoot helped organize a boycott of her school's lunch program due to the quality of its pizza while in high school. The school provided more flavorful pizza, which made her boycott a success. She was fined for the protest but not arrested.

Lightfoot earned her Bachelor of Arts degree in political science from the University of Michigan in 1984, graduating with distinction. Despite not knowing the subject, she started out with the intention of becoming a systems engineer after her older brother's advice. She tried to find out what she learned by doing as a resident assistant and as a cook for the school's football team, among other things. To pay for her education, she worked at home during summers. Although Lightfoot was an undergraduate, her older brother, Brian Lightfoot, was arrested in connection with a bank robbery and the shooting of a security guard.

Lightfoot served for congress members Ralph Regula and Barbara Mikulski before deciding to enroll law school. She said she chose law school not because of her brother's court problems, but rather because she wanted to work in a career that provided financial stability. She matriculated at the University of Chicago Law School, where she was given a full scholarship. After the firm hired a recruiter who made racist and sexist remarks toward a student, she led a fruitful fight to remove a law firm from campus. When attending Chicago Law School, the Lightfoot quarter backed an intramural flag football team. Lightfoot has also served as a clerk for Michigan Supreme Court Justice Charles Levin. In 1989, she graduated from the University of Chicago with a Juris Doctor degree.

Personal life

Lightfoot lives in the Logan Square neighborhood on Chicago's Northwest Side. Vivian's adopted daughter, Amy Eshleman, is a full-time mother to the couple's adopted daughter, Vivian, on May 31, 2014.

Lightfoot has been selling Chicago Bears season tickets for 20 years, as well as a Chicago White Sox season ticket holder. She is also a season ticket holder for the Chicago Sky.

Lightfoot appeared on a TV mini-series titled The Last Show Left On Earth: The Last Show Left on Earth.

Lightfoot is a Founding Trustee at Christ the King Jesuit High School in Chicago. She is also a member of St. James AME Zion Church.

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Career

Lightfoot began practicing law at the Mayer Brown law firm, representing a large number of clients. Lightfoot first entered the public sector as Assistant United States Attorney for Illinois's Northern District. Lightfoot cited several reasons for entering public service, including a desire to represent the African-American community, a sense of injustice based on the assassination of a family member by a Ku Klux Klan member in the 1920s, and concerns with the government's prohibition of possessing crack cocaine with the intention to distribute.

Lightfoot, while serving as a federal prosecutor, was assisting those convicted of federal felony charges, including opioid offenses. Operation Silver Shovel, an FBI probe into Chicago corruption, was she involved. Virgil Jones, a Virgil Jones, was arrested by her aid in convicting her. Lightfoot was issued a warning for misconduct by judge Richard Posner in 1999, when she was found by the United States Circuit Judge to have deceived a suspect's whereabouts, making it impossible for the judge to maintain the suspect's extradition to Norway. Lightfoot and the Justice Department at the time disagreed with this interpretation of her behavior.

By Terry Hillard, Police Superintendent Terry Hillard appointed Lightfoot as the head administrator of the Chicago Police Department Office of Professional Standards, a now defunct governmental police oversight group. She was in charge of the position for two years. She was in charge of investigating potential cases of police misconduct, including police shootings of civilians in the position. However, a Chicago Tribune article revealed that the Office of Professional Standards' investigations often did not have sufficient detail. Lightfoot claims that the police department has often rejected her recommendations for discipline proceedings.

In one rare occurrence, Lightfoot defied Police Department orthodoxy by recommending the dismissal of officer Alvin Weems, who shot and killed Michael Pleasance, an unarmed man. Weems was first thought to have mistakenly shot Pleasance, but after video evidence contradicting the initial allegations was revealed, even Weems himself expressed concern that the shooting was unjustified. Weems was not shot by the Chicago Police Department, but the city was eventually forced to pay a settlement to the Pleasance family, but the police department was eventually compelled to pay a fee. Weems committed suicide two years later.

Lightfoot determined that the shooting was justified in another controversial case where officer Phyllis Clinkscales shot and killed an unarmed 17-year-old Robert Washington. In doing so, the Tribune Tribune said she reversed her predecessor's order, although she had called for the dismissal of Clinkscales. In an investigation, Clinkscales' account of the shooting had been discovered to include unverified statements. Lightfoot disagreed with this Clinkscales' lawsuit, arguing that the police superintendent at the time was to blame for missing Lightfoot's report that was unjustified. Lightfoot said she took the initiative to call for a 30-day suspension for Clinkscales, which she explained was the most possible given the circumstances.

Lightfoot went on to work in the Chicago Office of Emergency Response and Communications, where he now works. She was later hired by Mayor Richard M. Daley as deputy chief of the Chicago Department of Procurement Services. Mayor Daley's ire was sparked by her and her boss, Mary Dempsey, who prosecuted Chicago corruption, angering Mayor Daley. Investigations into Lightfoot and Dempsey included investigations into former Illinois Rod Blagojevich's associate Tony Rezko and a prominent Daley donor Elzie Higginbottom, among other topics. Lightfoot spent a few months at the Department of Procurement Services, before returning to Mayer Brown. Lightfoot has indicated that she left the Department of Procurement Services due to dissatisfaction with the City Hall's corruption.

In two cases opposing Democratic gerrymandering, Lightfoot, as an attorney at Mayer Brown, represented Republicans. At Mayer Brown, she also defended Chicago police officer Paul Powers against allegations of physical assault. Lightfoot cited video evidence in favor of her former client's innocence in 2019, after being chastised over her defense of Powers.

Lightfoot was briefly employed by the city of Chicago to defend the city against charges brought by a mentally impaired woman, Christina Eilman, who was arrested by Chicago police after suffering a mental breakdown at Midway Airport. After being escorted by police into Englewood, a woman was stabbed and died on a seven-story fall. The family of Eilman reached a $22.5 million settlement with the city.

Lightfoot has also served on the boards of the Illinois chapters of NARAL and ACLU. She has been working as an outside counsel for Bank of America. Lightfoot was a finalist for the position of US Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois in 2013, but Zachary T. Fardon took over the role.

Lightfoot returned to the public sector in 2015 when Mayor Rahm Emanuel named her to replace 19-year incumbent Demetrius Carney as president of the Chicago Police Board. The board's primary function is to make suggestions for or against discipline action in a few problematic cases of police abuse. In 72% of its cases, the board became more punitive, dismissing officers under Lightfoot's leadership. Following the uproar surrounding the murder of Laquan McDonald, Emanuel named Lightfoot as the chair of a special Police Accountability Task Force. The Task Force, led by Lightfoot, published a study in 2016 that was critical of the Chicago Police Department's methods. She criticized the police union's "code of silence" specifically. A statement from the Chicago chapter of the anti-police activism group Black Youth Project 100 condemned Lightfoot and the board and task force for a "lack of accountability."

Lightfoot was re-appointed president of the Police Board by Emanuel in 2017. The decision came after Lightfoot and Emanuel had publicly argued that they were in conflict, particularly over Emanuel's attempts to strike an agreement with Trump Administration Justice Department officials that would prevent a consent decree and oversight from a federal judge. Lightfoot called Emanuel's scheme "fundamentally flawed." Lightfoot had already been rumored that she was planning a run for mayor of Chicago in 2019, but she denied the allegations at the time. Lightfoot resigned from the Police Board in May 2018, just before announcing her mayoral candidacy.

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