ABOUT US
The Roderick MacArthur Justice Center (the Justice Center) has been called "a law firm like no other" by the Chicago Daily Law Bulletin. Our nonprofit public-interest law firm at Northwestern University School of Law litigates issues of significance for the criminal justice system, including prisoner rights, the death penalty, and gun control.
In this time of limited resources for the poor, the Justice Center spends more than $400,000 annually to provide free legal representation on criminal justice issues affecting the indigent. Since its founding in 1985, many of the Justice Center's cases have been prominently featured in the media, including Talk magazine, the Washington Post, the New York Times, the Chicago Tribune, and the Chicago Sun-Times.
The Justice Center is funded by the J. Roderick MacArthur Foundation of Niles, Illinois. The center, formerly affiliated with the University of Chicago, joined Northwestern Law's Bluhm Legal Clinic in 2006. Currently, 16 law students receive academic credit for assisting the center in preparing cases. Center director Locke Bowman and assistant director Joe Margulies are clinical associate professors at the Law School.
J. Roderick MacArthur, a prominent Chicago businessman who died in 1984, was the son of John D. MacArthur, founder of the John D. & Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, and a trustee of that foundation. There is no other connection between the two foundations.
- J. Roderick MacArthur, Founder
- David J. Bradford, Founding Attorney
- Locke E. Bowman, Legal Director and Clinical Associate Professor
- Joseph Margulies, Clinical Associate Professor and Assistant Director
J. Roderick MacArthur
The following is adapted from a longer article about J. Roderick MacArthur that appeared in the August 1984 issue of Chicago Lawyer, shortly before Mr. MacArthur's death.
If J. Roderick MacArthur weren't J. Roderick MacArthur, he would be a good candidate for one of those genius grants his father's foundation gives out. Everyone agrees he is a genius—mad genius, say his critics.
Not only is Rod MacArthur, 63, the son of a billionaire, he also is a self-made multimillionaire. He made his money in just a little more than a decade in the collector's plate business.
MacArthur is the genius behind the Bradford Exchange, "the world's largest trading center for limited-edition collector's plates, the most widely traded art form."
The Bradford Exchange, in north suburban Niles, looks like a miniature New York Stock Exchange. It has a computerized "instaquote" trading system that "handles more than 11,000 transactions each business day."
The genius of the Bradford Exchange is that it establishes an orderly secondary market for this "art form," which MacArthur happens to be heavily into producing and selling. His plate sales in 1983 totaled about $90 million.
Using some of the profits, he established the J. Roderick MacArthur Foundation, with assets currently of about $22 million. Known as "Little Mac," as opposed to "Big Mac," its purpose is "to foster democracy" by helping persons "who are inequitably treated by established institutions."
One of Little Mac's principal beneficiaries is the American Civil Liberties Union, which honored MacArthur recently with its Roger Baldwin Award for supporting human rights causes worldwide.
In accepting, MacArthur, who is dying of cancer, told the group that at one time he thought civil liberties were important just because they guaranteed the survival of antiestablishment viewpoints.
"But now I believe I was wrong," he said. "Civil liberties are really more than that. They are really ends in themselves. They are part of what makes us personally human with human integrity. They need no further justification. Standing up for civil liberties is simply part of our loyalty to our human race."
After thanking the ACLU and everyone present, he concluded: "I know you know that my time is short. I wish I could be with you, shoulder to shoulder, in all the coming battles. But I have to be content with our footprints briefly mingling on the line of march. There is much to do. I am reassured by the knowledge that any empty ranks I and others leave will be filled by those who believe that civil liberties are not just a means but the essence of ourselves as humans."
© 1984, Chicago Lawyer
All Rights Reserved
David J. Bradford
David J. Bradford, founding attorney of the MacArthur Justice Center, is a senior partner in the Chicago law firm of Jenner & Block and general counsel to the J. Roderick MacArthur Foundation. He has successfully litigated death penalty cases in trial, post-conviction, and federal habeas corpus proceedings. In 1997, he taught a seminar on habeas corpus and death penalty jurisprudence at the University of Chicago Law School, from which he graduated cum laude in 1976. He clerked for Judge Alvin B. Rubin of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit before joining Jenner & Block, where he specializes in complex litigation.
Locke E. Bowman
Locke E. Bowman, Legal Director of the MacArthur Justice Center and Clinical Associate Professor, has handled a wide variety of civil and criminal litigation. He primarily works on matters involving police misconduct, compensation of the wrongfully convicted, rights of the media in the criminal justice system, and firearms control. Chicago Magazine named Bowman an Illinois "Super Lawyer" in 2005 and 2006 for his work in constitutional law and civil rights.
Bowman faculty bio
Justice Center’s Locke Bowman Awarded ‘First Defender Award’
Joseph Margulies
Joseph Margulies, Assistant Director of the MacArthur Justice Center and Clinical Associate Professor, is a renowned civil rights and capital defense attorney. He has represented scores of death row inmates around the country, and he currently is lead counsel for four detainees held at Guantanamo Bay in Rasul et al. v. Bush et al. In May 2005, the Heartland Alliance for Human Needs and Human Rights awarded Margulies with the Jeanne and Joseph Sullivan Award for his outstanding work in the human rights arena, particularly his work on post-9/11 civil liberties litigation, including challenging indefinite detention policies at Guantanamo Bay
