David Shapiro

The Roderick and Solange MacArthur Justice Center announced Tuesday that it will soon welcome back the founder and former director of its Supreme Court and appellate program to serve as the third executive director in its 40-year history.

David Shapiro will take over as executive director on Aug. 4 and steer its efforts advocating for civil rights and fighting injustice, the Chicago-based social justice organization said.

"I'm thrilled to be coming home," Shapiro said in a statement. "The MacArthur Justice Center has shaped my career, my values, and my understanding of what bold, principled legal advocacy can look like. I know how deeply committed this team is to fight back against the violence and racism of the criminal legal system, and I can't wait to rejoin these passionate and dedicated advocates in the continued fight toward a legal system that treats everyone with dignity."

Shapiro previously worked at the MacArthur Justice Center, or MJC, from 2012 to 2023, first as an attorney and then as director of its Supreme Court and appellate program starting in 2016, his LinkedIn profile says.

U.S. District Judge Amir H. Ali was the MJC's previous executive director, serving from 2021 to 2024 before joining the D.C. federal bench. Civil rights attorney Locke Bowman, now a partner at Loevy & Loevy, served as the MJC's executive director from 1992 to 2021.

The MJC was founded in 1985 and has a staff of more than 50 attorneys, paralegals and others that handle its case work out of offices in Chicago; St. Louis; New Orleans; Oxford, Mississippi; and Washington, D.C., the organization's website says.

The MJC says it seeks to "vindicate individual rights, hold people with power accountable, and demand real reform in the criminal legal system." Its Supreme Court and Appellate Program "fights for civil rights and criminal justice in the U.S. Supreme Court, federal courts of appeals, and state supreme courts across the country," the MJC said.

When he takes over as executive director, Shapiro will lead the MJC into its next era and aim to expand its public profile and increase its fundraising capacity and resources, the announcement said.

"After an extensive, six-month nationwide search process, we are very excited to invite David Shapiro back to MJC as its next executive director," the MJC's acting president David Bradford said in a statement. "His brilliance as an advocate, his prior successful leadership in the organization, his commitment to diversity and the values of the organization, and his naturally collaborative management style give us confidence that under his leadership MJC will continue to act boldly and effectively in meeting the challenges that lie ahead."

Shapiro has been serving as executive director of the nonprofit Chicago Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights since January 2023, his LinkedIn profile says.

The civil rights organization works to "secure racial equity and economic opportunity for all" and provides legal representation through its partnerships with private attorneys, its website says. Shapiro oversees "a team committed to securing racial equity and economic opportunity for all," his profile on the committee's website says.

His earlier work as director of the MJC's Supreme Court and appellate program focused on ensuring "people subjected to police brutality, indecent prison conditions, wrongful convictions, and other law enforcement abuse have the best representation possible in appellate and Supreme Court cases," the profile says.

Before his earlier stint at the MJC, Shapiro worked as a staff attorney for the ACLU National Prison Project for four years, his LinkedIn profile says. Early in his career, he spent time in private practice at Davis Wright Tremaine LLP, the profile says.

Shapiro has argued civil rights cases in courts across the nation throughout his career and scored wins in police brutality, deaths in custody, wrongful convictions, malicious prosecution, freedom of speech, and other matters, the MJC said.

He was a clinical law professor at Northwestern University Pritzker School of Law for more than a decade, according to his LinkedIn profile.

Shapiro earned a law degree from Yale Law School and an undergraduate degree from Harvard University. He was a Fulbright scholar from 2001 to 2002.

The MJC has successfully litigated cases on solitary confinement, the death penalty, denial of parole, wrongful conduct by law enforcement officers, and other matters, its website says. It has recovered more than $100 million in civil cases involving wrongful convictions, according to the website.

--Editing by Adam LoBelia.