JOHN LEVI has been at the firm for 50 years and was co-head of Sidley’s Labor, Employment and Immigration practice. Throughout his career, he has represented major professional and financial services firms, national and multi-national corporations, as well as a host of medium-sized and smaller corporations in employment and labor matters before numerous federal and state courts, government agencies, and arbitration forums. He regularly handles claims regarding wrongful termination, fair employment issues, restrictive covenants, wage and hour, and other employment related matters in these various forums. John frequently counsels clients regarding the full range of employment law issues, including their internal policies and governance. He also handles labor disputes and negotiations for unionized employers and mediations and arbitrations for non-union companies, as well as wage and hour disputes and other issues before the U.S. and Illinois Departments of Labor.
John was appointed by President Obama to the 11-member Board of Directors of the national Legal Services Corporation and confirmed by the Senate and elected as Chairman of the LSC Board on April 7, 2010. He has been reconfirmed and reelected to that post and is now the longest serving chair in the history of LSC, which marks its 50th anniversary in 2024. John is a past chair of Sidley’s Law School Recruiting Committee and currently co-leads the firm’s committee overseeing its adoption of the Kanoon Magnet School, a Chicago public school. He was elected in 2013 as a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and in 2016 as a member of the American Law Institute.
John was honored as the first recipient of the “Abner and Zoe Mikva Corporate Citizenship” award given by Mikva Challenge in 2011. He is a recipient of the Harvard Law School Society of Illinois’ 2010 Role Model Award, the 2004 Abraham Lincoln Marovitz “Lend A Hand” volunteer award, and was given an Honorary Diploma by the Francis W. Parker School in 2003. Parker also honored John by naming the title of Chief Advancement Officer after him, and in 2014 elected him a life trustee of the school. John received the University of Rochester’s 2014 College of Arts and Sciences “Distinguished Alumnus Award.” In 2015, he was again honored by the Harvard Law School Society of Illinois and received the Society’s highest honor, the “Jerold S. Solovy Award,” in recognition of commitment to public service and the highest ideals of the profession. John was also recognized by the Shriver National Center on Poverty Law as he was given the 2016 “Sargent Shriver Award for Equal Justice.” John received the American Bar Association’s “John Minor Wisdom Award” in May 2019 and the Legal Aid Chicago 2019 “Champion for Justice Award” that June. The Council for Advancement and Support of Education awarded John the 2024 “Seymour Preston Award,” an honor bestowed for exceptional commitment and leadership in developing voluntary support educational institutions.” John is listed in Who’s Who in America and Who’s Who in American Law, and is recognized in the 2014–2024 editions of The Best Lawyers in America in Labor Law Management.