John graduated with a B.A. in Philosophy with honors from the University of Chicago in 2014 and received his Juris Doctor with pro bono distinction from Stanford Law School in 2018. As a student attorney at Stanford’s Community Law Clinic, he represented low-income clients in cases involving evictions, disability benefits, and criminal-record expungement.

After law school, John clerked for Judge Matthew F. Kennelly on the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois. He then worked as a litigator at a civil-rights firm in Chicago, representing victims of misconduct by police and prison officials. After two years in private practice, John next worked in the Special Litigation Bureau in the Office of the Illinois Attorney General, where he investigated police misconduct and defended constitutional challenges to a wide range of state laws, including protecting reproductive rights, workers’ rights, and criminal-justice reforms.