Chicago City Council appoints IIT Chicago-Kent Professor Daniel T. Coyne to assess Burge Reparations claims

Daniel T. Coyne, clinical professor of law at IIT Chicago-Kent College of Law, has been appointed by the Chicago City Council to serve as the Independent Third Party for the Burge Reparations Ordinance. Professor Coyne will work under the terms of the new city ordinance that provides reparations for people allegedly tortured by former Chicago Police Commander Jon Burge and his subordinates between 1972 and 1991. He will evaluate claims by those who have not already filed for Burge-era torture reparations with the city. In 2010, Professor Coyne was appointed by former Illinois governor Pat Quinn to serve on the Illinois Torture Inquiry and Relief Commission.

Professor Coyne, a member of the Chicago-Kent Law Offices faculty since 2005, maintains a clinical practice concentrating on criminal defense and sexually violent persons' civil commitment proceedings. Teaching as well as practicing, he also was responsible for the development and implementation of IIT Chicago-Kent's criminal law J.D. certificate program. In 2007, the Student Bar Association selected Professor Coyne as its faculty member of the year.

Prior to joining IIT Chicago-Kent, Professor Coyne spent more than 20 years in private practice devoted to state and federal criminal defense litigation, with an emphasis on homicide cases. Since the mid-1980s, he has worked through BE-HIV and the Chicago Center for Assisted Living to provide pro-bono representation of indigent people with HIV and AIDS charged in criminal cases. In March of 2002, Professor Coyne was named one of Chicago Magazine's "Thirty Tough Lawyers," described as "men and women who give lawyers a good name — and their clients a winning edge."

Professor Coyne served as president of the Chicago Council of Lawyers from 2007 to 2009. He has served as a member of its Board of Governors since 1997. As a chair of the Council's Bond Court Review committee, he oversaw a 2007 study of the bond court process at the Cook County felony court at 26th and California. Professor Coyne has also chaired the council's judicial evaluation committee which investigated more than 200 applicants for associate judgeships and made appointment recommendations.

A native Chicagoan, Professor Coyne is a graduate of Gordon Technical High School. He served six years in the United States Navy. Professor Coyne earned his bachelor's degree in criminal justice from the University of Illinois at Chicago in 1980 and his law degree from the John Marshall Law School in 1984.

Founded in 1888, IIT Chicago-Kent College of Law is the law school of Illinois Institute of Technology, also known as Illinois Tech, a private, technology-focused, research university offering undergraduate and graduate degrees in engineering, science, architecture, business, design, human sciences, applied technology, and law.

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