Lawrence E. Kennon
Lawrence E. Kennon was born on June 2, 1929, in Chicago, Illinois. Lawrence Kennon, Of Counsel to Power & Dixon, P.C, and is a seasoned trial attorney, having practiced law for over fifty (50) years. He graduated from DePaul University's College of Law in 1953 and began practicing law in Illinois in 1956, after a stint in the United States Army. He is a former Assistant State's Attorney, leaving the office to practice in the Criminal Defense Bar. He became a civil rights attorney during the freedom movement years, and represented many activists during that period, including the NAACP, ACLU, Black Panthers, and African-American Patrolmen's League.
His litigation experience is broad. He handles a wide range of contract, corporate commercial and discrimination matters and has extensive practice in real estate and zoning.
In 1961, Mr. Kennon joined with two fellow class mates, W. Elbert Washington, and Charles Durham, and also Clarence Bryant and E. A. Hunter, to form the law firm of Washington, Durham, Kennon, Bryant and Hunter, which ultimately, under Mayor Harold Washington, became Washington, Kennon, Hunter and Samuels, a law firm of twenty-eight (28) African American Attorneys, the largest all African American law firm in the Country at that time.
In addition to practicing law, Lawrence Kennon also has served on the Hearing Board of the Attorneys Registration and Disciplinary Commission (ARDC); he is a member and former Vice President of the Cook County Bar Association, and life member of the National Bar Association. He was a member of the Mississippi Project of the National Lawyers Guild, and a panel member of the Roger Baldwin Project of the ACLU.
In the general community, Mr. Kennon has been a member of the Boards of the Wiedbolt Foundation, the Donors Forum, the ACLU, the NAACP Legal Redress Committee, a panel member for the Community Law Project of the Cook County Bar Association, advisory board of Project LEAP and a participant in the \"We Care\" role model program. He was also a member of the Round table of African American history, lecturer for African-American history and a member of the Advisory Board of Wabash YMCA.
Mr. Kennon formerly served as the general counsel for the Cosmopolitan Chamber of Commerce. Mr. Kennon also served as a Co-chair for the Lawyers Committee to elect Harold Washington. He served as the Chairman of the Zoning Board of Appeals of the City of Chicago during Harold Washington's administration and as one of the personal attorneys for Mayor Harold Washington.
He is on the Board of Directors of the South Side Community Art Center, the Advisory Boards of the Chicago Committee to Defend the Bill of Rights, Justice Coalition of Greater Chicago, and a life member of the NAACP. He is active as an alumnus with the Gladstone Elementary School and Crane Technical High School.
His basic thrust in his concern for justice has been against police brutality and torture, and the equal right to assemble and to protest without harassment or arrest.