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Marshall Patner (1931-2000) was a Chicago attorney and founder of Business and Professional People for the Public Interest. Patner graduated in 1956 from the University of Chicago Law School and in 1958 opened the Medici Coffee House and Gallery in Hyde Park, where he had grown up. Lawyers, students, journalists, and civil rights workers gathered at the Medici. Patner became a campaign manager and administrative aide to progressive Alderman Leon Despres before entering private practice. He was also a cooperating attorney for the Illinois division of the American Civil Liberties Union. He represented Blackstone Rangers leader Jeff Fort, tenants in Chicago public housing, and challengers to school board contracts. He successfully argued before the Supreme Court in the free speech case of comedian Dick Gregory v. the City of Chicago and in the deportation case of Fred Thompson of the International Workers of the World. Patner was a co-founder in 1969 of Businessmen in the Public Interest (now Business and Professional People for the Public Interest), a public interest law and policy center focusing on public housing, environmental issues, and cases of governmental abuse. In 1974, he founded a pre-law program at Wilberforce College in Cincinnati. He also taught at Stanford University and the University of California at Berkeley. In 1975, Patner returned to private practice in Chicago. He was awarded the Civil Liberties Award from the American Civil Liberties Union and was honored by the Chicago Newspaper Guild for his contributions to the community. He died December 24, 2000.
The Marshall Patner Papers contain published articles as well as papers, notes, and memos regarding legal cases. They include cases dealing with workman's compensation, bail practices in the Chicago Courts, home purchase, tax deeds, estates, and the erosion of the Indian Dunes National Lakeshore. Types of materials also include correspondence, working papers, research files, newspaper and magazine clippings, and an audio recording. The material dates from 1966 to 1980.
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Marshall Patner papers, Special Collections and University Archives, University of Illinois at Chicago