Jonathan J. Sheffield

Jonathan J. Sheffield serves as a clinical assistant professor teaching legal writing and other courses in his areas of expertise. Previously he worked as an adjunct professor while he practiced full-time at the Illinois Attorney General's Office in the civil appeals division. As an adjunct, Mr. Sheffield taught legal writing and administrative law to first- and second-year law students at Loyola University Chicago, DePaul University, and the University of Illinois Chicago.

At the Illinois Attorney General's Office, Mr. Sheffield represented state officials and agencies in federal and state appellate courts of all levels, including the Supreme Court of the United States. He orally argued 11 cases and drafted over 40 briefs and dispositive motions in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit and Illinois Appellate Court. His cases presented a variety of issues, including constitutional questions (First, Fourth, Eighth, and Fourteenth Amendments), administrative law, appellate and subject-matter jurisdiction, appellate and civil procedure, federalism principles, governmental immunities, state executive authority during emergencies like the Covid-19 pandemic, environmental issues including fracking and coal ash pollution, regulatory takings, and eminent domain.

After law school, Mr. Sheffield worked as a staff law clerk for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit, and as a clerk for the Honorable Robert C. Chambers on the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of West Virginia.

In law school, Mr. Sheffield concentrated on public interest work in the areas of affordable and fair housing, publishing articles on those topics and interning at the Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity Office of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, Legal Aid Chicago (formerly LAF), Equip for Equality, and Loyola's Health Justice Project.

Before law school, Mr. Sheffield served two years in the Jesuit Volunteer Corps in New York City and Portland, Maine, working with people experiencing homelessness, living with HIV/AIDS, and facing other social justice issues.