John joined the ACLU of Utah in January 2012. He grew up in Salt Lake City and attended Brown University, where he majored in English and American Literature. At Brown, John served as president of the Latin American Student Organization.
After graduating from Brown, John worked for one year as a supervisor of intake volunteers at Utah Legal Services with a grant from AmeriCorps. John then attended the University of Chicago Law School, where he graduated with honors in 2003. In law school, he was honored with the Tony Patiño Fellowship, a merit based scholarship awarded to law students based on demonstrated leadership, public service and achievement.
For four years after law school, John was a litigation attorney in the insurance group at the law firm of Sidley Austin LLP in Chicago, Illinois. During his time at Sidley, John was actively involved in serving the community, including teaching constitutional law to elementary school children and coaching high school mock trial teams. In 2008, John returned to Salt Lake to serve in the federal courts as a law clerk.
