Editor’s note: Michael jones is among the finalists for The American Lawyer’s Attorney of the Year award. The finalists will be celebrated and the winner named at The American Lawyer Industry Awards in New York on Dec. 2.

Law firms nationwide pledged to work on issues of racial justice and equality in the wake of George Floyd’s murder last year. But for more than a decade now, a team at Kirkland & Ellis led by Michael Jones, the firm’s first Black partner, has been handling a landmark case in Maryland federal court with those aims in mind.