John Philo

John Philo is the legal director of the Maurice and Jane Sugar Law Center for Economic and Social Justice and Of Counsel to the law firm of Constitutional Litigation Associates.  He is a former Deputy Director of the City of Detroit City Council’s legal and policy Research and Analysis Division and a former partner in the Philo, Atkinson, Whitaker, Wright & Stephens law firm.

He has consulted on and litigated cases throughout Michigan and numerous other states representing workers and injured persons seeking to vindicate their civil and economic rights in the face of corporate and governmental abuse.  He has also represented persons seeking asylum within the United States, served as a lead counsel at  legislative hearings of the Detroit City Council to prevent the closure of city’s indigent care hospital, drafted municipal ordinances to protect workers rights, and testified before the U.S. Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee regarding the rights of displaced workers.  He is a graduate of the St. Louis University School of Law and McGill University’s Faculty of Law. John Philo is an Executive Board Member and past President of the Michigan Chapter of the National Lawyers Guild.