Ketcham, John C.

John ("Jack") Kennedy is an associate with the law firm of Cochran, Cherry, Givens, Smith & Montgomery. Jack’s practice is focused exclusively on civil litigation at the trial and appellate levels. He received his Juris Doctor, cum laude, from IIT Chicago-Kent College of Law in 2012.

Prior to joining the firm, Jack served as an extern to the Honorable George W. Lindberg of the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois.

While in law school, Jack was Notes and Comments editor of the Chicago-Kent Law Review and was a Senior Associate in the Chicago-Kent Moot Court Honor Society. In 2010, Jack won the Best Oral Advocate award in the highly-competitive preliminary rounds of the 35th Annual Robert F. Wagner National Labor and Employment Law Moot Court Competition in New York City, NY. In 2011, he and two teammates won the regional tournament of the prestigious National Moot Court Competition in Milwaukee, WI. In recognition of his contributions to the Chicago-Kent Moot Court Honor Society, Jack received the Edmund W. Burke Award for Excellence in Forensic Oratory in 2012.

Jack received a B.S. in Liberal Arts from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 2009, where he studied French and Political Science. He graduated from Oak Park River Forest High School in 2004 after moving to Chicago from his hometown of Melbourne, Australia.

 Case Results:

• Harris v. E & R Towing & Garage, Inc. (Ill. Cir. Ct., Cook Cnty. 2013):  Jack and James D. Montgomery, Jr. secured a $7,365,000 jury verdict in favor of their client whose husband was killed in an automobile collision on the Dan Ryan Expressway.
• People v. Brim (Ill. Cir. Ct., Cook Cnty. 2013):  Jack and James D. Montgomery, Sr. obtained an acquittal for their client who was criminally charged with battering a sheriff's officer