Jason Meisner
@jmetr22b
Chicago Tribune reporter covering the Dirksen U.S. Courthouse and criminal justice issues in Chicago
Sad news to report in Chicago’s legal community: Longtime criminal defense attorney Thomas Anthony Durkin has died after a brief hospitalization. He was 78. Durkin was a tireless advocate for his clients, and known for holding the government accountable for overstepping authority
UPDATE: A lockdown of the Dirksen U.S. Courthouse is ongoing nearly 8 hours after a man walked into the lobby with a knife, demanded to talk to the FBI and threatened to hurt himself chicagotribune.com/2025/07/22/dir…
As of 4:40 pm our subject was still inside the courthouse lobby. At times he’s had the knife up to his throat. Officers in tactical gear have been stacked outside the front door apparently getting ready to move, but nothing’s happened we can see.
JUST IN: the Dirksen federal courthouse in downtown Chicago is being evacuated as negotiations continue in the lobby with a man reportedly armed with a knife. People are being corralled out the back and told to go east on Monroe. chicagotribune.com/2025/07/22/dir…
JUST IN: the Dirksen federal courthouse in downtown Chicago is being evacuated as negotiations continue in the lobby with a man reportedly armed with a knife. People are being corralled out the back and told to go east on Monroe. chicagotribune.com/2025/07/22/dir…
And now the building is being evacuated.
On the scene outside the Dirksen U.S. Courthouse, which has been on lockdown for hours as federal authorizes talk to a man in the lobby who had a knife and demanded to talk to the FBI. He also reportedly threatened to harm himself.
UPDATE: The son of a steel mill worker, Chicago attorney Thomas Durkin was a fierce advocate who believed in equal justice, even for those labeled “the worst of the worst” “There weren’t a lot of lawyers running down to represent people in Guantanamo Bay.” chicagotribune.com/2025/07/21/def…
'He was never cutting corners' Longtime defense attorney Thomas Anthony Durkin was as South Side Irish as they come, a mustachioed, sometimes salty and always quick-witted litigator who loved going toe-to-toe with opposing counsel and judges alike story: chicagotribune.com/2025/07/21/def…
UPDATE: Ex-ComEd CEO Anne Pramaggiore handed 2 years in prison “This was secretive sophisticated criminal corruption of important public policy. When it came to Mr. Madigan … you didn’t think to change the culture of corruption. Instead you were all in.” chicagotribune.com/2025/07/21/ann…
UPDATE: Ex-ComEd CEO Anne Pramaggiore sentenced to 2 years in prison in scheme to bribe Speaker Madigan story here: chicagotribune.com/2025/07/21/onc…
