Left to right: Mark Nomellini, Ashley Kirkwood and Bobby Earles, Kirkland & Ellis

When your client is a convicted drug dealer who got hurt playing basketball in prison, it's no easy feat to convince a jury to award damages using taxpayer money .

But a team from Kirkland & Ellis working pro bono did just that, winning a federal jury trial in Wisconsin that sends an important message. Yes, their client is a prisoner, “but he's also a human being, and he should have received at least a bare minimum of medical care,” said Kirkland litigation partner Mark Nomellini.

Nomellini supervised second-year associate Ashley Kirkwood, who gave the opening statement, sixth-year associate Bobby Earles, who did the closing, and second-year associate James Kestler, who handled a cross examination.

They were asked by U.S. District Judge James Peterson of the Western District of Wisconsin to represent Lawrence Northern, who had no success obtaining pro bono counsel on his own. (He was rejected by Foley & Lardner; Quarles & Brady and Fox & Fox, among others.)

Northern ruptured his Achilles tendon when going for layup during a basketball tournament at New Lisbon Correctional Institute in Wisconsin.  

Northern heard it pop and knew he was hurt—his ankle became swollen and later there was a visible dent by the tendon—but the prison nurse told him to “tough it out.”

“He was told by Nurse Frisk that he could not see a doctor. He was told that she would not provide Ibuprofen,” Kirkwood said in her opening, according to a transcript. The nurse's advice to Northern: tie his shoelaces tighter.

In his closing, Earles stressed that his client had a serious medical need, and attempted for weeks to get treatment.

He eventually got surgery, but the delay took its toll. “Scar tissue built up, and his Achilles tendon healed in an elongated manner,” Earles said. “Now the tendon now healed is weaker. It's structurally weaker. It's prone to re-rupture. Mr. Northern cannot exercise anymore. He can't play basketball. He can't run. It hurts him even to stand up for any period of time. And Mr. Northern is going to deal with this for the rest of his life.”

The jury awarded Northern $73,000—35 times more than what the Wisconsin Department of Justice had offered to settle the case.

Northern was “deeply grateful,” Nomellini said. “He thanked us for making him feel like a human being again.”