Introduction
Tony Balkissoon is a civil-rights lawyer whose professional career has focused on wrongful-conviction cases, constitutional rights, federal litigation and appellate work. He is also publicly known as the husband of journalist and legal correspondent Laura Jarrett. While his family connections have attracted media attention, Balkissoon has developed an extensive legal career of his own, working in private civil-rights practice, nonprofit appellate advocacy and higher-education legal administration.
His current professional profile lists him as Counsel at Neufeld Scheck Brustin Hoffmann & Freudenberger LLP, commonly known as NSBHF. He joined the firm in January 2024, after spending about four years at John Jay College of Criminal Justice as Vice President and Executive Counsel. His current work focuses particularly on complex civil-rights litigation and wrongful-conviction cases.
Who Is Tony Balkissoon?
Tony Balkissoon is an attorney whose legal practice has concentrated on civil rights and criminal-justice matters. His work has included representing people who were wrongfully convicted and people whose constitutional rights were allegedly violated while they were incarcerated. His professional history also includes federal appellate litigation and work connected to the U.S. Supreme Court.
Balkissoon’s career has developed across several different areas of law. Before his current position, he worked at the MacArthur Justice Center, where he litigated civil-rights and criminal-justice cases in federal appellate courts and the Supreme Court. Earlier in his career, he worked at a civil-rights law firm on cases across the country, including matters that resulted in substantial jury verdicts.
His public profile is also connected to Laura Jarrett, who is a prominent journalist and former lawyer. The couple married in Chicago in 2012 and have two children. Despite that connection to a well-known media family, Balkissoon has generally kept his own career centered on legal work rather than public appearances.
Tony Balkissoon’s Education
One of the distinctive aspects of Balkissoon’s background is that he first studied engineering before becoming a lawyer. His official professional biography states that he earned a Bachelor of Applied Science in Engineering Science with honors from the University of Toronto. He later attended Harvard Law School and earned his Juris Doctor degree cum laude.
His combination of engineering and law gave him an academic background that differs from the traditional path followed by many attorneys. Engineering Science involves mathematics, scientific principles and technical problem-solving, while legal education focuses on interpreting laws, constructing arguments and understanding judicial systems.
After completing his legal education, Balkissoon moved into federal judicial clerkships. His current biography identifies clerkships with Judge Manish S. Shah of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois and Judge Ann Claire Williams of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit.
Federal clerkships can provide lawyers with intensive experience in legal research, writing and judicial decision-making. This background later became relevant to Balkissoon’s work in appellate and civil-rights litigation.
His Early Legal Career
Balkissoon began developing his professional identity through civil-rights litigation and federal legal work. His experience has included both trial-level cases and appeals, giving him exposure to different stages of complex litigation.
Before joining John Jay College, he worked with the MacArthur Justice Center. John Jay’s announcement of his appointment in 2020 described him as having litigated civil-rights and criminal-justice cases in the Supreme Court and federal appellate courts. The college also noted his earlier work at a civil-rights firm handling cases nationwide.
This period of his career helped establish his focus on constitutional rights and criminal-justice issues. Civil-rights litigation can involve complicated questions about government conduct, incarceration, police practices and constitutional protections. Such cases can also continue for years because trial decisions may be followed by multiple levels of appeals.
Balkissoon’s later career reflects this same emphasis. His current law-firm profile specifically highlights his experience in wrongful-conviction litigation and appellate advocacy.
Work on Wrongful-Conviction Cases
Wrongful convictions have become one of the central areas of Balkissoon’s legal practice. His current NSBHF biography states that before joining the firm, he was part of small trial teams that obtained $22 million and $15 million jury verdicts for clients who had been wrongfully convicted. He subsequently helped defend both verdicts during the appeals process.
Wrongful-conviction cases can be especially complicated because they may involve events that happened many years earlier. Lawyers can have to review old evidence, witness statements, police records, trial transcripts and previous court decisions. They may also need to establish how a wrongful conviction affected the person’s constitutional rights and life.
Balkissoon’s work has not been limited to trial litigation. His current profile also states that he has successfully represented clients whose constitutional rights were violated while they were incarcerated. This connects his practice to a broader area of civil-rights law involving the treatment and legal protections of people in prison.
His experience demonstrates why appellate work is an important part of civil-rights litigation. A lawyer may need to continue developing legal arguments after a trial has ended, particularly when the case raises questions about federal law or constitutional protections.
Tony Balkissoon and the U.S. Supreme Court
Balkissoon’s professional background also includes work involving the U.S. Supreme Court. His current firm biography says he was part of a small nonprofit appellate team that persuaded the Supreme Court to reverse a federal appellate court whose recent decisions had made malicious-prosecution lawsuits more difficult to bring.
The Supreme Court is the highest court in the United States, and cases that reach it generally involve important legal questions with consequences beyond the individual parties. Working on such matters requires extensive legal research and carefully structured written and oral arguments.
Balkissoon has also argued several civil-rights appeals and is described by his current firm as someone who helps prepare other civil-rights lawyers for appellate arguments. His professional work therefore includes not only representing clients but also assisting other attorneys with difficult appeals.
This appellate experience is an important part of his legal résumé because civil-rights cases frequently involve complicated constitutional and procedural questions.
Tony Balkissoon at John Jay College
In February 2020, John Jay College of Criminal Justice announced Balkissoon’s appointment as Vice President and Executive Counsel. The college said that he would provide legal advice on a broad range of institutional matters, including litigation, governance, faculty issues, regulatory compliance, collective-bargaining agreements and intellectual-property matters.
The position represented a change from his previous work as a civil-rights litigator. Instead of focusing exclusively on individual lawsuits, he became responsible for advising a major educational institution on its legal and administrative responsibilities.
His time at John Jay also coincided with the COVID-19 pandemic, creating an unusually challenging period for educational institutions. In a 2024 John Jay publication, the college said that after four years Balkissoon was leaving to join NSBHF. The publication quoted him reflecting on the resilience of students, faculty and staff during the pandemic and his continued connection to the institution.
His departure means that older biographies describing him as John Jay’s Vice President and Executive Counsel should be understood as historical information rather than his current position.
Tony Balkissoon’s Current Legal Career
Since January 2024, Balkissoon has been Counsel at Neufeld Scheck Brustin Hoffmann & Freudenberger LLP. His current firm biography says his practice focuses on wrongful-conviction cases and complex legal writing from the initial complaint through the completion of appeals.
This role brings his career back to the type of litigation that characterized much of his earlier professional work. His responsibilities involve complex civil-rights cases, legal research, written arguments and appellate proceedings.
NSBHF’s profile also lists his admissions to several state and federal courts. These include the District of Columbia, Illinois and New York, along with multiple U.S. Courts of Appeals and federal district courts.
His current position therefore builds on several stages of his career: engineering and legal education, federal clerkships, civil-rights litigation, Supreme Court work and institutional legal leadership at John Jay College.
Tony Balkissoon and Laura Jarrett
Tony Balkissoon is married to journalist Laura Jarrett. Jarrett is a lawyer by training who later developed a prominent career in journalism and television news. Their relationship has contributed considerably to public interest in Balkissoon’s personal life.
The couple married in June 2012 in Chicago. Jarrett is the daughter of Valerie Jarrett, who served as a senior adviser to President Barack Obama, and her family has long been connected with public service and politics. Tony’s own career, however, has remained centered on law rather than elected office or political work.
Tony and Laura’s professional backgrounds have some similarities because both trained as lawyers. Their careers ultimately developed in different directions, with Tony concentrating on civil-rights litigation and Laura moving into journalism and television news.
The couple have maintained a relatively private family life despite Laura’s highly visible professional career.
Tony Balkissoon’s Family and Children
Balkissoon’s family background also has Canadian public-service connections. His father, Bas Balkissoon, was a Canadian politician who served in Ontario politics. This family background is one reason Tony’s name has sometimes appeared in Canadian political and public-life coverage.
Tony himself chose a different professional route. Rather than entering elected politics, he pursued engineering education followed by law and developed a career in the American legal system.
Tony and Laura Jarrett have two children. Public biographical sources identify their son as James and their daughter as June. Their family life has generally remained outside the kind of intense media attention that surrounds Laura’s professional work.
The limited public information about their children reflects a broader pattern in Tony’s life. While his professional achievements are documented through institutional and law-firm sources, he has not built a public celebrity identity around his personal life.
Tony Balkissoon’s Public Profile and Professional Legacy
Tony Balkissoon has a public profile that comes from two very different areas: his legal career and his marriage to a prominent journalist. However, his professional record provides substantial information about his own accomplishments.
His career includes an unusual combination of engineering education, Harvard legal training, federal judicial clerkships, civil-rights litigation, Supreme Court work and institutional legal leadership. His current work continues to focus on civil-rights litigation and wrongful-conviction cases.
At the same time, some personal details frequently repeated online are less firmly documented. Claims concerning his exact age, personal wealth and other private matters are not consistently supported by strong primary sources. The most reliable information about Balkissoon comes from his current law-firm biography, John Jay College records and other established institutional sources.
His professional path also shows how legal careers can move between different environments without abandoning a central area of interest. Balkissoon has worked in private practice, nonprofit litigation, higher-education administration and appellate advocacy, while civil rights and constitutional issues have remained recurring themes.
Conclusion
Tony Balkissoon is a civil-rights attorney whose career extends well beyond his public connection to journalist Laura Jarrett. He studied Engineering Science at the University of Toronto before earning a law degree from Harvard Law School, where he graduated cum laude. His subsequent federal clerkships helped prepare him for a career involving complex litigation and appeals.
His professional experience includes civil-rights litigation at the MacArthur Justice Center, major wrongful-conviction cases, appellate advocacy and work involving the U.S. Supreme Court. In 2020, he became Vice President and Executive Counsel at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, where he advised the institution on a broad range of legal and administrative matters.
In January 2024, Balkissoon moved to Neufeld Scheck Brustin Hoffmann & Freudenberger LLP, where he is currently listed as Counsel. His present practice focuses on wrongful-conviction cases and complex civil-rights litigation from the initial complaint through appeals.
Although his marriage to Laura Jarrett has brought additional public attention, Tony Balkissoon’s own professional record provides a substantial story. His education, litigation experience, federal clerkships and continuing work in civil-rights law form the central part of his documented career.
