We are so excited to announce our 2026 Annual Celebration Honorees! This year, NLG Chicago is excited to honor longterm Guild member Jim Fennerty with the Arthur Kinoy People’s Law Award as well as Antonio Gutierrez, Rey Wences & Xanat Sobrevilla with the Trailblazer Award for coordinating essential rapid response efforts during Midway Blitz.
Join us at Haymarket House on June 11th as we celebrate these movement all-stars! Click here to grab your ticket and then keep scrolling down to read more about our incredible honorees.
Jim Fennerty first joined the NLG as a law student in 1968 and has been a major force in the organization ever since. For decades, Jim has lent his time and expertise to representing hundreds of protesters pro bono, recruiting more attorneys to do legal work for the movement, and for seven years, serving as president of the Chicago chapter.
Just a few highlights from Jim’s long and storied career:
- In 1973, he acted as an attorney Legal Observer for the American Indian Movement (AIM) during the Wounded Knee Occupation where he was arrested with AIM members.
- In the 1970s, he represented Iranian students protesting the corrupt Shah of Iran.
- In the 1980s, Jim and many progressives and NLG lawyers worked on the successful mayoral campaign of Harold Washington.
- In 2003, he defended Iraq War protesters arrested on the first day of the invasion when 10,000 people shut down Lake Shore Drive.
- In 2010, he represented targets of FBI raids, Grand Jury prosecutions, and false government allegations of material support for terrorism.
- From 2014 to 2017, he and Michael Deutsch represented Rasmea Odeh, a US Citizen and brave Palestinian leader wrongfully targeted by the federal government.
- Throughout his entire career, Jim continued to represent activists and movement people in a variety of progressive and justice causes, in civil and criminal courts and other proceedings.
Antonio Gutierrez, pronouns they/them, is an undocumented anti-displacement community organizer who has lived in Chicago for over 25 years. Gutierrez is one of the co-founders and the current Strategic Coordinator for Organized Communities Against Deportations (OCAD). Gutierrez has organized direct actions, community forums, and national convenings. Gutierrez has over a decade of non-profit administration & development experience, a degree in Architecture from Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT) and is also a co-founder of the Albany Park Defense Network, La Guayabita Autonoma Community Garden, and the Autonomous Tenants Union.
Rey Wences is a local organizer and strategist with over 17 years of experience in immigrant rights, economic justice, and racial equity. Born in Mexico City and raised in Chicago, they co-founded the Immigrant Youth Justice League (IYJL) in 2009 and OCAD in 2013. As an organizer with OCAD, they led pivotal campaigns to eliminate Chicago’s gang database and strengthen the city’s Welcoming City Ordinance. Their expertise spans grassroots organizing, direct action training, and strategic communications nationwide. Rey previously served as the First Deputy for the Chicago Mayor’s Office of Immigrant, Migrant, and Refugee Rights. They currently serve as the Senior Deportation Defense Director at the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights (ICIRR), leading efforts to protect immigrant communities from detention and deportation.
Xanat Sobrevilla is an immigrant originally from Mexico displaced from her home country at the age of 9. In 2011 she met a group of likeminded people fighting removal proceedings who saw visibility, public anti-deportation campaigns, and the practice of civil disobedience as a means to challenge the ways the immigration system disposes of people. Today, Xanat leads OCAD’s campaign and coalition work. While supporting anti-deportation campaigns, Xanat also ensures that OCAD plays a meaningful role in the Family Support Network and pushes back on the ways surveillance is used to target immigrants for deportation. She transitioned into OCAD after being involved with IYJL when the group decided to focus on anti-deportation tactics as one of the means for collective liberation.
