PROFILE
PROFILE
Attorney Jeff Storms mingled with attendees at the ‘angelversary’ gathering marking one year since a then-Brooklyn Center police officer shot and killed 19-year-old Daunte Wright during a routine traffic stop along this intersection. Storms, the attorney representing the Wright family, was one of many people who set a candle at the memorial in honor and remembrance of yet another Black man killed by a police officer.
DEFINING THE CONTOURS OF CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHTS In 2013, Storms’ work on a $3.075 million recovery for the next of kin of David Cornelius Smith was then the largest police brutality wrongful death settlement in Minnesota history. In 2018, Storms and his co-counsel secured a $1.5 million settlement with Hennepin County over the wrongful death of Kendrea Johnson, a six-year- old who died by ligature hanging while in foster care. Also in 2018, Storms accomplished the rare feat of winning at the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals on back-to- back days in two other civil rights cases, one of these cases being a reversal of the underlying district court opinion.
Storms argued and won a second reversal at the Eighth Circuit in 2021 on a matter he cannot comment on. Reversals on civil rights cases at the Eighth Circuit are very rare, and Storms has now done it twice in the past four years alone. Storms is being recognized for his work. He has been named a Minnesota Attorney of the Year four times and is the recipient of an AAJ Leonard Weinglass in Defense of Civil Liberties Award. He has also been named one of Minnesota’s Top 100 Super Lawyers for 2022. He knows, however, that his victories are really victories for defining the contours of the constitutional
rights protecting those who are often marginalized in our system of justice. Historically, the administration of justice has focused primarily on monetary damages for the aggrieved party, such as in 1991 when Rodney King was brutally beaten by police. Now Storms and his co-counsel regularly advocate for nonmonetary relief and community justice. In the Floyd settlement, the family pledged $500,000 from the settlement funds to be returned to the community with a focus on investing in the business district surrounding 38th Street and Chicago Avenue, where George Floyd was murdered.
Still, Storms believes too many entities remain resistant to agreeing to nonmonetary terms out of a misguided and shortsighted fear that places an emphasis on protection in future litigation rather than making meaningful change that protects future victims. Even when such agreements are reached, Storms has concerns about entities truly implementing the changes they agree to make. The Smith case is a tragic example of that. Smith died by homicide in 2010 while restrained in a prone position on a YMCA basketball court by two
Minneapolis police officers. Aside from the monetary payout, the settlement included an agreement that the city’s police officers would receive additional safety training discussing the deadly risks associated with positional asphyxia. Yet, Floyd was murdered only 10 years later through the use of a similar prone restraint. “David’s death was supposed to prevent George’s death from happening,” Storms said. “It obviously did not. The city failed – in historic proportions – to meaningfully fulfill its promise to the Smith family.”
Storms and his partners at Newmark Storms Dworak, the firm he has helped build since 2015, have an increasing presence in high- profile civil rights cases. His firm also focuses on protecting the rights of individuals through its criminal defense and personal injury practices.
Highly sought after, Storms partnered again with Crump
and Romanucci on a third police misconduct case, this one involving Amir Locke, a Black man fatally shot in February 2022 by Minneapolis police entering a residence with a no-knock search warrant.
Page 14 St. Thomas Lawyer
Summer 2022 Page 15
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