Indianapolis – A litigator who assisted the American Civil Liberties Union of Indiana in several high-profile cases has rejoined the legal team as staff attorney.
Jan Mensz, a Debevoise Fellow at the ACLU of Indiana in 2010-2011, was involved in cases including the confinement of mentally ill prisoners in extreme isolation, a challenge to state discriminatory practices against U.S. citizen children of immigrant parents and a challenge to Indiana law denying Medicaid reimbursement to Planned Parenthood, among many others.
In 2005, Mensz graduated magna cum laude with a B.A. in Economics and Political Science from Georgetown University. He earned his Juris Doctor degree in 2010 from the University of Michigan Law School, where he graduated cum laude.
Most recently Mensz served as a Peace Corps volunteer with the Uganda Association of Women Lawyers (FIDA-Uganda), where he co-managed a team of junior attorneys in four legal aid clinics and strategized for impact litigation challenging the Ugandan government’s treatment of women abductees who returned after the 30-year civil war.
In 2006-2007, as a paralegal with the U.S. Department of Justice, Mensz assisted the Iraqi High Tribunal in the prosecution of Saddam Hussein and members of his regime for war crimes and crimes against humanity.
Mensz replaces Kelly R. Eskew, who recently took an associate professorship at the Indiana University Kelley School of Business in Bloomington. The ACLU of Indiana receives hundreds of requests for assistance per month, and has a legal docket of more than 40 active cases.
“The ACLU of Indiana has tirelessly defended the rights and civil liberties of all of Indiana’s people for more than 60 years. I am honored to be a part of that tradition by joining the ACLU’s talented and committed staff,” said Mensz.
Learn more about the work of the ACLU of Indiana at www.aclu-in.org.
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