Lou Longhitano

Attorney Advisor, AEquitas

Lou Longhitano’s victim-centered approach as an Attorney Advisor with AEquitas is born of 28 years of experience as a county prosecutor, working special victims cases; prosecuting organized crime, gang crimes, and cold case homicides; and serving the most vulnerable and marginalized victims of crime. Before joining the AEquitas team, Lou was an Assistant District Attorney at the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office in NYC for seven years, where he prosecuted and supervised domestic violence and stalking cases, as well as investigating narcotics and firearms trafficking criminal enterprises. After leaving Manhattan, Lou became an Assistant State’s Attorney at the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office, which covers 134 municipalities (large and small), including Chicago, IL. There he continued to work on the same types of complex cases, including trying a notorious 1993 mass homicide which had been unsolved for nine years. In Chicago, Lou created and supervised the first Human Trafficking Unit in the state of Illinois, which prosecuted approximately 200 traffickers, including a 10-defendant child sex trafficking enterprise case involving multiple wire-taps. Lou was a founding member of the core-team of the Cook County Human Trafficking Task Force, and was cross-designated as a Special Assistant U.S. Attorney to coordinate state/federal/multi-jurisdictional investigations.

While still serving as a prosecutor and supervising his office's Human Trafficking Unit, Lou trained thousands of prosecutors, law enforcement, and allied professionals around the world and served as a member of the curriculum development team for an Advanced Human Trafficking Investigations training funded by the U.S. DOJ, Bureau of Justice Assistance. Lou has been a returning guest lecturer as part of Loyola University’s Schools of Law & Social Work’s Human Rights seminars, and Northwestern School of Law’s Human Trafficking seminar classes. He also trained and coached mock-trial teams competing in national competitions for John Marshall Law School.

Lou is a graduate of University of Illinois, and New York University (NYU) School of Law. When not using his lawyering skills, he enjoys cycling, good music, good barbecue, and sitting around a fire-pit with friends and family.