Areas of Focus
In 2017, Greenfield joined the Supreme Court and Appellate Program of the MacArthur Justice Center. Greenfield litigates impactful civil rights cases, typically before the federal courts of appeals and United States Supreme Court, but also sometimes in various state appellate and high courts.
Greenfield’s primary litigation interest is in holding prison and jail officials accountable for violating the constitutional and statutory rights and inherent dignity of incarcerated people. Greenfield is a recognized expert in the law of solitary confinement, having litigated more than a dozen appeals to successful judgment, including many breaking new jurisprudential ground. E.g., Porter v. Pa. Dep’t of Corr., 974 F.3d 431 (3d Cir. 2020) (announcing that prolonged solitary confinement of a condemned prisoner violates the Eighth Amendment); Greenhill v. Clarke, 944 F.3d 243 (4th Cir. 2019) (announcing that punishing with solitary confinement observant prisoners who refuse to shave faith-compliant fist-length beards violates the First Amendment and RLUIPA). He was counsel of record at the Supreme Court in Apodaca v. Raemisch, 139 S. Ct. 5 (2019), where Justice Sotomayor called on “[c]ourts and corrections officials” to “remain alert to the clear constitutional problems” with prolonged solitary confinement, which the Justice likened a “penal tomb.” And he co-counseled McCoy v. Alamu, 141 S. Ct. 1364 (2021), one of only three cases in which the Supreme Court has reversed a grant of qualified immunity to prison officials. His work has been featured in the New York Times and other major outlets. E.g., Adam Liptak, Will the Supreme Court Scrutinize Solitary Confinement? One Justice Offers a Map, N.Y. Times (May 14, 2018); Joanna Schwartz, The Supreme Court Is Giving Lower Courts a Subtle Hint to Rein in Police Misconduct, Atlantic (Mar. 4, 2021). And he has published articles in both the academic and popular press calling attention to the ways in which Congress and the federal courts have conspired to slam courthouse doors on incarcerated people subjected to unlawful conditions of confinement. E.g., A Wrong Without A Right? Overcoming the Prison Litigation Reform Act’s Physical Injury Requirement, 115 Nw. U. L. Rev. 257 (2020) (with Maggie Filler).
Prior to joining MJC, Greenfield was pro bono counsel at Sidley Austin. There, Greenfield managed the firm’s pro bono prisoners’ rights practice, litigated several capital post-conviction cases, and obtained a reversal of a life-without-parole sentence. Before joining Sidley, Greenfield clerked for Judge Diana Murphy on the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit and was a legal fellow at the Center on Wrongful Convictions. Greenfield attended law school at Northwestern, from which he graduated with honors. He holds an MFA from the Graduate Film Program at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts, and a B.S. from Northwestern University.