Munger, Tolles & Olson Honored by ACLU of Southern California with 2025 Advocates for Justice Award 

Munger, Tolles & Olson has been recognized by the ACLU of Southern California with the 2025 Advocates for Justice award for working to further civil rights and civil liberties for communities in the Southland. Each year, the ACLU honors firms and community partners they have worked with as co-counsel on cases and other actions.

MTO was recognized for the firm’s seven-year commitment as co-counsel with the ACLU’s national and Southern California chapters to P.E.O.P.L.E. v. Rackauckas, a case that helped shape the development of necessary reforms to the Orange County District Attorney and Orange County Sheriff’s Department’s custodial informant practices. For decades, Orange County prosecutors and deputies planted illegal informants in jailhouse cells to extract information from defendants already represented by counsel—with prosecutors using information when it was helpful and suppressing it when it was exculpatory. In some instances, these informants would use intimidation and threats of violence to extract confessions from the represented individuals. MTO’s work on the case over seven years not only led to significant policy reforms but also affirmed the reach of taxpayers’ standing in challenging illegal law enforcement practices.

The MTO team who worked on P.E.O.P.L.E. v. Rackauckas included Jacob Kreilkamp, John Schwab, Anne Conley, Lauren Beck, Rosia Arriaga, Nelle Krummen, Laura Perry and Claire Rogerson.