A Democrat, Marshall worked in private legal practice in Chicago from 1953 until 1967 at Johnston, Thompson, Raymond & Mayer, becoming partner in 1961. While at Jenner, Marshall also served as a special assistant attorney general for the state of Illinois from 1964 until 1967. Marshall also built a reputation for starting Jenner's pro bono legal program. Marshall then served as a law professor at the University of Illinois College of Law from 1967 until 1973 and as a hearing officer for the Illinois Fair Employment Practices Commission from 1967 until 1972. In 1959, Marshall, then a resident of Wheaton, Illinois, ran unsuccessfully as a Democrat for state's attorney in DuPage County, a Republican stronghold.
Federal judicial service
Marshall was nominated by President Richard Nixon on June 27, 1973, to a seat on the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois vacated by Judge Alexander J. Napoli. Marshall was one of the few Democrats ever nominated to the federal bench by Nixon. He was confirmed by the United States Senate on July 13, 1973, and received his commission on July 18, 1973. He assumed senior status due to a certified disability on October 19, 1988. His service terminated on April 15, 1996, due to his retirement.
Notable cases
During his tenure on the bench, Marshall became known—by his own admission—as an activist judge, ordering the Chicago Police Department in 1976 to hire women and stop discrimination against black and Hispanic officers. He also ruled in 1982 that the random interrogation of Hispanics by what was then known as the Immigration and Naturalization Service was unconstitutional. Perhaps Marshall's best-known case, however, was a 1982 trial that sent the then-president of the Teamsters Union, Roy L. Williams, to prison for three years. In that case, Williams, Chicago mob boss Joseph Lombardo and three other defendants—one of whom, Chicago insurance man Allen Dorfman, was shot to death while out on bond awaiting sentencing—were found to have conspired to bribe United States SenatorHoward Cannon.
Marshall married Lorelei Towle in 1948. The couple had four children. Lorelei Marshall died in 2005 at age 78. Marshall and his wife sold their house in Wheaton, Illinois in 1978 and moved to Chicago. They moved to Florida in 1990. Marshall's wife told the New York Times in 2004 that he once interviewed for the job of commissioner of baseball.
