Kevin Gilligan ’90

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Kevin Gilligan is the recipient of the 2016 Public Service Award. His 24 years with the Office of the Los Angeles City Attorney has been an exercise in dedication, innovation and commitment to public service. He has been essential in making many L.A. neighborhoods safer through expert legislation, and community programs and protection.

Gilligan started working for the Office of the Los Angeles City Attorney in 1992 and quickly proved to be a valuable asset to the city. After joining the Citywide Nuisance Abatement Program, Gilligan became the first prosecutor to criminally charge the president of a major U.S. lending institution for failing to maintain vacant and blighted foreclosed houses. As a result of that prosecution, hundreds of vacant properties throughout California were rehabilitated. In 2002, Gilligan was named “Prosecutor of the Year” for the Safe Neighborhoods Division.

Dedicated to public service, Gilligan co-created and co-implemented the dynamic, nationally recognized, Neighborhood Prosecutor Program (NPP). As the supervisor for the south bureau of the NPP, he directed projects, oversaw thousands of criminal cases and became deeply involved in the community. Here he designed creative and effective solutions to chronic crime problems in the most violent and troubled neighborhoods in South Los Angeles. As a credit to his commitment to making the community safer, St. Michael’s Church honored him with the first “Guardian Angel Award” in 2008.

Through his work on Project T.O.U.G.H. (Taking Out Urban Gang Headquarters), Gilligan became the first Deputy City Attorney to be assigned to LAPD’s Major Crimes Division and the South Bureau Criminal Gang Homicide Group to prepare gang and narcotic cases against strategic locations that have negative effects on nearby properties. In this role, Gilligan was essential in prosecuting gang- controlled storefronts where counterfeit goods and drugs were exchanged.

Gilligan went on to create the first counterfeit abatement program in the L.A. City Attorney's Office and created partnerships with the F.B.I. and the U.S. Attorney’s Office, as well as numerous other local, state and federal programs, to target chronic counterfeit locations via multi-agency investigations. In 2011, he represented the office at the National District Attorney’s Office roundtable meeting on community prosecution in Washington D.C. Gilligan has also received seven Productivity Improvement Awards from the City of Los Angeles, F.B.I. commendation for excellence and was the 2012 International Anti-Counterfeit Coalition award winner for excellence in intellectual property prosecution.

Gilligan continues to serve as Deputy City Attorney and director of the Anti-Counterfeit Enforcement program while also working as an instructor for the National White Collar Crime Center where he trains other members of law enforcement on how to fight against intellectual property crime.