“Our Experience is Our Expertise.”

Rising Phoenix Consultants brings lived experience of the criminal legal system together with legal training to educate, advise, and drive meaningful reform.

Founded by Marshan Allen — believed to be the first former juvenile lifer to graduate law school and sit for the Illinois bar exam.

Marshan Allen was sentenced to life without parole in Illinois at age 15 and served nearly 25 years before his release. Since then, he has become a leading advocate for juvenile justice and criminal legal reform — and, in May 2026, graduated from Chicago-Kent College of Law. Rising Phoenix Consultants is where that experience becomes expertise: speaking, training, and policy consulting for institutions ready to learn from people who've lived the system.