Drury is a former Assistant U.S. Attorney, who currently works at a law firm. Drury is also an adjunct professor of law at the Northwestern University School of Law. As an Assistant U.S. Attorney, Drury focused on fighting corruption and fraud in the Illinois public and private sectors. In November 2006, Drury prosecuted a 54 year-old priest for downloading child pornography. In prosecuting the case, Drury stated: "Mr. Schulte is supposed to be helping people, helping people who are victims," and "He is telling the manufacturers of this filth this is something there is a demand for," Drury said.
Political career
In 2012, Drury was elected to the Illinois House of Representatives, beating his opponent Mark Shaw with 65.7% of the vote. Drury has served in the Illinois General Assembly since 2013. Drury currently sits on the following House committees: Judiciary-Civil; Personnel and Pensions; Cybersecurity, Data Analytics and IT; Government Transparency; and Elementary Secondary Education - Charter School Policy. Drury previously was the Vice Chair of the House Judiciary-Criminal Committee. In 2015, Drury was appointed to serve as a commissioner on the Governor's newly created Commission on Criminal Justice and Sentencing Reform. In 2013, Drury successfully worked with local municipalities to implement assault weapons regulations throughout the District he represents, during a 10 day window before municipalities in Illinois were prohibited from passing ordinances regulating assault weapons. In an interview with the Chicago Sun-Times, Drury said of the legislation: "If you don't do anything, you lose the right to do anything." In 2013 and 2014, Drury successfully proposed a law that requires more custodial interrogations are recorded and new procedures for eyewitness identifications. This legislation was part of an effort to address the high number of wrongful convictions in the Illinois criminal justice system. Drury has received various awards for his work in this area, including the 2013 Jenner & Block Award, the Illinois Innocence Project's Defenders of the Innocent Award, and the First Defense Legal Fund's 20 for 20 Award. In 2014, Drury co-sponsored a bill to criminalize revenge porn, which established penalties for offenders of one to three years in prison and fines of up to $250,000. In 2014, Representative Drury voted Nay on a so-called "millionaire's tax" intended to help balance the Illinois budget. Drury and another Democrat, Rep. Jack Franks, joined every Republican lawmaker in publicly dismissing the millionaires’ tax, leaving the Democrats two votes shy of the 71 they need to move it forward. In May 2016, Drury co-sponsored SB 250 which established automatic electronic voter registration. In 2017, Drury voted "present" for Speaker of the Illinois House. The incumbent, Michael Madigan, was reelected.
