Anne Marie Burke is an American jurist who served on the Illinois Supreme Court from 2006 until 2022. She served a term as the chief justice from 2019 until 2022. Burke had previously been appointed to the Illinois Appellate Court in 1995 and was elected to that seat in 1996. Burke was a founder of the Special Olympics in 1968. She is married to former 14th Ward Chicago Alderman Edward M. Burke,who was convicted of racketeering,bribery,and extortion on December 21,2023.
Latasha R. Thomas is an American politician and former alderman of the 17th Ward of the City of Chicago,Illinois,United States. Thomas was appointed to the position of alderman by Mayor Richard M. Daley in 2000,subsequently elected outright in a 2001 special election,and was re-elected in 2003,2007,and 2011. During her tenure as alderman,Thomas worked to get many of the schools within her ward renovated. In the fall of 2014,Thomas announced that she would not seek re-election in 2015 as alderman,following the announcement that a former employee would run in her place.
Deborah Louise Cook is a senior United States circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit,based in Akron,Ohio. She served as a justice of the Ohio Supreme Court from 1995 to 2003.
Mary Ann McMorrow was an Illinois Supreme Court chief justice.
Timothy C. Evans is an American attorney,politician,former alderman and the current Chief Judge of the Cook County Circuit Court. Evans is noted as the first African-American Chief Judge of the Cook County Circuit Court. A graduate of the John Marshall Law School in Chicago,Evans was first elected to the bench in 1992,and was selected by his fellow judges as Chief Judge in 2001.
Thomas R. Allen is a judge within the Illinois Circuit Court of Cook County. He was sworn in on December 6,2010. Prior to his judgeship,he was Alderman of the 38th Ward of Chicago,serving since 1993.
Kwame Raoul is an American lawyer and politician who has been the 42nd Attorney General of Illinois since 2019. He is a member of the Democratic Party.
Iris Y. Martinez is an American politician and administrator. In 2020,she was elected clerk of the Circuit Court of Cook County. She previously served as a member of the Illinois Senate,representing the 20th district from 2003 until becoming clerk. A member of the Democratic Party,she rose to Assistant Majority Leader in the State Senate. As court clerk and as a state senator,she is the first Latina to have held either of those offices.
Seymour Frank Simon was an American lawyer,Appellate Court and Supreme Court Justice in Illinois,and City Council member (alderman) in Chicago,Illinois.
Toni Lynn Preckwinkle is an American politician and the current County Board president in Cook County,Illinois,United States. She was elected to her first term as president of the Cook County Board of Commissioners,the executive branch of Cook County government,in November 2010,becoming the first woman elected to that position.
Marvin E. Aspen is a senior United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois.
John G. Mulroe is a judge of the Circuit Court of Cook County and lawyer from Chicago,Illinois. Between August 2010 and June 2019,he was a Democratic state senator,representing the 10th Illinois State Senate District. He was appointed to complete the term of Democrat James DeLeo in August 2010 and elected to a full term in the Illinois State Senate in November 2010. He served in the position for nearly nine years before leaving the Illinois Senate in 2019. Robert Martwick replaced Mulroe in the Illinois Senate.
Mary Jane Theis is a justice of the Illinois Supreme Court for the First Judicial District in Cook County. In 2022,she became chief justice after the retirement of then-chief justice Anne M. Burke.
The Cook County Bar Association (CCBA),the nation's oldest association of African-American lawyers and judges,was founded in Illinois in 1914. Arkansas attorney Lloyd G. Wheeler,moved to Illinois in 1869 to practice law and he,along with 31 other Black lawyers,began to meet informally to plan protests against discrimination in hotels,theaters,and restaurants,and to address judicial elections and school desegregation. Among the group of Black lawyers was Ida Platt,the first Black woman admitted to practice in the State of Illinois,and the third Black woman lawyer in the nation. This informal collaboration lasted until 1914,when a younger generation of lawyers decided to form the Cook County Bar Association. Edward H. Wright was elected the first CCBA president. On March 5,1920,the CCBA was formally incorporated by the State of Illinois.
Michelle A. Harris is an American politician who is the alderman of Chicago's 8th ward and the chair of the Chicago City Council's rules committee.
Laura Cha-Yu Liu was an American circuit court and state appellate court judge. She was the first Chinese American woman judge appointed to the Circuit Court of Cook County and the first Chinese American appointed to the Illinois Appellate Court.
Aurelia Marie Pucinski is a judge on the Illinois Appellate Court for the First District. She previously served as a trial judge and clerk of the Circuit Court of Cook County. Her second term expires in 2030.
Judith Rice is an American politician who served as Chicago City Treasurer from 2000 to 2006 and has served as a judge on the Circuit Court of Cook County 7th sub-circuit since 2014.
Joy Virginia Cunningham is an American lawyer from Illinois who serves as a justice of the Illinois Supreme Court. She previously served as a justice of the Illinois First District Appellate Court from 2016 until 2022. Before becoming a lawyer,she worked as a nurse,and later worked as counsel for several university hospital systems.
Odas Nicholson was an attorney,activist and judge in Illinois.
