Women's Bar Association of Illinois

Board of Directors: RoxAnne L. Rochester

RoxAnne L. Rochester is a staff attorney in the Circuit Court of Cook County, Law Division.  Ms. Rochester is responsible for reviewing, analyzing and recommending the appropriate disposition of contested pre-trial motions in legal disputes involving personal injury, contracts, business torts and construction litigation.

Before joining the Circuit Court of Cook County, Ms. Rochester worked for 17 years in the private practice of law. Ms. Rochester was the founder and principal of the Law Offices of RoxAnne L. Rochester, a firm she spearheaded for over a decade.  At her firm, Ms. Rochester served as in-house general counsel to small and medium-size business entities.  Ms. Rochester served her clients’ businesses by addressing both transactional and litigation needs throughout their formation and growth. She provided a broad range of legal expertise in substantive areas including stock purchase agreements, real estate acquisition and leasing, employment contracts, protection of trade secrets and proprietary information, as well as individual family and estate matters.   As an attorney with the Chicago boutique securities and commodities law firm of Fishman and Merrick, P.C., Ms. Rochester developed a strong reputation specializing in business formation and entity operations.  As a litigator, Ms. Rochester provided distinguished service to commercial and individual clients in the areas of  trade secrets and non-competition covenants, corporate securities and commodities law, and business torts.

Prior to her work in the private sector, Ms. Rochester served as a legal extern with the United States District Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Illinois, and as a Law Clerk to Judge Richard L. Curry in the Circuit Court of Cook County, Chancery Division.

In addition to her professional work, Ms. Rochester has been actively involved in the legal community. Her leadership includes serving on the Board of Directors and various Committees of multiple bar associations, including: Director, Women’s Bar Association of Illinois; Co-Chair of the Women’s Bar Association of Illinois Continuing Legal Education Committee; Co-Chair of the Rise Up and Reach Back Esther Rothstein Scholarship Luncheon; Board of Governors of the Catholic Lawyers Guild of Chicago; Member of the Women Everywhere: Partners in Service project; Member of the Chicago Bar Association Alliance for Women; the ISBA Committee on Minorities and Women; and the Continuing Legal Education Committee of the ISBA.  Additionally, Ms. Rochester has served as a Mentor in the Hispanic Lawyer’s Association of Illinois JD mentor program and as a supervisor and liaison to law student externs from DePaul University, Loyola University of Chicago School of Law and John Marshall.

Ms. Rochester has actively served her community in a wide range of efforts.  Her executive responsibilities have included, the Women’s Board of Misericoria, Director and Secretary of the Friends of Downtown, and Director and Secretary of the Frances Xavier Warde School Parent Group Advisory Board.  Ms. Rochester is a founding member, former President and active coordinator of the Old St. Patrick’s Community Outreach Group (COG).  COG began in the early 1990s as a small group of devoted volunteers wishing to serve Chicago’s west side low income or unemployed population.  Today, COG deploys thousands of volunteers to 14 different local sites feeding the homeless, caring for the infirm and elderly and providing tutoring and mentoring services. COG also reaches across international borders deploying its volunteers to serve people in need in Peru, Nicaragua, India, and Africa.

Ms. Rochester received her Juris Doctor in 1989 graduating from Loyola University of Chicago School of Law.  She received her undergraduate degrees, two Bachelors of Arts in History and Government, and minor degrees in Spanish and Latin American Studies from St. Mary’s University, Notre Dame, Indiana.  She is fluent in Spanish.

Ms. Rochester is married to Jay Marhoefer, an attorney and founding member/manager of Intelligent Generation™ LLC, a renewable energy enterprise.  They are the proud parents of John and Dominic.

RoxAnne Rochester
City of Chicago
50 W. Washington, Room 2208
Chicago, Illinois 60602
Phone: (312) 603-5628
rrochester06@yahoo.com
http://www.cookcountycourt.org

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