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Recent Honorees: Mary Heftel Hooton Award Recipent from 2010 WBAI Judicial Reception
Each year, the Women's Bar Association of Illinois recognizes a select number of distinguished jurists who have supported the WBAI's commitment to ensuring the success of women attorneys and advocacy for women’s interests by conferring this distinguished award. The award’s namesake, Judge Mary Heftel Hooton, President of the WBAI in 1976, served in the pre-trial section of the Law Division in the First Municipal District at the Daley Center and was also supervising judge of contracts and torts in the First Municipal District. In 1993, Judge Hooton bequeathed her estate to the WBAI for a permanent home, enabling the WBAI to acquire its current offices at the Chicago Bar Association building.
The WBAI had the honor of awarding the 2010 “Mary Heftel Hooton” Award to Chief Judge Timothy C. Evans and Judge La Quietta J. Hardy-Campbell.
Chief Judge Timothy C. Evans
Timothy C. Evans serves as the Chief Judge of the Circuit Court of Cook County, the largest of the 22 judicial circuits in Illinois and also one of the largest unified court systems in the world. More than 1.9 million cases are filed annually in the Circuit Court of Cook County, which serves Cook County's 5.1 million residents. Chief Judge Evans oversees the circuit's approximately 400 judges whom he assigns throughout the court's eight divisions and six geographic districts. He also oversees an annual budget of almost $204.9 million and more than 2,800 employees who work in 13 non-judicial offices providing probation and other court-related services.
Chief Judge Evans was first elected Chief Judge in September 2001 by unanimous vote of the circuit judges. He was re-elected without opposition to a third, three-year term September 11, 2007. Only the fourth person to serve as Chief Judge of the Circuit Court of Cook County, he also is the first African American to serve in the position.
Judge Evans has brought innovative and compassionate changes to the court system that include sweeping reform of the bail setting process, a new Domestic Violence Courthouse, a new mental health treatment court and expanded drug treatment courts. Under his leadership, there has been an unparalleled growth in free legal services for low-income, self-represented litigants, and the court enjoys national recognition for its extremely effective alternatives to incarceration for young people in trouble. There also has been an unprecedented expansion of the Chief Judge's duties by state and local government that include administration of the Juvenile Temporary Detention Center and the court reporters of the court system. Evans has expanded court services to children with innovative drop-off child care that provides a safe, court-based haven for children whose parents or guardians are attending court. He also has expanded opportunities for women and minorities at the court's executive level, appointing the first Hispanic American as presiding judge of the Fourth Municipal District and the first woman as presiding judge of the Chancery Division. In January 2010, he will launch the first ever court-wide division in Cook County to be dedicated solely to domestic violence matters.
Evans is a 1965 graduate of the University of Illinois. He received his J.D. from The John Marshall Law School, Chicago, Illinois, in 1969.
Upon graduation from John Marshall, Evans embarked on a lifelong pursuit of public service. He first entered local city government in 1969 when he joined the City of Chicago's Law Department as an assistant corporation counsel. He later joined the City of Chicago's Department of Investigations, rising to deputy commissioner. In 1973, he was elected to the Chicago City Council representing the 4th Ward, a position he held for 18 years while maintaining a private practice.
With the election of Harold Washington as mayor of Chicago in 1983, Evans assumed the coveted post of floor leader of the Chicago City Council. He also chaired several major City Council committees, including those on Finance, Budget, and Health.
In 1992, Evans won election to the Cook County judiciary as a circuit judge. Within three years of joining the court, he was appointed the presiding judge of the Domestic Relations Division. Five years later in 2000, he was appointed presiding judge of the Law Division where he served until his election as Chief Judge.
Judge La Quietta J. Hardy-Campbell
Judge La Quietta J. Hardy-Campbell has thirty-two years of legal experience as a private practitioner, congressional staffer, judge and adjunct professor of law. She is a creative thinker who looks for imaginative ways of approaching family law problems and finding solutions. She has also been assigned as a mentor to new judges and has supervised over 20 law students as interns.
Key accomplishments:
Created and designed museum quality exhibit which highlights the increase in diversity on the Cook County Bench.
Developed and led Child Support/Custody Workshops for homeless and/or battered women in shelters throughout the city.
Initiated and nurtured a relationship with South Africa’s Legal and Diplomatic community opening doors for dialogue and exchange with the Illinois Judicial Council and South Africa’s emerging democracy.
Appointed to Cook County Family Mediation Advisory Committee to consider enhancements of mediation services and recommend whether changes should be made to the program.
Judge La Quietta J. Hardy-Campbell was first elected a circuit court judge in November 1998 and was assigned to the Domestic Relations Division where she continues to serve. In 2008, she was appointed to the faculty for the Judicial Education Conference sponsored by the Administrative Offices of the Illinois Courts and she was formerly an adjunct professor at Chicago-Kent College of Law teaching Advance Issues of Family Law. Judge Hardy-Campbell was selected by Chief Judge Timothy C. Evans to mentor newly appointed and elected judges and she is certified in comprehensive mediation in the State of Illinois.
In addition to her judicial duties, Judge Hardy-Campbell is currently the Chair of the Illinois Judicial Council. Her professional affiliations include the Black Women Lawyers’ Association, where she has served as one of BWLA’s Directors, the Cook County Bar Association, the Illinois Judges Association, and the Illinois State Bar Association where she serves on the Diversity Pipeline Subcommittee. She is a member of the first class of Leadership Greater Chicago (1984-1985) and currently serves as a Board Member of Leadership Greater Chicago Fellows Association.
Prior to her election to the bench, Judge Hardy-Campbell was a private practitioner for over 12 years and during her tenure as a private practitioner she served as Special Counsel to the Chicago Park District. For 8 years, Judge Hardy-Campbell served as General Counsel and Deputy Staff Director for Congresswoman Cardiss Collins (D-Il) and Congressman William L. Clay (D-Mo) in the U.S. House of Representatives, drafting legislation, coordinating Congressional oversight hearings and authoring committee reports.
A native Chicagoan, Judge Hardy-Campbell received her J.D. from DePaul University School of Law in 1977 and her B.S. from Southern Illinois University in Carbondale in 1973.
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The WBAI had the honor of awarding the 2009 “Mary Heftel Hooton” Award to Judge Jennifer Duncan-Brice and Justice Thomas R. Fitzgerald.
Judge Jennifer Duncan-Brice
Judge Jennifer Duncan-Brice graduated from John Marshall Law School in 1976. She started working at the Corporation Counsel’s Office for the City of Chicago as a law clerk in 1975. She held various positions ultimately becoming Deputy Corporation Counsel of the Torts Division. In 1992, Duncan-Brice was elected as a Judge of the Circuit Court of Cook County and assigned to the Law Division. She had several assignments for two years, but for the last 15 years, she has been assigned to a General Calendar Call where she hears cases from the beginning to the end, i.e. case manage the lawsuit, rule on motions, mediate the pre-trials, and conduct trials.
Duncan-Brice is a co-author of a book published in 2003 entitled Illinois Pretrial Practice, published by James Publishing which has been revised in 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007 and 2008. It is approximately 1,200 pages and gives “nuts and bolts” information on how to prepare a civil case for trial.
From 1988 to 1989, Duncan-Brice was President of the Chicago Chapter of the Federal Bar Association.
Justice Thomas R. Fitzgerald
Justice Thomas R. Fitzgerald is a native Chicagoan and attended Loyola University before enlisting in the United States Navy. After his tour of duty in the Navy, he graduated with honors from The John Marshall Law School, where he was one of the founders of the school’s current law review and served as the law review’s associate editor.
The son of a Circuit Court judge, Chief Justice Fitzgerald began his own career in the law as a prosecutor in the Cook County State’s Attorney’s office. When first elected to the bench in 1976, he was, at that time, the youngest elected Circuit Judge in Cook County. He served as a trial judge in the Criminal Court from 1976 to 1987 when he was assigned Supervising Judge of Traffic Court. In 1989, he returned to the Criminal Division as Presiding Judge. He also was appointed to serve as presiding judge of Illinois’ first statewide grand jury.
In April of 1999, he was appointed by the Supreme Court to be a member and chairperson of the court’s newly-formed Special Supreme Court Committee on Capital Cases to assess and improve the administration of justice in Illinois death penalty cases. The Committee, under Judge Fitzgerald’s leadership, drafted innovative rules which were approved by the Supreme Court to improve the quality of justice in the trial of capital cases.
Chief Justice Fitzgerald was elected to the Supreme Court of Illinois for the First Judicial District in 2000.
His accomplishments on the Supreme Court include a recommendation to his fellow justices that the Court find a way to improve the delivery of free legal services to veterans in obtaining disability and educational benefits. The Court assigned the task to its Commission on Professionalism; and in September 2007, Justice Fitzgerald joined Director L. Tammy Duckworth of the Illinois Department of Veterans Affairs, officials of The John Marshall Law School, the Illinois State Bar Association and the Commission in announcing a broad initiative to help Illinois veterans with free legal services. With the support of the Illinois State Bar Association, the initiative was expanded to include legal help for the families of Illinois service members scheduled for deployment.
Since becoming Chief Justice in September of 2008, Justice Fitzgerald announced a new Special Committee on Illinois Evidence, composed of a blue-ribbon roster of judges, practitioners, law professors and state legislators whose aim is to codify existing evidentiary law so it is available in a single source.
Also as Chief, Justice Fitzgerald announced an expansive and broad series of initiatives to improve the judiciary and public confidence in the state’s courts. Those initiatives include mandatory participation for the more than 900 Illinois Circuit and Associate judges in a Judicial Performance Evaluation Program, improvement to the New Judge Mentoring Program and New Judge Seminar; and a Statement of Expectations that was issued to all Illinois judges in December.
Chief Justice Fitzgerald is the recipient of a number of awards and honors.
On September 11, 2008, he received the prestigious John Paul Stevens Award. The John Paul Stevens Award, given by the Chicago Bar Association and the Chicago Bar Foundation, celebrates Illinois attorneys and judges who have demonstrated extraordinary integrity and service to the community throughout their careers.
Other awards and accolades Justice Fitzgerald has received include the Outstanding Judicial Performance Award by the Chicago Crime Commission; Celtic Man of the Year by the Celtic Legal Society; the Herman Kogan Media Award for Excellence in Broadcast Journalism. The Lawyers’ Assistance Program honored him in 2000 with the Hon. John Powers Crowley Award. He is the 2001 recipient of The John Marshall Law School Freedom Award. In 2003, Justice Fitzgerald was awarded the Joel Flaum Award by the Chicago Inn of Court, and the Chicago Kent College of Law Professional Achievement Award. In 2005, Justice Fitzgerald was named Catholic Lawyer of the Year by the Catholic Lawyers Guild of Chicago. He is a member of the Leo High School Hall of Fame.
Justice Fitzgerald has taught at The John Marshall Law School and Chicago-Kent College of Law, where he was assistant coordinator of the trial advocacy program from 1986 to 1996. He also has taught at the Einstein Institute for Science, Health and the Courts.
Justice Fitzgerald has served as president of the Illinois Judges Association, was a member of the Governor’s Task Force on Crime and Corrections, chairman of several committees of the Illinois Judicial Conference, member of the Chicago Bar Association’s Board of Managers and past chairman of the Chicago Bar Association’s committees on constitutional law and long-range planning.
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