Wednesday, January 09, 2008

Illinois State Bar Association releases Cook County candidate evaluations

My thanks to Al Adomite, Director of Government Relations of the Illinois Civil Justice League and the researcher for IllinoisJudges.net, for pointing out that the Illinois State Bar Association has released its judicial candidate evaluations for the upcoming primary.

The Illinois State Bar Association is one of several members of the Alliance of Bar Associations for Judicial Screening. When all of the constituent organizations have completed their evaluations, the Alliance will release a 'grid' showing how each of the members rate each candidate. I'll be posting that grid just as soon as I can.

In the meantime, something to keep in mind with regard to bar association evaluations: There may be unanimity regarding a particular candidate -- but there isn't always. Reasonable bar associations, like reasonable people, may disagree about whether a particular candidate is fit to serve on the bench. Keep in mind also that bar associations find candidates qualified or recommended -- or not -- but positive ratings do not constitute endorsements.

With that preface, herewith the ISBA candidate evaluations, lifted straight from the ISBA website (linked above). You'll note that I've copied the entire table, even for uncontested races and Appellate Court races I've not been covering. This is a consequence of my limited HTML skills as opposed to an intentional expansion of the scope of the coverage provided here:

Key: HQ = Highly Qualified; Q = Qualified; NQ = Not Qualified; NE* = Not Evaluated/Late Submission of Application

Supreme Court – 1st District
Vacancy of the Hon. Mary Ann G. McMorrow

Anne M. Burke

HQ

Appellate Court – 1st District
Vacancy of the Hon. Anne M. Burke

William D. O’Neal

NQ

Alan J. Greiman

HQ

Sharon Johnson Coleman

Q

Appellate Court – 1st District
Vacancy of the Hon. Calvin C. Campbell

John O. Steele

Q

Frank Edward Gardner

NQ

Richard F. Walsh

Q

Cook County Circuit
Vacancy of the Hon. Barbara J. Disko

Lauretta Higgins Wolfson

Q

Dennis J. Burke

HQ

Cook County Circuit
Vacancy of the Hon. Francis W. Glowacki

Terry MacCarthy

Q

Jesse G. Reyes

Q

Cook County Circuit
Vacancy of the Hon. Michael T. Healy

Maureen Ward Kirby

Q

Peter John Curielli

NQ

Cook County Circuit
Vacancy of the Hon. Michael R. Keehan

Marilyn F. Johnson

Q

Joseph Robert Papavero

NQ

Cook County Circuit
Vacancy of the Hon. Gay-Lloyd Lott

Joanne Marie “Jody” Rogers

Q

Thomas J. Byrne

Q

Cook County Circuit
Vacancy of the Hon Anthony S. Montelione

Thomas A. Doran

Q

Thaddeus L. Wilson

Q

Debra B. Walker

Q

Cook County Circuit
Vacancy of the Hon. Michael J. Murphy

Paula M. Lingo

Q

Kristyna Colleen Ryan

NQ

Frank James Ryan

NE*

Cook County Circuit
Vacancy of the Hon. Julia M. Nowicki

John J. “Jack” Murphy

HQ

Michael B. Hyman

HQ

Kim R. Kardas

Q

Brian Terrence Sexton

Q

Cook County Circuit
Vacancy of the Hon. Mary Maxwell Thomas

Joan Powell

Q

David John Mulvihill

NQ

E. Madeline O’Neill

Q

Patrick Dennis Riley

Q

1st Subcircuit -Vacancy of the Hon. Edna Turkington

Donna L. Cooper

Q

LaGuina Clay-Clark

Q

Zedrick T. Braden III

NQ

3rd Subcircuit - Vacancy of the Hon. David R. Donnersberger

Patrick J. Sherlock

Q

4th Subcircuit - Vacancy of the Hon. Lon W. Shultz

John M. Allegretti

William Edward Gomolinski

Q

Maureen H. Masterson-Pulia

Q

Pat Rogers

Q

Mauro Glorioso

Q

Carmen Kathleen Aguilar

Q

Deirdre Ann McGuire

5th Subcircuit - Vacancy of the Hon. Bernetta D. Bush

Furmin D. Sessoms

NQ

Nkrumah Lumumba Hopkins

NQ

Jackie Marie Portman

NQ

5th Subcircuit - Additional Judgeship “A”

Stephen Stern

Q

Dominique C. Ross

NQ

6th Subcircuit - Vacancy of the Hon. Raymond A. Figueroa

Nancy Hallihan Horodecki

NQ

Mauricio Araujo

Q

Laura Bertucci Smith

Q

Mary Katherine M. Moore

HQ

Stuart M. Brody

Q

7th Subcircuit - Vacancy of the Hon. Anthony L. Young

David H. Latham

Q

Anita Rivkin-Carothers

Q

Kevin Kenneth Pechous

Q

Melanie Rose Nuby

NQ

T. Lee Boyd, Jr.

NQ

8th Subcircuit - Vacancy of the Hon. Nancy Drew Sheehan

Gideon Abraham Baum

NQ

Daniel Thomas Gillespie

HQ

James Byrne

Q

Debra Kramer Marcus

Q

Ann Collins Dole

Q

James A. Shapiro

Q

Aaron J. Weiss

Q

10th Subcircuit - Vacancy of the Hon. Robert J. Kowalski

Ursula Walowski

Q

Gerald Patrick Cleary

Q

James Edward Snyder

Q

Stephen F. Sidlowski

NQ

10th Subcircuit - Vacancy of the Hon. Dennis J. Morrissey

Diana L. Kenworthy

NQ

John G. Mulroe

Q

Rosaire Marie Hall

Q

10th Subcircuit - Vacancy of the Hon. Aurelia Pucinski

Joan Ellen Smuda

Q

Eileen O’Neill Burke

Q

Thomas Francis Biesty

Q

Kenneth L. Fletcher

Q

12th Subcircuit - Vacancy of the Hon. Donald M. Devlin

Thomas Flannigan

Q

Michael John Halloran

Q

Pamela Elizabeth Loza

Q

Laura J. Morask

NQ

Thomas R. Mulroy

Q

Michaela Nolan Ryan

NQ

13th Subcircuit - Vacancy of the Hon. James T. Ryan

Annie O’Donnell

Q

James E. Babcock, Jr.

Q

Joe Gump

Q

Ann Catherine Brady

Q

Paul S. Pavlus

Q

Guy M. Karm

Q

13th Subcircuit - Vacancy of the Hon. Karen T. Tobin

Margarita Kulys Hoffman

Q

George L. Straton

Q

Cary J. Collins

Q

Carol L. Barnes

NQ

Gary G. Stanton

Q

14th Subcircuit - Vacancy of the Hon. James F. Henry

James N. O’Hara

NQ

14th Subcircuit - Vacancy of the Hon. Ralph Reyna

Edward A. Arce

NQ

15th Subcircuit
Additional Judgeship “A”

Michael Emmett McGinnis

Q

Donald Theodore Lyman

NQ

Thomas “TJ” Somer

NQ

Martin D. Coghlan

Q

Mary Louise Ryan Norwell

Q

William Joseph McGann

NQ

Peter Fera

Q

Anna Helen Demacopoulos

Q

Carl Evans, Jr.

Q

Thomas R. Mahoney

Q

Scott E. Lipinski

NQ

3 comments:

fedup dem said...

Did the ISBA give any explanation as to why certain candidates were rated as "Not Qualified"?

Jack Leyhane said...

Fedup -- No, the ISBA does not provide explanations of its ratings. The only two bar associations which have traditionally provided written explanations are the Chicago Bar Association and the Chicago Council of Lawyers.

Anonymous said...

Hi Jack-Just to let you and Fedup know, the ISBA had joined the Aliiance which some consider to be the special interest bar assoications a few years back and this year the Alliance required their application back in the last week of August after only a short time of even being available. Speaking for myself, I was out of town on our only annual family trip with my husband and two teenage boys before one goes off to college, and it was completely impossible to meet the strictly enforced deadline. By contrast the CBA, and the Northwest Suburban Bar required their applications and supporting documents in by November 19th. So if an application was not submitted to Alliance, they determined across the board to find NQ despite the reality of actually not being evaluated. Of note, in the recent past the Alliance has been criticized by the Illinois Supreme Court for the secrecy in their process. Because of this and other problems, the CBA broke with them years ago after a trial effort of conducting joint evaluations. As a result of above, the Isba is one of the few I did not receive from the major bar groups. I am proud to announce I was found Qualified by the CBA this past week. For other endorsements and upcoming events I commented in another area of your blog. Thank you. Laura Morask, 12th Judicial Subcircuit Candidate