Alliance of Bar Associations releases retention grids

The Alliance of Bar Associations for Judicial Screening has released ratings for candidates on this November's Cook County judicial retention ballot.

The bar groups that together comprise the Alliance are the Asian American Bar Association of the Greater Chicago Area (AABA), Black Women’s Lawyers Association of Greater Chicago (BWLA), Chicago Council of Lawyers (CCL), Cook County Bar Association (CCBA), Decalogue Society of Lawyers (DSL), Hellenic Bar Association (HBA), Hispanic Lawyers Association of Illinois (HLAI), Illinois State Bar Association (ISBA), Lesbian and Gay Bar Association of Chicago (LAGBAC), Puerto Rican Bar Association of Illinois (PRBA), and Women’s Bar Association of Illinois (WBAI).

Of the 58 judges listed below, there are only two judges who received negative ratings from each bar group, Judge James D. Egan and Judge Pamela E. Hill-Veal. Neither participated in the Alliance candidate evaluation.

According to the ISBA's Joyce Williams, who coordinates judicial evaluations for the Alliance, Judge Egan advised the group some time ago that he would be retiring in December and, accordingly, he was not scheduled for interviews. Unfortunately, because of a paperwork snafu, Judge Egan did not get his name removed from the retention ballot in time. Because Judge Egan's name will be on the ballot and because he did not participate in the screening process, under Alliance guidelines, he automatically receives negative ratings from each member.

More will follow about the retention ratings here later, as both the Illinois State Bar Association and the Chicago Council of Lawyers are expected to shortly release narratives explaining their respective candidate ratings. The Chicago Bar Association is also expected to reveal its recommendations on the retention ballot in the next few days. For now, however, the Alliance grids ('Y' means that a particular group recommends a 'yes' for the candidate; 'N' means the group recommends a 'no' vote):

Click on any image to enlarge or clarify.

In a few cases you will note that one group or another has given a candidate a rating of 'NE.' That means that the candidate was not evaluated by that particular group. It is not a negative rating.