Bonnie Carol McGrath: In her own words

Bonnie Carol McGrath is a candidate for the countywide Mason vacancy. Her punch number is 199.

For 26 years, I have been a lawyer with an outstanding record of public service, commitment to the law and a fine temperament---qualities needed to serve the public in a dignified, unbiased manner.

As a prosecutor for the City of Chicago, I completed hundreds of bench trials. I also became an expert in administrative law/vehicle impoundment. I advised lawyers from Michigan who had to argue an impoundment case before the US Supreme Court, appeared on MSNBC to debate the legal issues, led discussions about impoundment at bar association meetings and I advised Cook County to judges and the Chicago City Council.

In a general practice, I worked in every division of the Cook County Court, completed 30 criminal appeals, nine cases in juvenile court and hundreds of cases as a chair-qualified arbitrator.

I have taught law in various settings to lawyers, law students, college students, paralegal students and high school students.

I have written voluminously about the law. I won three awards for legal writing from the Chicago Bar Association, and one of my articles was cited in a law review. I did regular columns in the Illinois Bar Journal and the Chicago Daily Law Bulletin, and have been on the Chicago Bar Association editorial board for 28 years. I am also on the CBA Public Affairs Committee.

My bar leadership has been outstanding. I have chaired several CBA Committees--including the Criminal Law and Bench/Bar Relations committees, and I was president of the Decalogue Society of Lawyers. I have participated in scores of bar association projects and panels.

Many of my former law professors--and judges who know me--have referred cases to me in which their own friends and family were involved.

I also won the Chicago Bar Association Pro Bono Award for Sole Practitioners, which is NOT an award that requires an application. They find you!

I started a pro bono civil order of protection desk in Maywood, supervised several attorneys---and it won an award from the American Bar Association.

I spent 15 years on the John Howard Association board, a prison watchdog/reform group and have visited prisons around Illinois and every division of the Cook County Jail numerous times. This has given me insight into the world of incarceration--and alternatives to incarceration.

I am also a journalist, which has helped me develop objectivity. I've won 25 major journalism awards, proving that I have integrity and lack of bias.

I also spent five years as a telephone installer for Illinois Bell and was a member of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 165.

I am a volunteer at the Glessner House and am on the boards of Art Encounter, Intuit Gallery---and Project Onward, a studio for artists with developmental disabilities and mental illness. My daughter, who is autistic, is an artist there.

I am also on the boards of Cedille Records, Friends of Downtown, Picosa Ensemble, the League of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra Association and my homeowners association in the South Loop—and very active with Lyric opera.

Notes: 1) I am proud to have received the 2020 Personal Pac endorsement.
2) I no longer participate in the bar association ratings process, and here's why (written in 2018): http://www.chicagonow.com/mom-think-poignant/2018/03/i-lost-my-faith-in-the-bar-association-ratings-of-cook-county-judicial-candidates-a-long-time-ago-and-you-should-too/

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