Devlin Joseph Schoop: In his own words

Devlin Joseph Schoop is a candidate for the Harris vacancy on the Illinois Appellate Court. His punch number is 155.

My name is Devlin Joseph Schoop and I am a candidate for the Illinois Appellate Court. My Punch Number is 155. I currently live in the far-south side of Chicago in the Morgan Park area, not far from Percy L. Julian High School.

I was born and raised in Chicago. I attended Oscar Mayer Elementary School and Whitney Young High School (Class of 1989). As a child and teenager, I grew up in the Lincoln Park neighborhood, approximately 10 blocks away from the Cabrini-Green housing projects. As an African-American male living in an increasingly gentrifying neighborhood in the late 80s and early 90s, I became acutely aware of the issue of over-policing of people of color. After high school, I attended UIC for my undergraduate studies and went on to law school at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. In 1997, my first post-law school job was serving as a law clerk to federal judge Blanche M. Manning who, at the time, was one of the few African-American female federal judges in the nation. From there, I went into private practice where I spent the next 16 years as a trial attorney, doing mostly civil defense work. In August 2015, the Illinois Supreme Court appointed me to a countywide vacancy to serve as a Circuit Judge. My primary assignment was in the Child Protection Division, hearing child abuse and neglect cases. Often I observed that it was commonplace for people of color -- particularly Black women of color -- to be targeted for greater scrutiny by the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services for imperfect parenting skills which would have likely been ignored or otherwise excused had they been Caucasian, wealthy or both. When I stepped down from the bench in 2016, I returned to private practice and am currently a partner at the Cochran Firm Chicago, representing plaintiffs in civil rights, employment discrimination and catastrophic personal injury cases. I have tried many cases to verdict and handled a lot of appeals.

I was, and would continue to be (if elected), concerned about ensuring that I exercise my judicial power tempered by compassion and appreciation for how my decisions could adversely impact people’s lives. I had the privilege of clerking for Judge Manning who taught me that there is nothing worse than a judge who is incapable of self-reflection. I cannot promise to be perfect, but I do promise that, if elected, as a judge I would endeavor to be as self-aware as possible and to use my judicial powers to promote the interests of justice and be impartial, without regard for the identities of the parties or outside political influences. Voters should support my candidacy for the appellate court because I am thoroughly experienced and qualified to serve as a judge on the appellate court. I do not seek this position to fulfill a “dream” or to cap off a career with an additional accolade. Public confidence in the justice system in the State of Illinois, particularly in Cook County, has significantly eroded. While I cannot promise an outcome or that voters will agree with all of my rulings, I believe that voters should support my candidacy and vote for me because I will follow the law and treat their families -- sons, daughters, sisters, brothers, mothers and fathers -- with the same dignity and respect that I would want my family to receive when being treated by a judge.

You can learn more about me and my candidacy and hear my clients’ testimonials at www.schoop4justice.com.

I humbly ask for your vote.

Thank You!

Devlin Joseph Schoop