Looking more closely at the 2026 Short List finalists - Part 2

In Part 2 of this two-part series, FWIW continues its look at each individual associate judge finalist. For Part 1 of this series, click here. Candidates are listed in alphabetical order. I will update this post as necessary.

Mona Naser is a partner with Carlson Dash, specializing in commercial litigation, real estate (commercial and residential), and general corporate law. She has been licensed to practice law in Illinois since 2002, according to ARDC. (She is also licensed to practice in Wisconsin and Arizona.)

Naser is currently the Vice-President and Board Member of the Arab American Bar Association; she previously co-chaired the AABA's Judicial Evaluation Committee. A Past President of the Illinois Creditors Bar Association, and a past Co-Chair of the Chicago Bar Association's Alliance for Women, Naser is also a Trustee of the State Employee Retirement Systems.

A graduate of Chicago Public Schools, Naser did her undergraduate work at the University of Illinois-Chicago before attending DePaul University Law School.

Ginger L. Odom is one of the two appointed judges to make this Short List. At the time of her appointment, in June of last year, Odom was working as the Director of the Expungement Unit in the Office of the State Appellate Defender. She has been licensed in Illinois since 2003, according to ARDC.

A profile of Odom on the Chicago-Kent Law School website (Odom is a 2003 graduate of that school) says that she was a "non-traditional student." She grew up in Texas and moved to New York to study dance and theater as soon as she was old enough, in the mid-1980s, when the city’s artists were caught in the throes of the AIDS epidemic. A single parent while attending law school, Odom waited tables and tended bar to pay her bills.

Odom has served on the Illinois Supreme Court Commission on Access to Justice (where she has been a member of the Forms Committee) and as an adjunct professor of law at the DePaul University School of Law.

Nickolas G. Pappas is a sole practitioner with an office on South Michigan Avenue. He has been licensed to practice law in Illinois since 1995, according to ARDC.

Before attending law school, Pappas worked as an analyst at Montgomery Ward's corporate headquarters for a few years. He was the first in his family to graduate from college; his immigrant parents operated a restaurant that was open 22 hours a day, serving employees from O’Hare Airport and the surrounding warehouses.

After completing law school, Pappas went to work for the Cook County State's Attorney's Office, serving there eight years before returning to the private sector, joining Querrey & Harrow Ltd. He left that position to care for his father in his father's last illness, thereafter setting up his current, solo practice. In his current role, Pappas has worked as a Special State's Attorney representing the Illinois Department of Healthcare & Family Services in Title IV-D cases. He was also general counsel for Lakeland Healthcare Group, LLC from December 2012 until April 2015.

Julia B. Ramirez is a Cook County Assistant State's Attorney. She has been licensed to practice in Illinois since 2008.

I spotted a post from the Illinois Latino Judges Association congratulating Ramirez for making the Short List (that's where I grabbed the head shot) but, as often happens with ASAs or assistant public defenders, there is not a lot on line for me to pull together anything but the most basic biographical post. This is one of those posts that is likely to be amended in the days to come.

Anthony Ruffin is a career Cook County Assistant Public Defender, practicing in the Child Protection Division, Juvenile Justice Division and Misdemeanor Trial Section until 2005. He moved to the Felony Trial Division and is currently assigned to the Multiple Defendant Unit. He has been licensed to practice law in Illinois since 1994, according to ARDC.

Ruffin has been a paralegal instructor at Northwestern College in Bridgeview, Illinois for 22 years, teaching legal research and writing, civil and business litigation for 22 years.

A college football player at Purdue, Ruffin attended law school at Thurgood Marshall School of Law in Houston, Texas. He subsequently obtained an LLM in intellectual property in 1997 from what was then still the John Marshall Law School. He is a member of Omega Psi Phi Fraternity Incorporated.

Linda Sackey was appointed to the bench in late 2024 but was passed over by the Cook County Democratic Party at slating time. Sackey was admitted to practice in Illinois in 2006, according to ARDC. At the time of her appointment, she was serving as a Judicial Clerk to Illinois Supreme Court Justice Mary Jane Theis.

Sackey began her legal career as a staff attorney for the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit. She then worked as an associate at Mayer Brown LLP for five years. From 2013 to 2018 Sackey was an Assistant Attorney General in the Civil Appeals Division of the Illinois Attorney General’s Office. She joined Justice Theis's chambers in 2019. She also served as an adjunct professor at The John Marshall Law School in 2016.

Sackey has served as a member of the Board of Directors of both the Cook County Bar Association and the Appellate Lawyers Association.

Smith Spencer is an attorney with Michael D. Gallo & Associates, joining that office after serving for 17 years as an Assistant Corporation Counsel for the City of Chicago, including a four-year stint as Supervising ACC of the Torts Division. She has been licensed in Illinois since 2003, according to ARDC.

Spencer began her legal career in Wisconsin, attending the University of Wisconsin for both undergraduate and law school, before working for the university's Office of Equity and Diversity as a civil rights investigator and attorney. She then served as counsel for the Wisconsin Department of Health and Family Services, from 2001-2004, representing the State in daycare and rehabilitation facility licensing hearings and investigating Medicare fraud claims.

Spencer has volunteered with Cradles to Crayons and Autism Speaks. She has also been a volunteer mentor for the Girl Scouts of America Project Law Track.