2016 Judicial Candidate Ratings
Cook County Bar Association Judicial Evaluation Committee
The Cook County Bar Association (CCBA) Judicial Evaluation Committee (JEC) performs evaluations on judicial candidates and acts as the liaison between the CCBA Board of Directors and the Alliance of Bar Associations for Judicial Screening (Alliance). Each year, dozens of lawyers seeking to be elected or appointed to the bench and judges seeking to retain their seats come before the Alliance to be evaluated. The Alliance independently investigates the candidates’ legal ability, civic service, and moral character by speaking directly to those who have worked with or opposite the candidate or have appeared before the candidate. Each candidate then appears before a panel of Alliance members to be “interviewed” for the position of judge by the very lawyers they are asking to preside over. The Alliance and the individual member bar associations publish their recommendations of whether a candidate should be elected or retained to the bench in advance of every election to assist voters in making an informed choice about judicial candidates.
CCBA is a founding member of the Alliance, which was formed to give minorities a voice in judicial elections and appointments. For layperson voters, the opinion of practicing lawyers on this question is highly persuasive. Now, lawyers of diverse heritage, background, and experiences in and out of court have a powerful voice in selecting who is given the privilege to serve as judge in the circuit court of Cook County. Recognizing this power, judicial candidates covet a recommendation by the members of the Alliance and particularly the CCBA.
As a member of CCBA, you are eligible to participate on the JEC. JEC is seeking additional volunteers to act as interviewers during Alliance screenings. We also hope that each person who acts as an interviewer becomes trained as a pre-interview investigator. The information gathered during the investigation leads the direction of the interview, and the interview is highly determinative of the bar associations’ ratings. We need our members to be investigators to be certain that many voices are heard during the investigation process so that no candidate is unfairly promoted or demeaned by a small or biased sampling of the people who know the candidate. When the investigation is conducted fairly, we can be more confident the all-important interview will focus on the objective qualities that make a good judge rather than a few individuals’ personal opinion.
If you are interested in the JEC, if you care about the quality of the bench, or if you would ever like to see yourself as the “interviewee” for the bench and want a behind-the-scenes look at that process, you are encouraged to volunteer for this very important committee. If you are interested in participating on the JEC in the future, please contact Urie Clark at clark7251@sbcglobal.net for more information.
