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Qualifications
Educational Background
Legal Education and Honors
From
1977-1980, Sharon attended Loyola Law School in Chicago. Sharon received her
Juris Doctor in Law degree in 1980. While in law school, she wrote a law
journal article on a complex issue of civil procedure. Sharon’s article was
selected for publication in the Loyola Law Journal. She was then elected by the
outgoing Editorial Board to serve as Editor of the Loyola Law Journal the
following year. Sharon was also awarded the American Jurisprudence Award for
top performance in Criminal Procedure. Sharon’s Trial Practice professors
selected her for the by-invitation-only Advanced Trial Practice course based
upon the trial skills she had shown in the Trial Practice course.
Sharon was
also selected by her Advanced Civil Procedure Professor to tutor other law
students. Sharon’s Evidence professor then recommended Sharon for an interview
with a highly respected Illinois Appellate Court Justice, the Honorable Justice
Daniel J. McNamara, for the position of Judicial Law Clerk. Sharon served as a
law clerk for Justice McNamara for two years, from 1980 to 1982. Justice Daniel
McNamara was an outstanding person and jurist. He is the reason why Sharon wants
to be a Judge today. This is discussed more fully below.
College Education, Honors and Memberships
Sharon entered college at
the age of 16, after completing high school in a three year accelerated program.
Sharon’s ambition at that time was to be a schoolteacher. In 1975, she
graduated from Northern Illinois University Magna Cum Laude (grade point
average of 3.75 on a 4.0 scale) with a Bachelor of Science degree in Education
and a Concentration in Mathematics. Sharon was an Illinois State Scholarship
winner, on the Dean’s list, and a member of two educational honor societies: Phi
Lambda Theta and Pi Kappa Delta. Upon graduation, she obtained her K-9 Type 03
teaching certificate in the State of Illinois. While in college, she was also a
member of a folk guitar group and took gymnastics, archery, ballet, and modern
dance.
Pre-College Education, Honors and Memberships
Sharon graduated with High
Honors from Evergreen Park High School in 1971 pursuant to an accelerated three
year high school program. Sharon was ranked 15 out of 421 students in her
class. During her high school years, she was a member of the Phorex Honor
Society, the National honor Society, the Future Teachers of America, the
Mathletes Club, Girls’ Athletic Association, Girls’ Chorus and Treble Choir.
She also campaigned for the 1970 Illinois Constitution Convention.
Professional History
Legal Work Experience
Owner of Law Firm for
Sixteen Years
Sharon has been a practicing lawyer for
thirty-one years. For the past
sixteen years, she has worked in her own law practice. Sharon has devoted a large portion of her work to complex
employment law matters. She also handles complex personal injury litigation.
In addition to conducting jury trials and appeals in civil litigation matters,
she has conducted many mediations in state and federal courts and in the
administrative tribunals of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and the
Illinois Department of Human Rights. Sharon has completed the Illinois
State Bar
Association’s 40 Hour Master Mediation Series course and meets the mediator
requirement for the Cook County Court Annexed Mediation
Program. Judges and mediators before whom she has appeared in highly sensitive
matters have praised Sharon’s skills, demeanor, and character and the
professional manner in which she has handled cases and mediations with her
adversaries.
As one example, after one of her employment discrimination cases
settled in a mediation, the mediator (Professor Joanne Hodge of John Marshall
Law School) contacted Sharon and asked Sharon to be a guest lecturer at an
employment law class at John Marshall on the subject of employment
discrimination law. In the spring of 2004, Sharon was honored to be
invited to attend the Illinois Supreme Court Special Committee on
Professionalism’s Roundtable discussions on civility, ethics, and training of
lawyers. Sharon feels strongly that these are important topics.
Sharon’s primary legal mentors, Justice Daniel McNamara, and C. Roy Peterson
and Evan A. Burkholder (then partners at Lord, Bissell & Brook), were all highly
ethical persons who subscribed to the civility school of thought.
Sharon is grateful to have had the opportunity to learn from them.
Sharon offered her own observations and suggestions for improving the civility
and ethics of lawyers to the Roundtable
participants.
These discussions resulted in recommendations to the Illinois Supreme Court, and
the Illinois Supreme Court’s recent adoption of mandatory continuing legal
education requirements for lawyers. These requirements include that
lawyers receive continuing legal education on the subjects of civility,
diversity, and ethics. Sharon agrees wholeheartedly with these new
mandatory continuing legal education requirements for lawyers in Illinois.
Sharon
has, in fact, exceeded these legal education requirements.
Lawyer at Lord, Bissell & Brook Law Firm for Thirteen Years
Prior to owning her own law firm, Sharon was employed as an attorney for thirteen years (1982-1995)
at the large respected Chicago law firm of Lord, Bissell & Brook. Sharon was
trained by and worked with some of the best litigators in the City of Chicago.
She worked on a wide variety of complex civil litigation matters in state and
federal courts, including complex products liability cases and environmental
contamination insurance coverage cases. Sharon conducted jury trials and,
unlike many trial attorneys, she also worked on appeals. Sharon’s primary
supervising partners from Lord, Bissell & Brook, C. Roy Peterson and Evan A.
Burkholder, highly praise her legal skills, analytical abilities, work ethic,
integrity and demeanor, and they highly recommend her for Circuit Court Judge.
They are members of Sharon’s campaign committee.
While Sharon was employed by Lord, Bissell & Brook, the President of the Chicago
Bar Association, Kevin M. Forde, for whom Sharon had clerked while she was in
law school, asked Sharon to act as lead attorney on a team of lawyers
representing the CBA in a lawsuit
that the CBA filed to declare a Cook County ordinance unconstitutional.
Sharon has always felt strongly that we should strive to ensure that the judges
who sit in the Cook County Circuit Court are competent and qualified. To
that end, Sharon served for six years as a member of the Chicago Bar
Association’s judicial evaluation committee, first as an investigator and then
as a hearing officer. On that committee, Sharon participated in
investigating, reviewing, interviewing and rating the qualifications of judicial
candidates.
Judicial Law Clerk to the
Honorable Justice Daniel J. McNamara for Two Years
After Sharon graduated from law school in 1980, she worked for two years as a judicial
law clerk for Justice Daniel J. McNamara, one of the most highly
respected judges in the First District Illinois Appellate Court. Justice
McNamara was the person who inspired Sharon to become a Judge. Justice McNamara
epitomized what a Judge should be. He was extremely fair, humble, intelligent,
and a good listener. His character, demeanor, and judicial wisdom set him apart
from other judges. Even the losing side felt that they had been fully heard and
had been given their fair day in court. Everyone left with their dignity
intact. Justice McNamara did not discriminate. He treated everyone, judicial
clerks down the hall, secretaries in the offices, the maintenance staff, and the
attorneys and litigants, with utmost dignity and respect. As a judicial clerk,
Sharon had the invaluable experience of reviewing hundreds of appellate court
legal briefs; hearing hundreds of oral appellate court arguments; and
researching the law and drafting the legal opinions in the cases on appeal for
Justice McNamara’s review.
Sharon has by and large maintained a professional and courteous demeanor with
her adversaries. In her practice, she has been paid the highest compliment
that a litigator can be paid. After cases have concluded with her
adversaries, some of the attorneys who opposed her have then referred their own
clients and friends to Sharon. Sharon believes that this has occurred
because of what she learned from Justice McNamara: one cannot help but respect a
person who is highly competent, consistent and fair, and who acts with a high
degree of integrity.
Prior Professional Work Experience: Schoolteacher
After Sharon graduated from college, Sharon taught mathematics to junior high
school students. Sharon believes that the job of schoolteacher is an
especially important public service job. This training and work was
beneficial to Sharon in life in general and later as an attorney. This
experience will also be invaluable to Sharon as a judge.
Summary of Professional History
In summary, Sharon
has more extensive and varied litigation experience conducting jury trials,
appeals, and mediations than the other candidates in her race.
Sharon is authorized by the Illinois Supreme Court to practice in all of the
Illinois state courts. She is also authorized to practice in the federal
court in the Northern District of Illinois as well as in the Seventh Circuit
Court of Appeals. Sharon honed her skills by working with a highly
respected Illinois Appellate Court Justice as well as the best litigators in the
City of Chicago. Through the years, she has participated in litigating and
resolving legal matters from both the defendants’ and the plaintiffs’
perspectives. This has given Sharon a uniquely well-rounded experience.
Sharon’s professional training and experience as a schoolteacher will also be
invaluable to her as a judge.
In short, Sharon
possesses all of the essential attributes and skills necessary to be an
excellent jurist. Sharon has received favorable evaluations (Highly
Recommended, Qualified or Recommended) from all attorney bar associations.
Sharon has the intelligence, compassion, fairness, integrity, and character to
be an outstanding judge.
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