Carolyn J. Gallagher

Name: Carolyn J. Gallagher

Age (as of election day): 63

Current residence: Chicago

Current position: Cook County circuit judge, 2016-present

Past legal experience with years of each job: Principal, The Law Office of Carolyn J. Gallagher, 2004-16; instructor, DePaul University College of Law, 2000-04; partner, Friedlander & Brocksmith, 1992-2000; associate, Dardick & Denlow, 1985-92; judicial law clerk, Illinois Appellate Court, 1982-85

Campaign funds available, July 1 to Dec. 31: $52,504

Campaign funds spent, July 1 to Dec. 31: $50,943.55

Law school, year graduated: DePaul University College of Law, 1981

Campaign website: gallagherforjustice.com

Family: single, three adult children

Hobbies/interests: Taking care of my dog, reading

Have you ever run for office before?

I was elected to the bench in 2016. I ran in 2014 and lost, and ran in 2016 and won by a landslide.

Why should voters support your candidacy?

I think I’m clearly the most well-qualified candidate for the appellate court. I don’t think there’s any question about that. Now, when you see my professional bio, you’ll see that I started my legal career clerking at the appellate court. That involved working side-by-side with appellate court judges on their cases, reviewing the issues, analyzing, researching, drafting the opinions.

I probably drafted several dozen opinions, went over them meticulously with the judge for whom I clerked and got them into top shape. She circulated them, and they would be published.

It’s an amazing first job as a lawyer, because then you bring those insights and skills with you to private practice or wherever your path is leading you.

For me, it was private practice. You have such an edge in litigation and appellate work. So after that I was an appellate lawyer and trial court lawyer for 31 years until I went on the bench.

I also taught appellate law. I was a professor of legal writing at DePaul for several years. That was a full-time job. I taught 80 students per semester, teaching legal analysis research and writing using appellate court cases. When you teach something, you come at it from a different angle, and you’re really solidifying your skills and knowledge as well as teaching others how to develop them.

Why do you want to be a justice?

I’ve always been a writer, so that was part of what I loved when I clerked in the appellate court — the writing aspect of it. I found that I was pretty good at it, and the judges I worked with were always complimentary of my work and always pleased, and I felt so at home there.

Even though I was fresh out of law school and these real-life issues were new to me, I had those writing skills to carry me. I just loved it, and I clerked for Justice Helen McGillicuddy. In 1982, she was the only woman on the entire appellate court in the state of Illinois. There were no women on the Illinois Supreme Court, so she was the highest-ranking female in the Illinois judicial system. And when you’re a new lawyer and a woman, that’s really inspirational.

She encouraged me to make becoming a judge my long-term goal, and her advice was to get as much trial and appellate work and experience as possible. Then after that, try to find a path to the bench. So I would say the inspiration came from that clerkship.

What was the most interesting case you handled as a lawyer?

That is a really hard question. I did a number of trials in federal court, and one involved RICO and securities fraud. It was a jury trial, the first jury trial I had ever worked on, and we won.

Federal court is a little different because the local rules play a major part in how you present your case from beginning to end.

And I made it a point to become an expert on all the local rules. It was just a very exciting experience and outcome. This was after my clerkship, so it had to be in the late 1980s.

What would you consider your greatest career accomplishment?

I think my greatest accomplishment was being hired as a legal writing professor at DePaul. They had done a nationwide search, and when they chose me I just felt that was a recognition of my writing skills and abilities and the years I had spent doing trial and appellate work in private practice.

I felt that was such an important job, to teach these kids the nuts and bolts of practicing law. It was a lot of responsibility. And, of course, winning my election and being elevated to the bench.

What qualities do you plan to bring to the bench?

In addition to the writing and research skills, I would say my compassion. I’ve done pro bono work my entire career until I got on the bench.

I’ve worked at the Clerk of the Circuit Court Expungement Summit, volunteered with the Chicago Legal Clinic for a long, long time. It was founded by two of my law school classmates. And I co-founded a not-for-profit organization that advanced the interests of LGBTQ individuals. Our primary emphasis was on transgender (people). That was in the ’90s, a time when most people didn’t even know what “transgender” was. A good colleague of mine, this was her patient group. So I heard a lot about it, how marginalized these individuals were.

Together, we created a not-for-profit and worked on developing awareness. And she wrote three books that were published by Norton. I would pre-edit them before the manuscripts went to her publisher. And I’ve been a guest-lecturer on the topic at different colleges, and brought some of that into my legal writing teaching, too.

I wish we could take all the credit that this has become widely known and widely accepted, but hopefully we contributed in our own local way.

I’d also say I’m not endorsed by the Democratic Party. I never have been. I have never gotten anywhere in my career based on political connections, and I’m pretty proud of my independence. And I think that’s a pretty good asset for any judge.