Mary Ann McMorrow
From Judgepedia
Mary Ann G. McMorrow was the Chief Justice of the Illinois Supreme Court between 2002 and 2006.
Biography
Mary Ann Grohwin McMorrow was born in 1928, to Roman and Emily Grohwin. She grew up in a Roman Catholic household on the northwest side of Chicago.
Mary Ann McMorrow attended Rosary College, now known as Dominican University. She received her law degree at Loyola University Chicago School of Law and was admitted to the practice of law in Illinois in 1953. After working for a short time with a law firm, she was hired as an assistant in the state's attorney's office. It was there that she met her husband, Emmett McMorrow, a Chicago police officer. They were married in 1962, and remained so for 24 years until Emmett's death in 1986.[1] Incidentally, this was the same year that McMorrow was elected to the state appellate court. The marriage produced one daughter, Mary Ann, born in 1963.
Legal Education and Experience
Upon graduation from law school, she was employed by Loyola under a Ford Foundation Grant doing research about race and education. She was then employed by the law firm of Riordan & Linklater, engaging in the general practice of law.
As Prosecutor
She was appointed Assistant State's Attorney of Cook County, assigned to the Criminal Division, and was the first woman to prosecute felony cases in Cook County. She was elected a Judge of the Circuit Court of Cook County in 1976.[2]
In the Appellate Court
By order of the Supreme Court of Illinois, Chief Justice McMorrow was assigned to the Appellate Court of Illinois in 1985 and elected to that court in 1986. She was the first woman elected to serve as chairman of the Executive Committee of the Appellate Court.
As Associate Justice
She was elected to the Supreme Court of Illinois in 1992, the first woman to serve in its 173 year history.
As Chief Justice
With her election as Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Illinois in May, 2002, she became the first woman to head that position as well as head a branch of government in Illinois. Justice McMorrow retired from the bench on July 5, 2006. In her statement of retirement, she quoted Abraham Lincoln: "Let us have faith that right makes might, and in that faith let us to the end dare to do our duty as we understand it."[3]
Associations
McMorrow is a member of the Illinois State Bar Association, the Chicago Bar Association, and is past president of the Women's Bar Association of Illinois. She is a master bencher of the American Inns of Court and a member of the American Judicature Society, the National Association of Women Judges, and a former member of the Board of Directors of the Illinois Judges' Association.[4]
Awards
McMorrow is the 1991 recipient of the "Medal of Excellence" award from Loyola University School of Law Alumni Association. She is a recipient of the Chicago Bar Association's Justice John Paul Stevens Award, and the 1996 recipient of "The Fellows of the Illinois Bar Foundation" award for Distinguished Service to Law and Society. In 2005, the American Bar Association honored her with its prestigious Margaret A. Brent Women Lawyers of Achievement Award, named for the first woman lawyer in America who arrived in the colonies in 1638. She is the recipient of the Myra Bradwell Woman of Achievement Award, the highest award given by the Women's Bar Association of Illinois.[5]
The Chicago Bar Association and the Chicago Bar Foundation awarded her the Justice John Paul Stevens Award given to Chicago area attorneys whose careers exemplify the highest standards of the legal profession. She was named by the Chicago Sun Times as the most powerful woman in the law in Chicago; named by Crain’s Chicago Business as one of Chicago’s 100 most influential women; and by Chicago Lawyer Magazine as its 2003 Person of the Year.
In 2004, Chief Justice McMorrow was named one of Chicago's 100 Most Powerful Women, and named Top Ten Women in Law. Anita Alvarez cited that she was the first woman in her graduating class at Loyola Law, the first woman to prosecute major felonies in the Cook County state’s attorney’s office and the first woman elected to the Illinois Supreme Court. In 2002, she became its first female chief justice, making $158,000 a year.[6]
In addition to these honors, she also has received four honorary degrees and numerous other awards. Women Lawyers of Achievement Award
Political Affiliation and Campaign Contributions
Democrat. In the 1992 election, Chief Justice Mary Ann McMorrow raised $363,423.[7] Of that total, the top contributers were as follows:
- The party contributed $113,998 (31.37%).
- Lawyers and Lobbyists contributed $107,408, or 29.55%.
- Finance, Insurance, and Real Estate contributed $18,000 (4.95%).
- The labor sector contributed $13,500 (3.71%).
In the News: Articles
Federal Investigation on Judicial Appointments
Judge McMorrow faced some controversy in 2000 with a federal investigation into how the justices appoint lawyers to fill temporary vacancies on the bench. The probe centered on the appointment of Circuit Court Judge George J.W. Smith, appointed by Judge Charles E. Freeman and reappointed by McMorrow. Smith was accused of buying his seat and was later convicted of financial fraud. McMorrow, who stands by her appointments, named an independent committee to screen lawyers appointed to temporary judgeships.[8]
Opinions in the News
- One of her noteworthy dissents involved the question of holding the parents and other social hosts liable for injury and death resulting from minors allowed to drink to the point of intoxication. In the case of Charles v. Siegfried (1995), the majority of the court found no liability, and Justice McMorrow wrote that the result was an "injustice and an outrage."
- Judge McMorrow authored the opinion of the court in Best v. Taylor Works (1997), which threw out the Republican legislature's "tort reform," limiting awards injured people could obtain in court.[9]
- McMorrow wrote a 1997 opinion holding that limits on non-economic lawsuit damages for people injured through negligence were unconstitutional. McMorrow cited the case as an example of her desire to promote "the common good" as a judge.[10]
- McMorrow also wrote the majority opinion in a 2002 case imposing a duty on pharmacies to warn customers of possible severe side effects. More recently, McMorrow wrote the 2005 opinion reversing a $1.2 billion class-action verdict against State Farm Insurance Co. (Avery v. State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Co. 2005)
Under Chief Justice McMorrow, the Court also amended its rules to give discretion to a trial judge in setting an appeal bond in cases where the traditional appeal bond requirement might be so onerous that it creates a barrier to appeal, forcing a party to settle a case or declare bankrupcy.[11] The issue came to the fore in the appeal of a $10.1 billion class-action verdict against Phillip Morris. (The verdict was subsequently overturned by the Illinois Supreme Court.)
- McMorrow's opinion was so scathing against the verdict that Judge Charles E. Freeman and Judge Thomas L. Kilbride dissented, not so much from the decision as from its tone. Freeman wrote that the opinion “humiliated plaintiffs’ counsel and demeaned both the trial court and the appellate court." Kilbride joined the dissent.[12]
After the Bench: Retirement
In November 2006, months after leaving the bench, McMorrow joined JAMS, The Resolution Experts, the nation’s largest private provider of alternative dispute resolution services[13]. JAMS President and CEO Steve Price said of her arrival, “Justice McMorrow is a pioneer not only for women in the judiciary, but also for the growth of ADR in Illinois. Her dedication to justice and resolving disputes in the most efficient manner possible has long been applauded by attorneys on both sides of the bar, and we are thrilled that she has decided to keep on the hat of full-time neutral at JAMS.”
- Justice McMorrow has been a longtime supporter of ADR. During her tenure as Chief Justice, the Court approved an experimental appellate court settlement program to provide an alternate method of resolving certain civil cases in Illinois and amended its rules to allow appellate review at an early stage of class action suits in an attempt to lessen the cost of court resources and the financial resources of parties.
On the Issues
On Abortion
On Criminal Justice
On Class Actions & Class Action Abuse
On Contract Enforcement
On the Death Penalty
On Discrimination and Equal Protection
On Education
On Elections Law
On Employer and Employee Rights
On Government Accountability
On Negligence
On Personal Responsibility
On Property Rights
Regulation
On Taxes
On Tax Increment Financing (TIF)
On Term Limits
On Tort Reform
See Also
External Links
References
- ↑ State of Illinois Press Release
- ↑ Illinois State Supreme Court Official Website
- ↑ Illinois State Supreme Court Official Website
- ↑ Wikipedia
- ↑ Illinois State Supreme Court Official Website
- ↑ Chicago's Top Ten Women in Law
- ↑ Follow The Money
- ↑ Chicago's Top Ten Women in Law
- ↑ Supreme Court of Illinois Press Release on Chief Justice McMorrow's Retirement
- ↑ Sauk Valley News
- ↑ Supreme Court of Illinois Press Release on Chief Justice McMorrow's Retirement
- ↑ Madison County Record
- ↑ JAMS, The Resolution Experts Official Website
