Mary Ann McMorrow

Mary Ann McMorrow

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Education

Bachelor's

Rosary College

Law

Loyola University, Chicago School of Law

Mary Ann Grohwin McMorrow was the chief justice of the Illinois Supreme Court between 2002 and 2006. She joined the court as an associate justice in 1992 and retired on July 5, 2006. McMorrow was the first woman to win election to the state's highest court, and its first female chief justice. She was also the first woman to head one of the three branches of Illinois state government. McMorrow passed away in February 2013.

Education

McMorrow received her undergraduate degree from Rosary College, now Dominican University, and her J.D. from the Loyola University Chicago School of Law.

Career

Upon graduation from law school, McMorrow 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

McMorrow 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.

Appellate court

By order of the Illinois Supreme Court, 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

McMorrow was elected to the Illinois Supreme Court in 1992, the first woman to serve in its 173 year history.

As chief justice

With her election as chief justice of the Illinois Supreme Court 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."

Awards and associations

Awards

McMorrow was the 1991 recipient of the "Medal of Excellence" award from Loyola University School of Law Alumni Association. She was 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 was the recipient of the Myra Bradwell Woman of Achievement Award, the highest award given by the Women's Bar Association of Illinois.

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 addition to these honors, she also received four honorary degrees and numerous other awards.

Associations

McMorrow was a member of the Illinois State Bar Association, the Chicago Bar Association, and was a former president of the Women's Bar Association of Illinois. She was 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.

Political affiliation

McMorrow was elected to the Illinois Supreme Court as a Democrat. In her 1992 election contest, she raised $363,423. Of that total, the top contributors were:

• The Democratic 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%).

Appointment controversy

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, who was initially appointed to a circuit court judgeship by Charles Freeman and later reappointed by McMorrow. Smith was accused of buying his seat and was later convicted of financial fraud. McMorrow, who stood by her appointments, named an independent committee to screen lawyers appointed to temporary judgeships.

Noteworthy cases

Intoxicated guests

One of McMorrow's 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 McMorrow wrote that the result was an "injustice and an outrage."

Caps on damages

McMorrow authored the opinion of the court in Best v. Taylor Works (1997), which threw out the Republican legislature's tort reform legislation, which put a financial cap on the amount of damages injured people could obtain in court.

Unconstitutionality of limits

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.

Avery v. State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Co.

McMorrow wrote the court's 2005 opinion reversing a $1.2 billion class-action verdict against State Farm Insurance Co. (Avery v. State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Co. 2005)

Appeal bond discretion

Under McMorrow, the Illinois Supreme Court 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 burdensome that it creates a barrier to appeal, forcing a party to settle a case or declare bankruptcy. The issue came to the fore in the appeal of a $10.1 billion class-action verdict against Philip Morris. (The verdict was subsequently overturned by the Illinois Supreme Court).

McMorrow's opinion was so scathing against the verdict that Charles Freeman and Thomas 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.

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 (ADR) services. 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."

See also

• Courts in Illinois
• Illinois counties
• Judicial selection in Illinois

External links

• Illinois Courts, "Illinois Supreme Court"
• Chicago Tribune, "Mary Ann McMorrow, 1st female state Supreme Court Justice dies," February 24, 2013