Minorities lag in taking bench in collar counties

By Maria Kantzavelos

When Jorge L. Ortiz launched his law career in 1990 as an assistant state’s attorney in Lake County, before transitioning into private practice, he was among a handful of minority lawyers practicing in the area situated on the shore of Lake Michigan, between Chicago and Wisconsin.

”We had two Latino lawyers working in this county when I first started,” said Ortiz, the son of Puerto Rican immigrants who was raised in Logan Square. ”We had maybe two or three African-American lawyers working in the county at that time, who worked regularly in the courthouse.”

Ortiz, who was appointed as an associate judge in 2002 to the 19th Judicial Circuit covering Lake County becoming the first Hispanic judge in the circuit said he has seen more minority lawyers in Lake County than when he started practicing there, ”but it’s not at a level where it should be.”

The pool of seasoned, minority lawyers practicing in Lake and the other counties surrounding Cook is, perhaps, one of the factors at play when it comes to the representation of minorities on the bench, judges and leaders of local bar associations said.

”We don’t have a lot of Latino and African-American lawyers that practice in this county. That is going to diminish the pool that you select judges from. That’s an issue,” Ortiz said.

While Cook County has made some strides in diversifying the bench, particularly in bolstering the representation of African-Americans, the judicial circuits covering its five bordering counties which have seen an explosion in population in the last decade or so continue to lag in their representation of minorities among the ranks of the judiciary.

Numbers paint a picture
Of the 160 judges serving in the circuits that include Lake, Will, Kane, DuPage, and McHenry counties, seven are minorities four African-Americans, two Hispanics, and one Arab-American, according to the 2008 Chicago Lawyer Diversity Survey.

Of the 63 full-circuit judges in those five circuits, three are African-American. Only four of the 97 associate judges in the circuits covering the collar counties are minorities. One of them is African-American, one is Arab-American and two, including Ortiz, are Hispanic.

Associate Judge Luis A. Berrones, the other of the collar counties’ Hispanic judges, serves on the bench with Ortiz in the 19th Circuit. Berrones was appointed in October 2007, after 25 years in practice, mostly in the firm now known as Drinker Biddle & Reath.

”I’ve seen more minority lawyers in Lake County, and a lot of the minority lawyers seem to be fairly young. I think one of the factors is the fact that you still have a very young pool of minority lawyers, and they’re not putting their names in to be associate judges,” said Berrones, 51. ”I wanted to be in private practice for a certain amount of time, get the experience, get on financial footing. I don’t know if that’s the other lawyers’ thinking at all. It could be that many of them feel they need to gain more experience.”

Associate judge vacancies can be one of the most reliable routes for getting more minorities on the bench. Several judges interviewed for this story said circuit judges, who appoint associate judges, tend to consider lawyers with at least 10 years in practice.

”For a judge, you’ve got to look at the bar population of people with more than 10 years of experience. It’s more complicated than just looking at the picture and saying there’s not enough [minority representation],” said Circuit Judge F. Keith Brown, the only African-American judge in the 16th Circuit, which includes Kane, Kendall, and DeKalb counties.

Lake County Circuit Judge Jane D. Waller, who became the first female associate judge in Lake County in 1981, and its first female full-circuit judge in 1996, has had a hand in the appointments of 18 associate judges.

”We’re looking for, generally, around 12 years of experience,” said Waller. ”We need to see how you operate, we need to know what your personality is like, we need to know how you manage your cases. Just looking at an application, and seeing your credentials and interviewing you, doesn’t give us a full picture. We like to see them in action.”

Brown, who was raised in Elgin and maintained his law practice there, was appointed as an associate judge in 1991, becoming the first African-American judge in the 16th Circuit’s history. He prevailed in the race for full-circuit judge in the March 1996 primary election and ran unopposed that November.

”This was before Obama. They didn’t think an African-American could win in this area,” said Brown, adding that he had unique advantages, including a well-known family name.

Brown said one of the reasons he became a judge was to help open doors for other minorities in the legal community.

Increasing the size of the local pool of minority lawyers is key to accelerating racial diversity on the bench, he said, adding that the state’s attorney’s office and the public defender’s office in Kane County have made efforts to hire minority lawyers.

”The key thing is to get minority and gender associates who will later be elected as circuits, because it’s the circuits who pick the associates. In order to have quality associates you need a pool of attorneys to draw from,” Brown said. ”It’s a process. To build a base of qualified people who will want to participate in that process, you don’t just do that on a whim. It takes a long time.”

In the most recent application process to fill an associate judge vacancy in the 16th Circuit, Brown said, 41 lawyers applied. Of those applicants, two were African-American, one was Hispanic, and 13 were women.

”It’s not a significant size of a pool. Out of 41 people, and you only have two blacks who apply and only one Hispanic, that’s not even a pool, that’s not even a bathtub. That is a sink.”

To be eligible for a judgeship, a lawyer must reside in the circuit in which he is selected to serve.

”That kind of also limits the pool of lawyers who can put their name in for judge,” said Berrones, who was raised in Chicago, but has lived in Lake County for 25 years.

Several judges speculated that many minority lawyers are choosing to practice in Chicago.

”My thought is that if you’re a minority attorney and you have a choice of working in a small town like Waukegan or at a big firm in Chicago, you might decide you’re going to take the big salary in Chicago, rather than trying to develop a practice in a small town like Waukegan,” Lake County’s Waller said.

Inside the courtroom, said Ortiz, ”I see Hispanics, blacks, Russian immigrants, Polish immigrants, Asians. It’s a very, very diverse county in terms of race, in terms of socio-economic status.”

Ortiz said he has made a commitment to the community, visiting schools to talk to students about the importance of education and encouraging them to consider a career in the law.

”What I tell them is that you don’t know, necessarily, where you’re going to end up, but no matter where you end up, you have an obligation to serve your community,” Ortiz said. ”You have to be prepared, and you have to give something back. Hopefully it’s here, because there’s a real need here, a real opportunity here.

”There are really good opportunities for lawyers to have successful practices in this county. It would be good for business if you had Spanish-speaking lawyers here and more African-American lawyers, given the population in the county,” Ortiz said.

A more diverse circuit
With 36 judges, the 19th Circuit is among the more diverse circuits of the collar counties, both in terms of racial diversity and its representation of women on the bench.

Five of Lake County’s 12 full-circuit judges are women. And besides Ortiz and Berrones, the 19th Circuit includes Circuit Judge George Bridges, an African-American who is a former police chief of Waukegan, and Michael B. Betar, an associate judge who is Arab-American.

”I think the circuit judges have really tried to ensure that there’s diversity here. I think we’ve made strides,” Ortiz said. ”It’s been part of the strategic plan of the circuit.”

Still, Ortiz said, ”We can always do better.”

”Diversity on the bench is important,” he said. ”I think it really fosters public trust and confidence in the judiciary. It’s a diverse society we live in. The bench should be reflective of that.”

Lake County includes Waukegan and North Chicago, home to a significant number of African-Americans and Hispanics.

Acording to 2000 U.S. Census figures, Hispanics made up more than 45 percent of Waukegan’s population, while slightly more than 19 percent of the city’s population was comprised of African-Americans.

In North Chicago, blacks made up 36.3 percent of the city’s population, while 18.2 percent of the city’s residents were of Hispanic origin.

Across Lake County, African-Americans make up 6.7 percent of the population, while Hispanics account for 18.7 percent of the population, according to more recent, 2006 estimates from the U.S. Census Bureau.

Out of the 34 judges of the 16th Circuit, Brown is the only minority judge.

In Kane County, Brown said, the African-American population has remained fairly stagnant, while Hispanics are among the fastest-growing minority groups. According to 2006 estimates from the U.S. Census Bureau, Hispanics make up 27.8 percent of the county’s population. Statewide, it is estimated that 14.7 percent of the population is Hispanic.

”Our major thing right now is we need to have a Hispanic lawyer step up. It’s a growing population, it’s an important population,” Brown said. ”Right now, we have no Hispanic judges. Hopefully, in the next five years, we can change that.”

Meanwhile, Brown said, ”When you say who uses the criminal justice system, the black population because of other issues such as income and family structure their percentage of people in prison and the court system far exceeds their percentage within the [general] population.

”These are all reasons why we need more minority representation, but you just can’t say we need to bring in minority lawyers at any cost,” Brown said. ”Someone who’s not qualified and doesn’t do a good job will actually hurt the process more than help it.”

In fast-growing Will County, which includes the cities of Joliet, Romeoville, and Bolingbrook, two of the 12th Circuit’s 30 judges are minorities Associate Judge Marzell L. Richardson, Jr., and Circuit Judge Carmen Goodman, who are both African-American.

But that number is expected to decrease to one black judge come Dec. 1.

Goodman, a former assistant public defender who was appointed in January 2007 to a judgeship in that county’s newly created 4th Subcircuit becoming the first black woman to sit on the Will County bench lost the February judicial primary race to Democratic challenger Paula A. Gomora, who is white.

The state legislature in recent years created subcircuits in most of the collar counties, except DuPage. Subcircuits were also created in the 17th Circuit, which covers the counties of Winnebago and Boone.

”The argument was so that there would be more representation of people of color on the bench, the same rationale they had given to Cook County [where subcircuits were created in the early 1990s],” Will County’s Goodman said.

”There must be a commitment to diversity for [subcircuits] to work in the collar counties.”

With tremendous growth in Will County’s population, which went from 357,313 in 1990 to 668,217 in 2006, the number of minority attorneys practicing locally has also increased, lawyers and judges there said.

The Attorney Registration and Disciplinary Commission does not track the racial and ethnic demographics of lawyers, said James J. Grogan, deputy administrator of the ARDC.

However, perhaps some evidence of growth in the pool of minority lawyers in Will County emerged in January, with the establishment of the Black Bar Association of Will County.

Litricia P. Payne, an assistant public defender who serves as president of the newly formed bar association, estimated that there are about 20 African-American lawyers practicing in the county.

Payne said those numbers are significant compared to about 10 years ago, around the time when she joined the public defender’s office as one of four African-Americans and when there was one African-American serving in the state’s attorney’s office.

”[Diversity] absolutely is something we would like to see more of. The bench should represent the people that it serves, and we do have a lot of minority defendants,” Payne said.

Goodman estimated that there are about 50 minority lawyers of various races practicing in Will County.

”They’ve been out here, it’s just there’s only been one at a time [serving as judge], she said.

”I’m extremely hopeful in the future that there will be more representation on the bench,” Goodman said. ”We have talent out here, and I think we are an asset. It’ll take us continuously trying and continuously having a dialogue between us and those individuals that make these decisions.”

In the 18th Circuit covering DuPage County, there is no racial diversity among the 44 judges. Across DuPage, the U.S. Census Bureau estimates that 4.4 percent of the population is African-American, 9.9 percent of its residents are of Asian origin, and 11.9 percent of residents are of Hispanic or Latino origin.

”The county itself is increasingly diverse. We have many Asian-Americans, Indian-Americans, African-Americans. Particularly in Naperville, there’s tremendous diversity,” said Alfred A. Spitzzeri, president of the DuPage County Bar Association. ”But with respect to the local bar, the minority numbers are small.”

Several long-time DuPage circuit judges recalled seeing very few minority applicants for associate judge, including one African-American finalist.

And they could recall only one minority judge to have been elected to the bench there: Kenneth Moy, a Chinese-American who retired last year.

In McHenry County, there are also no minorities serving on the bench. And of the circuit’s 16 judges, three are women two of them full-circuit judges and one associate.

Women make strides
In more recent years in the collar counties, women have been making greater strides in their representation on the bench, judges there pointed out.

Of the 160 judges in the collar counties, 39 are women, including 19 full-circuit judges and 20 associate judges.

In DuPage County, four of 15 circuit judges are women, including the chief judge and those serving as presiding judges in divisions. And women account for six of the 29 associate judges.

The circuit gained another female associate judge in early June, with the addition of Karen M. Wilson, a former associate in the Downers Grove law firm of Smith, Rickert & Smith.

But the number of women on the bench in DuPage will return to 10 come early July, when Chief Judge Ann B. Jorgensen is scheduled to assume her new position as an Illinois appellate justice for the 2nd District.

Circuit Judge Bonnie M. Wheaton is currently among the longest-sitting female judges in DuPage. She was selected as an associate judge 20 years ago and has served as a full-circuit judge for about 18 years.

”[The representation of women] is better than it has been,” she said. ”I think it’s a very good representation.”

In Kane County, it is only in recent years that the pace of representation of women on the bench has increased, said Circuit Judge Judith M. Brawka. Over a span of 15 years, she said, five women were appointed to the bench in the 16th Circuit.

But within the last two years when two females were serving as full-circuit judges three women were selected to join the bench.

”That may mean nothing. I can’t say that was a turning point, but I do think that it is significant that our numbers did not start to increase until recently,” Brawka said. ”With experience has come more women coming into court in terms of trying cases, especially in the criminal area.

”No one bats an eye at a woman first-chairing a case in criminal. At least here in our county, there are not many women first-chairing civil cases, but I think that number is increasing.”

Brawka said she was the second woman in the circuit’s history to be appointed to the bench. That was in 1991. Today, the 16th Circuit’s 34 judges include seven women - three full-circuit judges and four associate judges.

When Brawka entered law in 1978 as an assistant public defender in Kane County, there were few women practicing in court.

”You could count us on one hand,” she said.

As a first-chair, she said, ”I was asked point blank, am I going to cry in court? I said, ‘Well, I’ll do my best not to.’ It was very welcomed when more and more women started both in the public defender’s office and the state’s attorney’s office.”

The judiciary today in the 16th Circuit, Brawka said, ”is more reflective of the community than it was in terms of women. Hopefully we’ll be able to do the same with minority representation.”

DuPage County’s Wheaton echoed that sentiment.

”I know when I go to judicial conferences the makeup of the judges has really changed in 20 years. There are many more women. I can remember the first time I actually had to wait in line for the ladies’ room. I said, ‘We’ve arrived.”’

As for the lack of minority judges in DuPage, Wheaton said, ”There are several minority attorneys in the state’s attorney’s office and in some of the municipal city attorney offices. I think they’re sort of in the pipeline now. As with women starting 20 years ago, in the next 10 years, we’ll probably see an increase of minority applicants and judges.”