CHICAGO — John Coady, a retired judge from the Fourth Judicial Circuit, was named the 2017-18 president of the Illinois Judges Association.
Coady, the first retired judge to serve in the position, was installed at the association’s annual meeting in Chicago.
“I appreciate the opportunity to serve the active and retired state court judges of Illinois,” Coady said upon his selection. “I have deep respect and appreciation for the men and women who do the day-to-day work of court throughout the state and who decide matters based on principles of law rather than upon the winds of public opinion.”
Coady and his wife Kathy reside in Taylorville. A 1974 political science graduate of the University of Illinois who earned his law degree at Ohio State University in 1977, Coady was initially a public defender in the Fourth Judicial Circuit, which covers nine counties, before being appointed to an associate judgeship in 1987.
He was appointed by the Illinois Supreme Court in 1993 as the Fourth Circuit’s judge-at-large before being elected to the position in 1994. After retaining the position for two more terms, he retired in 2009.
While a judge, Coady was chair of the Illinois State Bar Association Standing Committee on Law Related Education, a member of the Illinois Supreme Court's Alternative Dispute Resolution Coordinating Committee and a member of the Illinois Judicial Ethics Committee. He is president of the Illinois State Employees Association of Retirees and past chair of the Illinois Judges Association Retired Judges Committee.
The Illinois Judges Association, which represents 1,200 active and retired Illinois state court judges, was founded in 1972 to provide services, support, and education to its member judges and raise public understanding of the Illinois judicial system.
The association named additional officers, including first vice president, Judge James E. Snyder of Cook County; second vice president, Judge Margaret J. Mullen of Lake County; third vice president, Judge Diane M. Shelley of Cook County; secretary, Judge Barbara Crowder of Madison County, and treasurer, Justice Eileen O’Neill Burke of the First Appellate District.