Belleville native Amy St. Eve was officially sworn in last month as a new judge on the U.S Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit.
St. Clair County Circuit Judge Stephen McGlynn was one of a small number of family and friends who attended the swearing in ceremony at the Everett McKinley Dirksen U.S. District Court in Chicago.
McGlynn said he has known St. Eve since childhood, the two having grown up just a few houses away from one another.
Amy St. Eve
"I think (she was) an excellent choice," said McGlynn.
"Very pleased, very happy for her," McGlynn added. "She has made a very positive impression as a judge and before as a lawyer."
He described the appeals court position as one that many people would like to be appointed to.
St. Eve's confirmation sailed through the U.S. Senate in May, following strong support from the state's two Senators, Dick Durbin and Tammy Duckworth, both Democrats.
St. Eve had served more than 15 years as a federal district court judge in the Northern District of Illinois, upon nomination by President George W. Bush in 2002.
President Donald J. Trump nominated St. Eve to the Seventh Circuit in February.
Skadden Arps attorney Michael Scudder, also nominated by Trump for the Seventh Circuit, received Senate confirmation the same time as St. Eve in May. Scudder had clerked for Justice Anthony Kennedy on the Supreme Court, served as a federal prosecutor and as general counsel to the National Security Council.
In a joint statement, Durbin and Duckworth stated that St. Eve and Scudder both "have the experience, integrity, and judgment that we look for in federal judges, and we look forward to seeing them serve with distinction on the Seventh Circuit.
"We appreciate the Administration working with us and with our nonpartisan screening committee to reach consensus on nominees who will serve the people of Illinois well.”
St. Eve has overseen a number of high profile cases during her more than 15 year tenure at the Northern District of Illinois, including one involving Trump.
Trump had been sued by a 87-year-old woman, Jacqueline Goldberg, over the sale of a condo in Trump Tower in Chicago. She accused Trump of fraudulent activity over the sale.
According to a recent report in the Chicago Tribune, St. Eve revealed her steel when she scolded Trump during the 2013 trial after he was involved in testy exchanges with the plaintiff's lawyer.
"You have been dancing around and boxing each other,” she told them, according to the Tribune report. “This is not a boxing match! You've got to stop it. Let's get control of ourselves.”
She also presided over the long federal trials of convicted fraudster Tony Rezko and former Chicago Sun Times publisher Conrad Black.
According to her official biography, St. Eve also serves as an adjunct professor at the Northwestern University Pritzker School of Law, where she teaches trial advocacy.
Prior to her appointment - at age 36, the youngest ever to the bench, St. Eve spent a year working as senior counsel for litigation at Abbott Laboratories.
She served for five years as an Assistant United States Attorney in Northern District, and the previous two years as an associate independent counsel for the Whitewater Independent Counsel investigation in Little Rock, Ark.
Her biography states she "second chaired the successful prosecution of former Governor Jim Guy Tucker, Jim McDougal and Susan McDougal for fraud."
Before joining the Whitewater team, St. Eve was a litigation associate in the New York City office of Davis Polk & Wardwell LLP. Judge St.
Eve earned her B.A. from Cornell University and her J.D., magna cum laude, from Cornell Law School, where she was inducted into the Order of the Coif and served as an articles’ editor on the Cornell Law Review.