Suzanne Conlon
From Judgepedia
Suzanne B. Conlon is an Article III federal judge for the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois one of the largest federal courts in the nation. She was nominated by Ronald Reagan.
Legal career
After the law school, Conlon was a law clerk for former federal judge Edwin Robson in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois from 1968-1971. From 1972 to 1975, Conlon served as a private practice attorney in Chicago and also served on the faculty of DePaul University as an Assistant Professor from 1972 to 1973 and a lecturer from 1973 to 1975. Conlon had two stints as a Assistant US attorney for the Northern District of Illinois from 1976 to 1977 and 1982 to 1986 and from 1977 to 1982 was an Assistant US Attorney for the Central District of California. Also, from 1986 to 1987, Conlon was the executive counsel for the US Sentencing Commission along with the executive director of the organization which is charged in creating sentencing guidelines in Federal Offenses. Before her appointment to the federal judiciary, Conlon was a Special counsel to Associate U.S. Attorney General Stephen S. Trott in 1988. Conlon is an adjunct professor at Northwestern University School of Law, a post she has served since 1991. [1]
Federal judicial career
Conlon was nominated by President Ronald Reagan on April 2, 1987 to a judgeship vacated by Thomas McMillen. Conlon was confirmed by the JS Senate on February 19, 1988 on a senate vote and received commission on February 22, 1988. In 2004 Conlon, applied to George W. Bush for senior status, and assumed senior status on April 17, 2004. [1]
Judicial Style
Conlon has been rated by lawyers as a judge that has the lowest amount of pending cases in the entire Northern District of Illinois court, but has been criticized by other lawyers over her temperament [2]. Lawyers have said to accomplish her goal of a small docket, Conlon makes inappropriate demands on attorneys. Attorneys have been critical on Conlon's scheduling, claiming it can be unrealistic, but is nonetheless enforced inflexibly[3]. The Chicago Bar Association and many judicial rating websites have claimed she has unacceptable behavior for a federal judge. It has been suggested that she has the tendency to use the jury or others to call out attorneys that are late[4]. Also, there have been complaints from others that Conlon has acted unprofessionally towards jurors and US Marshals[5].
Controversies
Conlon's temperament has been noted in a couple of notable controversies during her tenure as a federal judge. First, she fired a law clerk for refusing to carry her lunch up a flight of stairs when the elevator was not working. [6] Second, she fired a law clerk on September 11, 2001 for complying with a evacuation order on the Senator Everett Dirksen Federal Building in Downtown Chicago. [7]
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Conlon Biography from the Federal Judicial Center.
- ↑ http://www.chicagocouncil.org/projects/fd_evaluations/northern_district/suzanneb.htm
- ↑ http://www.chicagocouncil.org/projects/fd_evaluations/northern_district/suzanneb.htm
- ↑ http://www.chicagocouncil.org/projects/fd_evaluations/northern_district/suzanneb.htm
- ↑ http://www.therobingroom.com/Judge.aspx?ID=1213
- ↑ http://abovethelaw.com/2008/08/americas_worst_legal_boss.php
- ↑ http://abovethelaw.com/cgi-bin/mt/mt-search.cgi?IncludeBlogs=12&search=Suzanne+Conlon
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