Judge Thomas More Donnelly

51Âþ»­

Appointed by Illinois Supreme Court a Cook County Circuit Judge on December 3, 2021, after nearly twenty years’ service as an Associate Judge, he sits in the Law Division, Commercial Calendar, presiding over motions and trials in business disputes.  For ten years before coming to the Commercial Calendar, he heard personal injury trials. He has presided over nearly four hundred jury trials.  He serves on the faculty of the National Judicial College. Past board chair of the Illinois Judicial College Board, he currently serves as a board member. He served as the Reporter for the Illinois Supreme Court Committee on Professional Responsibility (1996-2000). Before becoming a judge, he clerked for the Honorable Mary Ann G. McMorrow and served as an assistant public defender for thirteen years.

Tom has taught at Loyola Law School since 1987.  He currently teaches Illinois Litigation: Race, Injustice and Poverty. He has taught Civil Litigation, Professional Responsibility, Criminal Procedure, Trial Advocacy, and Appellate Advocacy.  He directed Loyola’s Philip H. Corboy Trial Advocacy Fellowship for twenty years from 1995-2016. He has taught trial advocacy at the University of Chicago Law School in the Mandel Legal Aid Clinic. He has lectured at Washington and Lee Law School, Marquette Law School, and DePaul Law School. 

He serves as president of Lumen Christi’s Catholic Criminal Justice Reform Network. Tom serves on the advisory boards/committees for Loyola’s Hank Center for the Catholic Intellectual Heritage, the Athenaeum Center for Thought and Culture, and St. Gregory’s Hall.  He served as president of the Catholic Lawyers Guild of Chicago from 2015-16, which had named him 2014 Catholic Lawyer of the Year; he has served on the Guild’s board since 1988. Married to Anne Wicker, the have four sons and live in Queen of Apostle’s parish where he teaches RCIA.

Degrees

BA, St. John's College, 1981
JD, 51Âþ»­Chicago School of Law, 1986

Professional Employment

Law Division, Commercial Calendar, Circuit Court of Cook County

Program Areas

Illinois Litigation