Someone you should know: Diann Marsalek

Diann Marsalek has no trouble keeping busy. As Chief Counsel for the Illinois Department of Corrections (“DOC”), she is responsible for all legal affairs involving 13,000 DOC staff members, the 44,000 adults currently housed in Illinois’ correctional facilities, and the thousands more residing in adult transition centers and juvenile detention centers. Her office currently has 7,000 cases pending in all levels of the judicial system.

After speaking with Marsalek for a short time, two things becomes evident: she is a Chicagoan through and through; and she puts tremendous value in public service. She was born and raised in the North-Side Lakeview neighborhood, where her mother worked at her children’s school and later for their local alderman. Marsalek’s father, Edward, was a judge on the Circuit Court of Cook County. When asked why she wanted to become a lawyer, she replies that the early exposure to the law that she received through her father and her cousin, and the public service example set by both of her parents, planted the seed in her mind from an early age.

After earning a B.A. in political science and an M.A. in sociology from DePaul University, she continued on to law school at Northern Illinois University. While a student there, she was active in the Women’s Caucus and served as president of the Student Bar Association. The classes that she enjoyed most were constitutional law, domestic law, and juvenile law.

In the last two years of law school, she clerked for the Illinois Attorney General’s Office, where she accepted a position after graduation. She spent the next 14 years with the Attorney General’s office in Chicago, dealing primarily with issues relating to the Department of Corrections. She cites both Susan Weidel and Susan O’Leary, two of her predecessors as chief counsel of the DOC, as attorneys who had a positive impact on her legal career and with whom she worked closely during her years at the Attorney General’s Office. As a result, she was highly experienced and familiar with the office when Governor Blagojevich appointed her to a four-year term as chief counsel in February 2003.

In that role, she oversees a staff comprised of four attorneys and two paralegals in Chicago, as well as two attorneys in Springfield. Due to recent departures, it is the smallest the staff has been in recent history. Ms. Marsalek lauded the diverse backgrounds within the group. “We have had people come here from work at the federal district court, from different state’s attorney’s offices, from private practice, and from other governmental agencies. It’s helpful to have different people with medical, criminal, or labor backgrounds so that they can specialize in different areas within our office.” A group with such a vast array of experience is necessary to take on the diverse issues that the office faces as the department’s sole legal representative. A large part of the legal staff’s duties involves reading and responding to correspondence, whether it be from the public, from inmates, or from staff members at the correctional facilities. The office issues legal opinions to the correctional institutions. They review all contracts and handle all land acquisitions for the department. They evaluate inmates’ claims, which typically include religious rights, access to the courts, access to medical services, and use of force issues, as well as various due process challenges.

In addition, the attorneys spend time educating the DOC workforce so that they are aware of the legal issues that could potentially arise. They train employees about the basics of litigation in case an inmate should sue them. Marsalek’s general approach is to be proactive, to try to identify possible conflicts early on, and to create policies or change existing policies so that trouble does not develop further down the road. The attorneys encourage all employees to write complete and accurate reports in case a problem arises.

Since taking the helm in February, Marsalek has tried to take the office in some new directions. First, she has made the use of videoconferencing a top priority. Utilizing the technology when an inmate has to testify in court, for instance, furthers both institutional efficiency and public safety. She has also made considerable efforts to ensure that all inmates convicted or in custody after August 22, 2002, have a sample of their DNA on file with the state, as required by state law.

Further, she has done away with the “Attorney of the Day” program, where each DOC facility was assigned on a rotating basis to an attorney who could be contacted with legal questions. The problem with that system, according to Marsalek, was that staff members in a given facility were not dealing with the same attorney consistently. Instead, she has assigned her attorneys to a set district or number of institutions, so that there is greater continuity between an attorney and the staff of any given facility. While she has found the reaction from the institutions to be abundantly positive, she notes that some have taken issue with the changes she has made. She recognizes that, “whenever you make a change, you have people who will resist.”

One benefit of the job, says Marsalek, is that, “you’re not just at your desk eight hours a day.” She personally divides time between offices in Chicago, Stateville, and Springfield, and the staff attorneys frequently travel to the facilities in order to better serve their clients. “It’s good to have a real hands-on approach with the staffs at the institutions, so that they feel they can approach us.” On the whole, Marsalek finds her new position to consist of “interesting and rewarding work. Nothing is ever the exact same situation as something we’ve faced before.”

In her spare time, Marsalek enjoys spending time with her family. She has a sister who works for American Airlines and a brother who is a chef. She is an avid Cubs fan and participates in outdoor activities, particularly golf.

As far as plans for the future go, Marsalek does not have anything specific in mind but expressed a desire to remain in government work. “I never had much ambition to go into private practice. My friends always thought I was crazy not to. But money was never the big issue for me. I was always more interested in public service, in having a job I like, in having a feeling that I’m helping people.” She wishes more students would pursue employment in public service, and feels that more would if they realized how rewarding an experience it is. Her office, she notes, provides students with the opportunity to get a better look at government work and its rewards through undergraduate and law school internships.

Diann Marsalek takes pride in her status as Chicagoan and public servant. The strongest impression I received of her, though, is that she is a genuine person with a kind heart, just the type of person that citizens should hope to have in a position of public trust.

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John Scully is a second-year law student and member of the Law Review at the DePaul University College of Law.