Hon. Russell W. Hartigan, of Western Springs, a judge in the Circuit Court of Cook County, has been elected third vice president of the Illinois State Bar Association. He will serve a one-year term in each of the three vice presidential offices and become president of the 32,000-member organization in June 2017.

Judge Hartigan, who will be the first sitting judge in at least 40 years to become ISBA president, previously served 12 years on the ISBA Board of Governors and held positions of board secretary and treasurer. An ISBA member since 1976, he served on its 203-member Assembly for nine years and has been active on numerous committees. He is active on the ISBA’s Civil Practice Committee where he speaks on and writes about topics in civil law. A Fellow and board member for 10 years of the Illinois Bar Foundation, he is a member of its Lawyers Care Fund.  

Appointed to the bench by the Illinois Supreme Court in October 2010, Judge Hartigan was elected to a six-year term in March 2012 and currently serves in the Fifth Municipal District in Bridgeview. He was a founding partner in the Chicago law firm of Hartigan & O’Connor, P.C., which concentrates in civil litigation, municipal, personal injury and real estate. He is an elected member of the American Board of Trial Advocates, which requires a minimum of 30 trials for acceptance. 

Judge Hartigan is a board member of Pillars Community Services and an executive board member of the Des Plaines Valley Boy Scouts. Previously a Lyons Township Supervisor, he is a former trustee of the Village of Western Springs and Lyons Township.

A past president of The John Marshall Law School Alumni Board, he is on the faculty as an adjunct professor. He received his J.D. from the school in 1975 and his bachelor’s degree from DePaul University in 1970.

The Illinois State Bar Association, with offices in Springfield and Chicago, provides professional services to Illinois lawyers, and education and services to the public through a website (illinoislawyerfinder.com), consumer brochures and the distribution of legal information.