ARDC Announces Promotions and New Hires

Jerome Larkin, the administrator of the Attorney Registration & Disciplinary Commission (ARDC) of the Supreme Court of Illinois, the entity that investigates and prosecutes attorney misconduct, has announced the following promotions and new hires at the ARDC. The changes are the result of months of planning and are spurred by various forces, including the broadening of the ARDC’s mission to include education and outreach, shifts in discipline caseloads, and retirements from the ARDC’s workforce.  

Group managers Peter Rotskoff, Althea Welsh, and Scott Renfroe were named deputy administrators of the ARDC. Rotskoff, deputy administrator of litigation, will continue to be based in the ARDC’s Springfield office. Welsh, deputy administrator of intake and administration, and Renfroe, deputy administrator of appeals, will be based in Chicago.  

Senior litigation attorney Lea Gutierrez and litigation attorney Jonathan Wier were named managers of litigation groups. Gutierrez also continues to head the ARDC’s diversity and inclusion initiative. Senior attorney Myrrha Guzman has been promoted to group manager in the intake division, as has Christine Anderson, who will handle those managerial duties in addition to her work as director of probation and lawyer deferral services. Former litigation manager Melissa Smart becomes the ARDC’s director of education, and senior appellate counsel Athena Taite has assumed the additional role of director of professional development.

Additionally, the ARDC has hired Matthew Lango from the City of Chicago’s Commission on Human Relations to become a manager of one of the four litigation groups in the Chicago office. Attorney Thomas Sukowicz has returned to the ARDC, after having retired from private practice, to work in the intake division. 

Finally, the ARDC has added four new litigation attorneys. Richard Gleason, Rory Quinn, and Michael Rusch join the ARDC from private practice after having all served as Cook County Assistant State’s Attorneys, and Patrick Bernard comes over from the Illinois Department of Professional Regulation. 

The ARDC is composed of seven commissioners, three of whom are non-lawyers. Attorney David F. Rolewick of Wheaton is the commission chairman. Commissioners receive no compensation for their services. More than 90 full-time employees and over 100 lawyer and non-lawyer volunteers work for the ARDC. All funds expended by the agency are from annual registration fees paid by Illinois attorneys. There are no tax dollars used to support the disciplinary system.  There are two ARDC offices: One Prudential Plaza, Suite 1500, in Chicago and 3161 West White Oaks Drive, Suite 301, in Springfield.