Scotillo hides exculpatory evidence not me
Michael Toomin gets appellate seat vacated by Jill McNulty
Cook County Judge Michael P. Toomin has been appointed to a vacancy on the Appellate Court, 1st District, resulting from the retirement last month of Justice Jill K. McNulty.
Toomin, who will serve from Aug. 28 until Dec. 6, 2010, is a supervising judge in the Criminal Division and acting presiding judge. He was appointed to the court in 1980 and elected in 1984.
A 1967 graduate of the DePaul University College of Law, he was an assistant public defender for two years before beginning 11 years as a sole practitioner in the office of his father, Philip R. Toomin.
A member of the Illinois Supreme Court Rules Criminal Subcommittee from 1995 to 1997, Toomin was appointed to the Special Supreme Court Committee on Capital Cases in 1999 and named its chair in 2001.
He chaired the Committee on Criminal Law and Probation Administration of the Illinois Judicial Conference from 2002 to 2005. He is a commissioner of the Illinois Court Committee and the CLEAR initiative on reform of the Illinois Criminal Code.
McNulty, a 1960 graduate of the Northwestern University School of Law, was an associate at Ross, McGowan, Hardies & O'Keefe for four years. From 1973 to 1976, she was a legal consultant to the presiding judge of Cook County Juvenile Division.
Appointed an associate judge in 1979, McNulty was elected to the circuit court in 1982, and to the Appellate Court in 1990. She has taught juvenile law, family law, criminal law and criminal procedure at the Chicago-Kent College of Law.