Cook County Circuit Judge Sharon M. Sullivan watches as Chief Judge Timothy C. Evans presents an award plaque to her at the North Suburban Bar Association’s Judges’ Night on May 10 in Northbrook. The NSBA was honoring Sullivan for her years of work at the 2nd Municipal District Courthouse in Skokie before she became acting presiding judge of the County Division last July. After Evans finished reading the words on the plaque, he announced he was removing the word “acting” from her title. — Ralph Greenslade
When the North Suburban Bar Association asked Chief Cook County Circuit Judge Timothy C. Evans to present an award honoring Circuit Judge Sharon M. Sullivan for her work in the 2nd Municipal District, Evans agreed — but he wanted to include an honor of his own.
When he introduced Sullivan to the crowd gathered at the Renaissance Chicago North Shore Hotel in Northbrook, he took the opportunity to remove the word “acting” from her title and present it to the new presiding judge of the court’s County Division.
“She had the biggest smile on her face,” Evans said. “It was quite an exciting night, and it was nice to be able to present a pleasant surprise to her.”
Evans’ appointment came May 10, about 11 months after Sullivan moved to the Daley Center as the County Division’s acting presiding judge after serving in the Skokie Courthouse since 2000.
As the leading judge in the County Division, Sullivan oversees operations and the judges who hear cases across a wide array of matters — adoptions to tax objections, election contests to asset forfeiture, emancipations to mental health commitments.
Considering the variety, Sullivan said her first year as presiding judge has been filled with a lot of learning and engagement.
“It’s really interesting because it’s so varied in the types of cases we handle,” she said. “But I’ve been really impressed with the attorneys that practice in these subsets of law.”
When she first arrived at the Daley Center, Sullivan said, she visited with lawyers in various practice areas who would introduce themselves and share ideas in passing about ways to make their practices and the court process more efficient.
For example, she said, forms that are important in adoption cases have recently been updated with the help of lawyers who need and use them. She has also worked with the Cook County circuit clerk’s office to make them available online.
“It’s a little thing, but it’s important to the practitioners to have that,” she said.
Increasing efficiency where possible has been Sullivan’s focus since coming into the division. But she said she wouldn’t have been able to start acting on identifiable inefficiencies so quickly without the lawyers’ help.
“I’ve really appreciated the bar’s input,” she said. “It’s always great to see how interested they are in making sure things are done right.”
Her tweaks haven’t stopped with adoption cases. She’s also reorganized the civil forfeiture calendar so judges hear cases likely headed to trial and cases that only need a continuance on separate days.
It’s a move that has made a noticeable difference on that calendar, Associate Judge James Robert Carroll said, because judges don’t have to continuously switch gears through the same call — and lawyers don’t have to spend extra time hearing about other cases before they get their few minutes in court.
“Since becoming the presiding judge, she has looked at everything we’ve done in a way to make things better for the lawyers who practice in these cases but also the judges who preside over them,” Carroll said.
“She is spending a lot of time in reviewing how the division operates, and she’s really doing everything she can to make it run as efficiently as possible. I feel really lucky to be able to work with her,” he said.
Some of Sullivan’s County Division colleagues credit her effectiveness over the past year to a genuine concern for the cases that get heard in the division.
“She’s just eager to help out. She’s extremely present,” Associate Judge Carol A. Kipperman said. “You can come to her with any issue you may have. She has an open-door policy.”
Sullivan said the division’s mental health caseload is one of her next target areas.
The court has a statutory responsibility to hold mental health commitment hearings in a hospital to the extent that it’s possible, Sullivan said, so the court is exploring the possibility of using technology to have doctors testify remotely in some cases to make it more convenient for everyone involved.
“Many of the doctors are assigned to hospitals, and it’s difficult for them to come all the way down here to the Daley Center to testify,” Evans said. “Even though it’s important, they’re saving lives where they are in the hospital.
“She’s been innovative in terms of wanting to use video proceedings to help get doctors to testify in these cases and make it more convenient for the witnesses for the people who are going through the process of the mental health proceedings.”
The 1980 graduate of Loyola University Chicago School of Law has been on the bench since 1992. Her father, the late former Cook County circuit judge Harold W. Sullivan, started his judicial career as a judge in the Village Court of Skokie in 1960.
After the state restructured its judicial system in 1964, he served as the presiding judge in the 2nd Municipal District in Skokie for 35 years until stepping down in 1999.
Sullivan said she is still getting adjusted to the administrative aspect of her new role, and she credits guidance on administrative duties from Circuit Judge Shelley Sutker-Dermer, the current presiding judge in the 2nd Municipal District.
Evans said he was confident in his pick, recalling how Sullivan would frequently fill in for Sutker-Dermer on administrative projects in Skokie when she would go on vacation.
“I needed somebody who could keep a lot of balls in the air without letting them drop,” Evans said. “Since she’s been there, she’s done a fantastic job.”