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Suzanne Conlon

Nonpartisan

United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois

Tenure

2004 - Present

Years in position

21

Prior offices:

United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois

Years in office: 1988 - 2004

Education

Bachelor's

Mundelein College, 1963

Law

Loyola University, Chicago School of Law, 1968

Graduate

University of London, 1971

Personal

Birthplace

Portland, OR

Suzanne B. Conlon is anArticle III federal judge for theUnited States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, one of the largest federal courts in the nation. She joined the court in 1988 after being nominated by PresidentRonald Reagan. She is serving onsenior status.

Early life and education

Judge Conlon received her B.A. from Mundelein College in 1963. She graduated from Loyola University Chicago School of Law with herJ.D. in 1968. She also received a Diploma in Foreign and Comparative Law from the University of London in 1971.^[1]

Professional career

• Law clerk, Hon.Edwin Robson, U.S. District Court,Northern District of Illinois, 1968-1971
• Private practice, Chicago, Illinois, 1972-1975
• Faculty, DePaul University, 1972-1975
• Assistant professor, 1972-1973
• Lecturer, 1973-1975
• Assistant U.S. attorney, Northern District of Illinois, 1976-1977, 1982-1986
• Assistant U.S. attorney,Central District of California, 1977-1982
• Assistant general counsel, U.S. Sentencing Commission, 1986
• Executive director, U.S. Sentencing Commission, 1986-1987
• Special counsel to Associate U.S. Attorney General Stephen S. Trott, 1988
• Adjunct professor, Northwestern University School of Law, 1991-present^[1]

Judicial career

Northern District of Illinois

Conlon was nominated by PresidentRonald Reagan on April 2, 1987, to a judgeship vacated byThomas McMillen. Conlon was confirmed by the JS Senate on February 19, 1988, on a senate vote and received commission onFebruary 22, 1988. Conlon assumedsenior status onApril 17, 2004.^[1] Conlon was succeeded in this position byVirginia Kendall.

Judicial style

Conlon has been rated by lawyers as a judge that has the lowest amount of pending cases in the entire Northern District of Illinois court, but has been criticized by other lawyers over her temperament. Lawyers have said to accomplish her goal of a small docket, Conlon makes inappropriate demands on attorneys. Attorneys have been critical on Conlon's scheduling, claiming it can be unrealistic, but is nonetheless enforced inflexibly. The Chicago Bar Association and many judicial rating websites have claimed she has unacceptable behavior for a federal judge. It has been suggested that she has the tendency to use the jury or others to call out attorneys that are late.^[2]

Conlon's temperament has been noted in a couple of notable controversies during her tenure as a federal judge. First, she fired a law clerk for refusing to carry her lunch up a flight of stairs when the elevator was not working. Second, she fired a law clerk on September 11, 2001 for complying with a evacuation order on the Senator Everett Dirksen Federal Building in Downtown Chicago.^[3]

See also

• United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois

External links

Suggest a link

• Rate Judge Conlon on the Robing Room
• Conlon Biography from theFederal Judicial Center

Footnotes

v • e Federal judges who have served theUnited States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois
Active judges	Chief Judge: Virginia Kendall  •  Robert Dow  •  Sharon Coleman  •  Edmond E. Chang  •  Jorge L. Alonso  •  Franklin U. Valderrama  •  John Tharp, Jr.  •  Mary Rowland  •  Sara Lee Ellis  •  Andrea R. Wood  •  Manish Shah  •  Iain D. Johnston  •  John Robert Blakey  •  LaShonda A. Hunt  •  Martha Pacold  •  Steven Seeger  •  John Kness  •  Jeffrey Cummings  •  Sunil Harjani  •  Lindsay Jenkins  •  Jeremy Daniel  •  Georgia Alexakis  •  April Perry
Senior judges	Marvin Aspen  •  Elaine Bucklo  •  Suzanne Conlon  •  Robert Gettleman  •  Joan Gottschall  •  Ronald Guzman  •  Frederick Kapala  •  Matthew Kennelly  •  Charles Kocoras  •  Joan Lefkow  •  George Marovich  •  Charles Norgle  •  Rebecca Pallmeyer  •  Philip Reinhard  •  James Zagel  •  Thomas M. Durkin  •
Magistrate judges	Jeffrey Cole  •  Susan Cox  •  Maria Valdez  •  Sheila Finnegan  •  Jeffrey Gilbert  •  Young Kim (Illinois)  •  Daniel G. Martin  •  David Weisman  •  Gabriel Fuentes  •  Lisa Jensen  •  Beth Jantz  •  Heather McShain  •  Margaret Schneider  •
Former Article III judges	James Holderman  •  Wayne Andersen  •  Ruben Castillo  •  David Coar  •  John Darrah  •  Samuel Der-Yeghiayan  •  John F. Grady  •  William Hart  •  William Hibbler  •  Harry Leinenweber  •  George Lindberg  •  Blanche Manning  •  James B. Moran  •  John Nordberg  •  Ann Williams (Federal judge)  •  Paul Plunkett  •  Joel Flaum  •  Brian Duff  •  Ilana Rovner  •  Mark Filip  •  Milton Shadur  •  Thomas Drummond  •  Henry Williams Blodgett  •  William Bauer  •  Philip Tone  •  Peter Stenger Grosscup  •  Christian Cecil Kohlsaat  •  Solomon Hicks Bethea  •  Kenesaw Mountain Landis  •  George Albert Carpenter  •  Adam Cliffe  •  James Herbert Wilkerson  •  John Peter Barnes  •  George Johnson (Illinois)  •  William Harrison Holly  •  Philip Leo Sullivan  •  Michael Igoe  •  William Lynch (Illinois)  •  James Alesia  •  Richard Austin  •  Nicholas Bua  •  William Campbell (Illinois)  •  John Crowley (Illinois)  •  Bernard Decker  •  Susan Getzendanner  •  Julius Hoffman  •  Alfred Kirkland  •  Winfred Knoch  •  Walter LaBuy  •  George Leighton  •  Abraham Marovitz  •  Prentice Marshall  •  Frank McGarr  •  Richard McLaren  •  Thomas McMillen  •  Julius Miner  •  Alexander Napoli  •  James B. Parsons  •  Joseph Perry (Illinois)  •  Edwin Robson  •  Stanley Roszkowski  •  Elwyn Shaw  •  Hubert Will  •  Charles Woodward  •  Gary Feinerman  •  John Z. Lee (Illinois)  •  Nancy Maldonado  •
Former Chief judges	Marvin Aspen  •  Ruben Castillo  •  John F. Grady  •  Charles Kocoras  •  James B. Moran  •  Rebecca Pallmeyer  •  John Peter Barnes  •  Philip Leo Sullivan  •  William Campbell (Illinois)  •  Frank McGarr  •  James B. Parsons  •  Edwin Robson  •

v • e Federal judges nominated byRonald Reagan
1981	Bartlett •Beam •Becker •Bork •Cacheris •Cardamone •Chapman •Coughenour •Cox •Crow •Cyr •Doumar •Eschbach •Forrester •Garwood •Gibson •Glasser •Hall •Hamilton •Head •Jones •Kiser •Krenzler •Lee •Magnuson •McLaughlin •Miner •Moore •Nowlin •O'Connor •Pierce •Posner •Potter •Russell •Ryan •Shabaz •Sprizzo •Stevens •Waters •Wilhoit •Wilkins •Winter
1982	Acker •Acosta •Altimari •Bell •Bissell •Black •Bullock •Caldwell •Coffey •Contie •Coyle •Dowd •Fagg •Fong •Fox •Gadbois •Gibson •Ginsburg •Hart •Higginbotham •Hogan •Irving •Jackson •Jolly •Kanne •Kovachevich •Krupansky •Lynch •Mansmann •McNamara •Mencer •Mentz •Mihm •Moody •Nordberg •Paul •Pieras •Plunkett •Porfilio •Potter •Pratt •Rafeedie •Restani •Roberts •Scalia •Selya •Telesca •Wellford
1983	Baldock •Barbour •Barry •Bowman •Carman •Carter •Curran •Davis •Dorsey •Feldman •Fish •Flaum •Gibbons •Hallanan •Harris •Hinojosa •Hull •Hupp •Katz •Keenan •Kelly •Kram •Laffitte •Limbaugh, Sr. •Limbaugh, Sr. •Milburn •Nesbitt •Nevas •O'Neill •Rymer •Sharp •Starr •Vinson •Vukasin •Wexler • Woods
1984	Barker •Beezer •Biggers •Billings •Bissell •Boyle •Brewster •Browning •DiCarlo •Duhe •Garcia •George •Hall •Hargrove •Higgins •Hill •Holland •Ideman •Jarvis •Keller •Leavy •Lee •Legge •Leisure •Little •Livaudais •Longobardi •McKibben •Milburn •Newman •Norgle •Prado •Rea •Rosenblatt •Rovner •Scirica •Smith, Jr. •Sneeden •Stotler •Suhrheinrich •Torruella •Wiggins •Wilkinson
1985	Alley •Altimari •Anderson •Aquilino •Archer •Arnold •Baldock •Batchelder •Battey •Broomfield •Brown •Brown •Brunetti •Buckley •Cobb •Conmy •Cowen •Davidson •Dimmick •Duff •Easterbrook •Edgar •Farnan •Fernandez •Fitzpatrick •Fuste •Greene •Gunn •Guy •Hall •Hilton •Holderman •Hughes •Johnson •Jones •Korman •Kozinski •La Plata •Leinenweber •Letts •Lovell •Ludwig •Maloney •Mansmann •Marcus •McDonald •Meredith •Miller •Mills •Miner •Motz •Nelson •Noonan •Porfilio •Revercomb •Rhoades •Ripple •Rodriguez •Rosenbaum •Roth •Ryan •Sam •Scott •Sentelle •Silberman •Sporkin •Stanton •Stapleton •Strand •Strom •Tacha •Tevrizian •Thompson •Todd •Tsoucalas •Walker •Walter •Weber •Williams •Wilson •Wingate •Wolf •Wollman •Young •Zloch
1986	Anderson •Boggs •Bryan •Cedarbaum •Cholakis •Conway •Davies •Dearie •Dubina •Duggan •Edmondson •Fawsett •Fitzwater •Gex •Graham •Hackett •Hansen •Henderson •Hittner •Howard •Jensen •Kay •Kleinfeld •Kosik •Lagueux •Lechner •Magill •Mahoney •Manion •McAvoy •McQuade •Norris •O'Scannlain •Rehnquist •Ryskamp •Scalia •Selya •Simpson •Smalkin •Spencer •Stiehl •Wilkins •Williams •Woodlock •Zatkoff
1987	Alesia •Beam •Bell •Conboy •Cowen •Cummings •Daronco •Doty •Dwyer •Ebel •Ellis •Gadola •Gawthrop •Greenberg •Harrington •Howard •Hoyt •Hutchinson •Kanne •Kelly •Larimer •Leavy •Lew •Marsh •Mayer •McKinney •Michel •Mukasey •Musgrave •Niemeyer •Parker •Phillips •Politan •Pro •Raggi •Reasoner •Reed •Scirica •Sentelle • Smith •Smith •Stadtmueller •Standish •Tinder •Torres •Trott •Turner •Van Antwerpen •Voorhees •Webb •Whipple •Wolin •Wolle •Wood •Zagel
1988	Arcara •Babcock •Brorby •Butler •Cambridge •Camp •Conlon •Cox •Dubois •Duhe •Ezra •Forester •Friedman •Garza •Hutton •Jordan •Kennedy •Lake •Lamberth •Lifland •Lozano •Marovich •Nygaard •Patterson •Schell •Smith •Smith •Tilley •Waldman •Zilly

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