McGlynn appointed in 12th Judicial Circuit

The Illinois Supreme Court on Wednesday appointed Stephen P. McGlynn as Circuit Judge at large in the Twentieth Judicial Circuit. Mr. McGlynn, who had served before by appointment on the Fifth District Appellate Court, will fill the Circuit vacancy created by the resignation of Judge Michael O’ Malley. The appointment will take effect September 17 and will terminate December 3, 2012. Supreme Court Justice Lloyd A. Karmeier recommended Mr. McGlynn’s appointment after an application process which included review by a specially selected screening committee and interviews by Justice Karmeier of three finalists. Nineteen persons applied for the position, one withdrew and the remaining applicants were screened by the six-person committee who presented Justice Karmeier with the names of the three finalists. “I want to thank the Supreme Court and Justice Karmeier for the confidence they have placed in me, and the bipartisan selection committee that did its job in evaluating a number of very good people who applied,” said Mr. McGlynn. “I really enjoyed my prior tenure on the bench, and I’m very honored because I know that a judge can do a lot of good things, and it’s a marvelous way to serve my community.” Members of the screening committee were: Chairman, Don Bigham, a partner with Seibert & Bigham in Pinckneyville; Floyd Crowder, chairman of Crowder & Scoggins, Ltd in Columbia; Karl Dexheimer, of counsel with the firm Greensfelder, Hemker & Gale, P.C.; Jeff Kerkhover, partner with Fisher, Kerkhover & Coffey Law Office in Chester; Ms. Crystal May of Barkau & Unverfehrt, P.C. in Nashville and serving as assistant state’s attorney of Washington county; and William Stiehl, partner with Wimmer, Stiehl & McCarthy in Belleville. Mr. McGlynn, 48, was appointed by unanimous vote of the Illinois Supreme Court to Appellate Justice for the Fifth District effective July 2005. He authored more than 109 decisions for the Court and participated as a panelist on 390 separate matters on appeal involving a wide array of civil and criminal matters. He lost a bid for election to that seat in November 2006. After service on the Appellate Court, Mr. McGlynn returned to the practice of law at McGlynn & McGlynn, a law firm in Belleville which handles complex matters in the Illinois, Missouri and U.S. courts. The firm is listed in Martindale-Hubbell’s The Bar Register of Pre-Eminent Lawyers, a registry of those firms who have demonstrated the “highest level of legal ability” and maintained a “very high adherence to the professional standards of conduct, ethics, reliability and diligence.” Mr. McGlynn has represented clients in many jury trials in Illinois and Missouri, and participated as lead counsel in appellate matters before the U.S. Supreme Court, the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals and Illinois and Missouri state appellate courts. He has handled civil and criminal felony cases, transactional matters involving the creation of multimillion dollar business and sex and race discrimination cases and wrongful termination cases. He was appointed Special Assistant Attorney General of Illinois from 1996 to 2005, and represented the Illinois Department of Natural Resources and the Illinois Department of Transportation in abandoned mine reclamation and eminent domain cases. He also served as corporate counsel to the Kaskaskia Regional Port District, a special unit of government in Illinois with authority over use of the Kaskaskia River. Mr. McGlynn has been very active in numerous civic matters. He is a Life Member of the East St. Louis Chapter of the NAACP. He has been a contributor of pro bono work for the NAACP and indigent African-Americans who could not pay for legal representation in various matters. He was the recipient of the NAACP Humanitarian Award in 2004 and its Equal Justice for All Award in 2009. He serves as director and is chairman of the board of Catholic Social Services of Southern Illinois; and is chairman of the Review Board of the Catholic Diocese of Belleville, a body appointed by the Bishop to investigate and make recommendations on how to address any allegation of sexual abuse or impropriety with minors involving a member of the clergy. Mr. McGlynn received his Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Dayton with a major in political science and minors in philosophy and history. He studied abroad in Germany and Ireland. He received his juris doctor from the St. Louis University School of Law in 1987, where he was the recipient of the American Judicature Society’s American Jurisprudence Award in Advanced Commercial Transactions. He was admitted to practice law in Illinois in 1987 and also has been admitted to practice in Missouri, and in federal courts. He is married to Mary Anne (nee Lindauer) and the couple has a daughter, Dorothy.