The Honorable Debra B. Walker, a judge in the Circuit Court of Cook County, will be inducted as president of the Illinois Bar Foundation (IBF), the charitable arm of the Illinois State Bar Association (ISBA), at the organization’s 14^th Annual Gala on Friday, Oct.19, at the Four Seasons Hotel. Judge Walker will be the second woman president in the organization’s 61 year history.

Judge Walker, who sits in the court’s Domestic Relations Division, received her B.S. in Accounting from the University of Illinois Urbana in 1982, and her J.D. from the University of Illinois College of Law in 1987. Before being elected to the bench in November 2008, she was a partner at Clausen Miller P.C., concentrating in defending professional liability matters.

Judge Walker serves as vice chair on the Illinois Supreme Court Commission on Professionalism, and as a commissioner on the Illinois Supreme Court Access to Justice Commission. She is a past president of the Women’s Bar Association of Illinois, a past president of the North Michigan Avenue Business & Professional Women’s Network, and an active member of the Illinois State Bar Association and the Economic Club of Chicago.

A native of Carthage, Illinois, she now resides in Chicago’s Old Town neighborhood with her husband and two children.

The mission of the Illinois Bar Foundation is to ensure meaningful access to the justice system, especially for those with limited means, and to assist lawyers who can no longer support themselves due to incapacity. This year, the Foundation will distribute more than $425,000 in grants to legal aid organizations across the state of Illinois, and in Lawyers Care Fund support to attorneys and their families in need.

More information also is available at www.illinoisbarfoundation.org.