The Illinois Supreme Court has appointed Bernard M. Judge of Chicago to serve as a Commissioner of the Attorney Registration & Disciplinary Commission (ARDC). The ARDC is the Supreme Court agency that has administrative authority over more than 90,000 Illinois lawyers and investigates allegations of attorney misconduct. The order of appointment, dated April 12, 2012, is effective immediately.

Mr. Judge is a nationally respected newspaper executive who has served in management positions at the Chicago Tribune, the Chicago Sun-Times andthe Chicago Daily Law Bulletin. He began his career as a reporter for the City New Bureau of Chicago in 1965. Soon thereafter, he joined the Tribuneand covered state and federal courts and wrote about state government and politics. He became the Tribune’sCity Editor in 1974 and Assistant Managing Editor in 1979.  Two investigative reporting projects he directed as City Editor won the Pulitzer Prize. Mr. Judge served as Editor and General Manager of the City News Bureau in 1983-1984, before he joined the Sun-Times as metropolitan editor and later as associate editor. In 1988, he was hired by the Law Bulletin Publishing Company as editor and vice president of Chicago Daily Law Bulletin, and became the Law Bulletin’s publisher in 2001. He also served as the editor and publisher of the Chicago Lawyer magazine. Mr. Judge retired in July 2007 and, since that time, has been a non-lawyer Hearing Board officer for the ARDC, serving as a trial judge in lawyer disciplinary cases.

Mr. Judge served as a Pulitzer Prize juror in 2000-2001. He has been inducted into the Chicago Journalism Hall of Fame, received a lifetime achievement award from the Headline Club, garnered the Excellence in Journalism award from the City Club of Chicago, and received the James C. Craven Freedom of the Press Award from the Illinois Press Association. Mr. Judge is aboard member and past Chairman of the Constitutional Rights Foundation of Chicago and was a board member and past Chairman of the Illinois First Amendment Center in Springfield. He was inducted into the Fenwick High School Hall of Fame in 2003. Mr. Judge has been a journalism instructor at the Medill School of Journalism, Northwestern University, Evanston. He is married to Kimbeth Wehrli Judge, has three grown children, and lives in Chicago

Mr. Judge succeeds John Carroll, a non-lawyer, who served as an ARDC Commissioner for nine years. Mr. Carroll of LaGrange, distinguished himself in the business world as the President and Owner of Carroll Scientific, Inc., a manufacturing firm.

The ARDC is composed of seven members, three of whom are non-lawyers. Attorney R. Michael Henderson of Peoria is the Commission Chairman and the Vice-Chair is attorney Joan Myers Eagle of Chicago. The ARDC Administrator is Jerome Larkin.

Commissioners receive no compensation for their services. The Commissioners establish ARDC policies, appoint members of the ARDC Inquiry and Hearing Boards, establish the organization’s budget, manage the Client Protection Program to reimburse victims of lawyer misconduct and, subject to the approval of the Supreme Court, appoint the Commission's chief executive officer, the Administrator. More than one hundred full time employees and over one hundred lawyer and non-lawyer volunteers work for the ARDC. All funds expended by the agency are from annual fees paid by Illinois attorneys. There are no tax dollars used to support the disciplinary system. There are two ARDC offices: One Prudential Plaza in Chicago and the One North Old Capitol Plaza in Springfield.