The Attorney Registration and Disciplinary Commission (ARDC), the administrative agency that regulates Illinois lawyers, has filed its year 2023 Annual Report with the Supreme Court of Illinois. The report will be released to the public on Tuesday, April 30, 2024, when a copy is posted on the ARDC website. 

View the summary of the Annual Report entitled Highlights of the 2023 Annual Report.

The Annual Report provides complete and comprehensive statistics concerning the ARDC’s registration activities, disciplinary caseload, financial condition, and progress on various initiatives. Few professions account for their regulatory activity in such detail.

The year 2023 marked the final year of ARDC Administrator Jerome Larkin’s stewardship of the agency. Mr. Larkin retired at the end of the year, having served as Administrator since 2007 and having worked at the ARDC for 45 years. The ARDC’s new Administrator, Lea S. Gutierrez, was sworn in on October 19, 2023. The Annual Report contains a message from Ms. Gutierrez that includes her vision for the agency.

The 2023 Master Roll of Attorneys in Illinois had a total of 96,440 lawyers, reflecting a 0.8% increase over the previous year. There were 1,597 new-admittee lawyers added to the roll in 2023 and 1,609 Illinois lawyers transitioned to Retired status. While there are still more male lawyers than women lawyers in Illinois, for the first time, women lawyers in practice for less than five years outnumbered male lawyers in practice for less than five years 50.5% to 49.0%.

On the lawyer-discipline front, there were 4,575 requests for investigation received by the ARDC concerning 3,250 lawyers in 2023. The ARDC filed 42 formal disciplinary complaints before the ARDC’s Hearing Board, while 17 disciplinary and regulatory proceedings were filed directly in the Illinois Supreme Court. The Court disbarred 21 lawyers in 2023, placed 38 lawyers on suspension (with or without a term of probation), censured five lawyers, and reprimanded two.

The 2023 Annual Report includes a summary of the ARDC’s progress on its Education Initiative. In 2023, the ARDC’s website contained 38 on-demand, recorded webcasts providing 27 free hours of professional responsibility Minimum Continuing Legal Education (MCLE) credit. The ARDC issued 53,857 certificates of MCLE completion to Illinois lawyers in 2023, totaling 41,115 hours of professional responsibility MCLE credit earned. Additionally, ARDC staff lawyers gave 114 presentations to bar associations and law-related organizations during 2023 and provided research assistance and guidance regarding ethical issues in 2,536 calls to its Ethics Inquiry Program.

In its Annual Report, the ARDC also accounts to the Supreme Court for money received and spent. No tax money is used to fund the agency. All operating funds are taken from an annual registration fee paid by Illinois attorneys. By Supreme Court rule, lawyers pay an annual fee of $385. Of that amount, $95 is remitted to the Lawyers Trust Fund to fund legal services for lowincome persons; $25 funds the ARDC Client Protection Program to indemnify victims of lawyer misconduct; $25 is submitted to the Supreme Court’s Commission on Professionalism to help that entity’s efforts to promote civility and inclusion in the legal profession; $20 is sent to the Lawyers’ Assistance Program, an organization that helps lawyers, judges, law students, and their families with mental health issues; $10 is remitted to the Supreme Court’s Commission on Access to Justice to facilitate access to civil courts and administrative agencies for low-income and vulnerable Illinoisans; and the balance of the registration fee, $210, is used by the ARDC to pay for lawyer regulation. The ARDC’s Client Protection Program paid out $562,699 on 46 claims in 2023.

There are ordinarily seven ARDC Commissioners (although only six are serving as of the date of this release) – four members of the Illinois Bar and three non-lawyers, all appointed by the Supreme Court. The ARDC Chair is Timothy L. Bertschy of Dunlap. The Vice Chair is John H. Simpson of Chicago. The Commissioners, who receive no compensation for their services, create ARDC policies, establish an operating budget, appoint members of the Inquiry and Hearing Boards, and manage the Client Protection Program. Subject to the approval of, and appointment by, the Supreme Court, the Commissioners recommend the ARDC’s chief executive and regulatory officer, the Administrator. As noted, the Administrator is Lea S. Gutierrez.

There are two ARDC offices: One Prudential Plaza in Chicago and 3161 White Oaks Drive in Springfield.