Cook County Circuit Judge Debra Walker received the 2017 National Conference of Bar Foundations (NCBF) Excellence Award at the NCBF midyear meeting in Miami in February. Judge Walker is the third person and first judge to receive this award, which recognizes an individual who has made an outstanding contribution to law-related philanthropy.

The NCBF is an association of professional staff and volunteer board members from bar foundations across the country that convenes regularly to share programming ideas and best practices. The NCBF hosts bi-annual meetings held in conjunction with the American Bar Association.

In 2008, Judge Walker was elected to the Cook County Circuit Court. She serves in the Domestic Relations Division. Prior to being elected to the bench, she was a partner at Clausen Miller, P.C., where she concentrated on professional liability matters.

Judge Walker has a long record of public service and leadership in the legal profession. A regular attendee at NCBF meetings, she served one term on the NCBF Board of Trustees, which included her service as chair of the Awards Committee and as a member of the Program Committee. She also participated as a presenter at NCBF midyear and annual meetings. Judge Walker is a past President of the Illinois Bar Foundation. She served longer than any other board member in the 65-year history of the IBF, holding the offices of Secretary and Vice President, as well as Chair of the Fellows program. She was recently elected to the Illinois Judges Foundation board of directors.

In addition to her bar foundation service, Judge Walker is a past president of the Women’s Bar Association of Illinois, and is an active member of the Illinois State Bar Association and the Bench & Bar Section Council. She has served on Illinois Supreme Court’s Commission on Professionalism since its inception in 2005; she currently chairs that Commission. In 2012, she was appointed to the Court’s newly created Access to Justice Commission on which she continues to serve.

“I’ve always sought to serve others and I saw the bench as a way to serve our fellow citizens,” Judge Walker said. “I think it’s the ultimate in public service for people to give up a law partnership and go on the bench.” 