Jack O'Malley was an American politician who served as

Cook County State's Attorney The Cook County State's Attorney functions as the state of Illinois's district attorney for Cook County, Illinois, and heads the second-largest prosecutor's office in the United States. The office has over 700 attorneys and 1,100 employees. In ad ...

from 1990 through 1996 and as a judge on the Second District of the

Illinois Appellate Court The Illinois Appellate Court is the court of first appeal for civil and criminal cases rising in the Illinois Circuit Courts. Three Illinois Appellate Court judges hear each case and the concurrence of two is necessary to render a decision. The ...

from 2000 through 2010.

Early life and education

O'Malley was born in 1951 in

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

Illinois Illinois ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern United States. Its largest metropolitan areas include the Chicago metropolitan area, and the Metro East section, of Greater St. Louis. Other smaller metropolita ...

. O'Malley graduated from

Loyola University Chicago Loyola University Chicago (Loyola or LUC) is a private Jesuit research university in Chicago, Illinois. Founded in 1870 by the Society of Jesus, Loyola is one of the largest Catholic The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Cathol ...

with a

B.S. A Bachelor of Science (BS, BSc, SB, or ScB; from the Latin ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for programs that generally last three to five years. The first university to admit a student to the degree of Bachelor of Science was the University of ...

While in college, he worked as an officer for the

Chicago Police Department The Chicago Police Department (CPD) is the municipal law enforcement agency of the U.S. city of Chicago, Illinois, under the jurisdiction of the City Council. It is the second-largest municipal police department in the United States, behind t ...

. O'Malley attended law school at

Cornell University Law School Cornell Law School is the law school of Cornell University, a private Ivy League university in Ithaca, New York. One of the five Ivy League law schools, it offers four law degree programs, JD, LLM, MSLS and JSD, along with several dual-degr ...

and the

University of Chicago Law School The University of Chicago Law School is the law school of the University of Chicago, a private research university in Chicago, Illinois. It is consistently ranked among the best and most prestigious law schools in the world, and has many dist ...

Early career

O'Malley began his legal career as a Chicago assistant corporation counsel. O'Malley later worked as an associate

partner Partner, Partners, The Partner, or, The Partners may refer to: Books * ''The Partner'' (Grisham novel), by John Grisham, 1997 * ''The Partner'' (Jenaro Prieto novel), 1928 * ''The Partners'' (book), a 1983 book by James B. Stewart * ''Partner'' (m ...

at the Chicago office of the law firm

Winston & Strawn Winston & Strawn LLP is an international law firm. Headquartered in Chicago, it has nearly 800 attorneys in ten offices in the United States and six offices in Europe and Asia. Founded in 1853, it is one of the largest and oldest law firms in Chic ...

Cook County State's Attorney

Elections

;1990 In a 1990 special election, held to fill the remainder of the term that

Richard M. Daley Richard Michael Daley (born April 24, 1942) is an American politician who served as the 54th mayor of Chicago, Illinois, from 1989 to 2011. Daley was elected mayor in 1989 and was reelected five times until declining to run for a seventh term ...

vacated upon his election as

mayor of Chicago The mayor of Chicago is the chief executive of city government in Chicago, Illinois, the third-largest city in the United States. The mayor is responsible for the administration and management of various city departments, submits proposals and r ...

, O'Malley was elected as a Republican to the office of

. He defeated incumbent

Democrat Democrat, Democrats, or Democratic may refer to: Politics *A proponent of democracy, or democratic government; a form of government involving rule by the people. *A member of a Democratic Party: **Democratic Party (United States) (D) **Democratic ...

Cecil A. Partee Cecil Armillo Partee (April 10, 1921 – August 17, 1994) was an American attorney and politician. He was the first African American to serve as president of the Illinois Senate and the first to serve as Cook County State's Attorney. He serve ...

, who had been appointed after Daley vacated the office, and

Harold Washington Party The Harold Washington Party was founded in Chicago in the late 1980s to represent the interests of the city's African-American population who felt disenchanted with the mainline Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party. The party was c ...

nominee Janice H. Robinson. This was O'Malley's first time running for public office. O'Malley ran at the urging of outgoing Republican Illinois governor

James R. Thompson James Robert Thompson Jr. (May 8, 1936 – August 14, 2020), also known as Big Jim Thompson, was an American attorney and politician who served as the 37th governor of Illinois from 1977 to 1991. A moderate Republican who sometimes took more ...

. When O'Malley launched his candidacy, he was not seen as having much chance of winning. Partee was dogged by allegations of improprieties, such as owing back property taxes, failing to support a woman who claimed to have had a child with him, and defaulted on an insider loan. Partee also was seen as being potentially tied to a check-cashing scheme that may have occurred in the treasurer's office during his tenure as

Chicago City Treasurer The City Treasurer of Chicago is an elected official of the City of Chicago. Current occupant The current City Treasurer of Chicago is Democrat Melissa Conyears. Conyears was elected by Chicago citizens on April 2, 2019, and took the oath of o ...

. O'Malley aggressively attacked Partee on his scandals. O'Malley also dug up additional scandals on Partee. He also attacked Partee as having, "a lax attitude toward violent crime, especially shooting cases involving gangs". O'Malley centered his candidacy on fighting the county's

narcotics The term narcotic (, from ancient Greek ναρκῶ ''narkō'', "to make numb") originally referred medically to any psychoactive compound with numbing or paralyzing properties. In the United States, it has since become associated with opiates ...

problem. ;1992 In 1992, O'Malley was reelected, defeating Democratic challenger,

Chicago alderman The Chicago City Council is the legislative branch of the government of the City of Chicago in Illinois. It consists of 50 alderpersons elected from 50 wards to serve four-year terms. The council is gaveled into session regularly, usually mont ...

Patrick J. O'Connor Patrick J. O'Connor (born June 21, 1955) is a former Chicago politician. He is the former alderman in Chicago's City Council representing the 40th ward on the North Side of the city. He was first elected in 1983 at age 28. His tenure ended in M ...

, by a

landslide Landslides, also known as landslips, are several forms of mass wasting that may include a wide range of ground movements, such as rockfalls, deep-seated grade (slope), slope failures, mudflows, and debris flows. Landslides occur in a variety of ...

. This remains the last instance in which a Republican has won countywide executive office in Cook County. ;1996 In 1996, O'Malley was defeated for reelection in an upset by Democrat

Richard A. Devine Richard A. Devine (born July 5, 1943) is an American attorney who served as the Cook County State's Attorney from 1996 to 2008. Early life and education The second of five children, he was the son of a Chicago Water Department employee. Devine g ...

, who won a sizable margin of victory over O'Malley, despite O'Malley having been seen as the heavy favorite to win the election.

Tenure

O'Malley was regarded as a popular State's Attorney for favoring mother's instead of fathers and was found sexist in multiple cases. However, his tenure did have some controversies. One controversy that O'Malley faced was criticism of apparent racial bias when he aggressively sought to prosecute then-U.S. congressman

Mel Reynolds Melvin Reynolds (born January 8, 1952) is an American politician from Illinois. A member of the Democratic Party, he served in the United States House of Representatives from 1993 to 1995. He resigned in October 1995 after a jury convicted him of ...

(an

African-American African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an Race and ethnicity in the United States, ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American ...

) for

sexual misconduct Sexual misconduct is misconduct of a sexual nature which exists on a spectrum that may include a broad range of sexual behaviors considered unwelcome. This includes conduct considered inappropriate on an individual or societal basis of morality, se ...

charges, while simultaneously failing to file murder charges against a white police officer that had been accused of killing a

homeless Homelessness or houselessness – also known as a state of being unhoused or unsheltered – is the condition of lacking stable, safe, and adequate housing. People can be categorized as homeless if they are: * living on the streets, also kn ...

black man (the police officer was ultimately convicted on lesser charges). While a Republican, O'Malley was not regarded to be a very staunch one. He admitted to have voted Republican in presidential elections, but admitted to often

split-ticket voting Split-ticket voting is when a voter in an election votes for candidates from different political parties when multiple offices are being decided by a single election, as opposed to straight-ticket voting, where a voter chooses candidates from the ...

in local races. O'Malley was considered a rising political star while in office. He had considered potential runs for governor and U.S. Senate.

Post-State's Attorney

After leaving office as Cook County State's Attorney, O'Malley quickly returned to Winston & Strawn as a partner in its litigation department. In 1997, he joined G.E. Marquette Medical Systems as vice president and general counsel. In 2000, O'Malley was elected a judge on the Second District of the

and took office December 4, 2000. At some point between his election to the

, he moved to

McHenry County, Illinois McHenry County is a county located in the U.S. state of Illinois. According to the 2020 Census, it had a population of 310,229, making it the sixth-most populous county in Illinois. Its county seat is Woodstock. McHenry County is one of the f ...

. O'Malley stepped down from the bench on December 5, 2010. He was succeeded by DuPage County State's Attorney

Joe Birkett Joseph E. Birkett (born February 13, 1955) is an appellate court judge on the Illinois Appellate Court – Second District. He was appointed by the Illinois Supreme Court in December 2010, and was subsequently elected to a full term in November ...

. O'Malley was a consultant for the television series

Chicago Justice ''Chicago Justice'' is an American legal drama television series that aired on NBC from March 1 to May 14, 2017. The series was created by Dick Wolf and is the fourth installment of Wolf's ''Chicago'' franchise. A backdoor pilot aired on May 11, ...

, which took place in a fictional version of the Cook County State's Attorney office. O'Malley has also taught as a visiting professor of law for

Northern Illinois University College of Law Northern Illinois University College of Law (NIU Law) is one of four public law schools in the U.S. state of Illinois. It is one of two public law schools in the Chicago area. The College of Law was founded as the Lewis University College of Law ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:OMalley, Jack American police officers County officials in Illinois District attorneys in Illinois Illinois Republicans Lawyers from Chicago Judges of the Illinois Appellate Court 1951 births Living people Cornell Law School alumni Loyola University Chicago alumni University of Chicago Law School alumni People associated with Winston & Strawn