Mary Ann McMorrow (née Grohwin; January 16, 1930 – February 23, 2013) was an

Illinois Supreme Court The Supreme Court of Illinois is the state supreme court, the highest court of the State of Illinois. The court's authority is granted in Article VI of the current Illinois Constitution, which provides for seven justices elected from the five ap ...

chief justice.

Career

Mary Ann Grohwin was born to Roman and Emily Grohwin and grew up in a Roman Catholic household on the northwest side of Chicago. She attended Rosary College, now known as Dominican University. She received her law degree at

Loyola University Chicago School of Law Loyola University Chicago School of Law is the law school of Loyola University Chicago, in Illinois. Established in 1909, by the Society of Jesus, the Roman Catholic order of the Jesuits, the School of Law is located in downtown Chicago. Loyol ...

and was admitted practice law in Illinois in 1953. She was employed by the law firm of Riordan & Linklater. She was appointed Assistant

State's Attorney In the United States, a district attorney (DA), county attorney, state's attorney, prosecuting attorney, commonwealth's attorney, or state attorney is the chief prosecutor and/or chief law enforcement officer representing a U.S. state in a loc ...

Cook County Cook County is the most populous county in the U.S. state of Illinois and the second-most-populous county in the United States, after Los Angeles County, California. More than 40% of all residents of Illinois live within Cook County. As of 20 ...

, assigned to the Criminal Division, and was the first woman to prosecute felony cases in Cook County. She was elected a Judge of the

Circuit Court of Cook County The Circuit Court of Cook County is the largest of the 24 judicial circuits in Illinois as well as one of the largest unified court systems in the United States — second only in size to the Superior Court of Los Angeles County since that court ...

in 1976. By order of the Supreme Court of

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 ...

, McMorrow was assigned to 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 ...

in 1985 and elected to that court in 1986. She was the first woman elected to serve as chairperson of the Executive Committee of the Appellate Court. She was elected to the Supreme Court of Illinois in 1992, the first woman to serve in its 173-year history. With her election as Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Illinois in May 2002, she became the first woman to head any of the three branches of state government.

Awards

She was the 1991 recipient of the "Medal of Excellence" award from

's Alumni Association. She also was awarded the Chicago Bar Association's Justice

John Paul Stevens John Paul Stevens (April 20, 1920 – July 16, 2019) was an American lawyer and jurist who served as an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States from 1975 to 2010. At the time of his retirement, he was the second-oldes ...

Award and the 1996 The Fellows of the Illinois Bar Foundation award for Distinguished Service to Law and Society. Mary Ann McMorrow was inducted as a Laureate of

The Lincoln Academy of Illinois The Lincoln Academy of Illinois is a not-for-profit, non-partisan organization dedicated to recognizing contributions made by living Illinoisans. Named for Abraham Lincoln, the Academy administers the ''Order of Lincoln'', the highest award given ...

and awarded the Order of Lincoln (the State’s highest honor) by the Governor of Illinois in 2007 in the area of Government and Law.

Retirement

Justice McMorrow retired from the bench on July 5, 2006.Justice Mary Ann McMorrow announces her retirement
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Association memberships

Chief Justice McMorrow was a member of the: *

Illinois State Bar Association The Illinois State Bar Association (ISBA) is among largest voluntary state bar associations in the United States. Approximately 28,000 lawyers are members of the ISBA. Unlike some state bar associations, in which membership is mandatory, ISBA memb ...

and

Chicago Bar Association Founded in 1874, the Chicago Bar Association (CBA) is a voluntary bar association with over 20,000 members. Like other bar associations, it concerns itself with professional ethics, networking among members, and continuing legal education. It is ...

s * Women's Bar Association of Illinois *

American Inns of Court American Inns of Court (AIC) are designed to improve the skills, professionalism and ethics of the bench and bar. An American Inn of Court is an amalgam of judges, lawyers, and in some cases, law professors and law students. Each Inn meets approx ...

(Master Bencher) *

American Judicature Society The American Judicature Society (AJS) is an independent, non-partisan membership organization working nationally to protect the integrity of the American justice system. AJS's membership — including judges, lawyers, and members of the public — ...

National Association of Women Judges National Association of Women Judges (NAWJ) is an American professional organization founded in 1979. Members are lawyers and women judges who are dedicated to preserving judicial independence to women, minorities and other historically disfavor ...

* Illinois Judges' Association (Board of Directors)

Death

Justice McMorrow died on February 23, 2013, at Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Chicago, aged 83, from undisclosed causes. She was married to Emmett McMorrow; the couple had one child, a daughter, Mary Ann (born 1963).

References

External links

Mary Ann McMorrow's biodata at the Illinois Supreme Court website
{{DEFAULTSORT:McMorrow, Mary Ann 1930 births 2013 deaths American Roman Catholics Lawyers from Chicago Loyola University Chicago School of Law alumni Women in Illinois politics Judges of the Illinois Appellate Court Chief Justices of the Illinois Supreme Court Women chief justices of state supreme courts in the United States Justices of the Illinois Supreme Court Judges of the Circuit Court of Cook County 20th-century American judges 20th-century American lawyers 20th-century American women judges 21st-century American women 21st-century American women judges 21st-century American judges