Patricia Brown Holmes

Current Term

2019-2025

2019

Managing Partner, Riley Safer Holmes & Cancila LLP
Former executive committee member and diversity committee chair of a major national law firm
Former associate judge in the Circuit Court of Cook County
Previous chief assistant corporation counsel for municipal prosecutions for the City of Chicago
Former assistant United States attorney for the Northern District of Illinois
Former assistant state’s attorney, Cook County
Appointed special prosecutor in the matter of Laquan McDonald by presiding Judge LeRoy Martin
Appointed sole trustee of the Burr Oak Cemetery Oversight Task Force by Governor Pat Quinn and Bankruptcy Court, Northern District of Illinois
Appointed co-chair of the Judicial Selection Commission for the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois
Appointed inaugural chair of the Illinois Torture Inquiry and Relief Commission by Governor Pat Quinn
Appointed to the American Jury Project Commission for the Seventh Circuit Bar Association by Chief Judge Holderman

Chair, Harriet’s Daughters
Chair, board of directors, Just the Beginning – A Pipeline Organization
Member, board of trustees, LaRabida Children’s Hospital
Chair, Chief Judge Ruben Castillo’s Magistrate Judge Selection and Review Committees
Chair, Chief Judge James F. Holderman’s Magistrate Judge Merit Review Panel
Past president and founding member, Black Women Lawyers’ Association of Greater Chicago, Inc.
Past president and member, board of managers, Chicago Bar Association
Member, Illinois Supreme Court Commission on Professionalism Mentoring Advisory Committee
Co-chair, Senator Dick Durbin’s Judicial Screening Committee

Chicago’s Notable Women Lawyers (Crain’s Chicago Business, 2018)
Ida B. Platt Award (Cook County Bar Association, 2018)
Most Influential Black Lawyers (Savoy Magazine, 2018)
Outstanding Women in Business Award (Rainbow PUSH Coalition & Citizenship Education Fund, 2018)
Most Influential Minority Lawyers in Chicago (Crain’s Chicago Business, 2017)
Chicago Lawyer Person of the Year (Chicago Lawyer Magazine, 2016)
Award for Excellence in Pro Bono Service (United States District Court, 2014)
One of the Most Powerful and Influential Women in Illinois (National Diversity Council, 2011-2014)

Democrat