Quick Facts
Biography
Thomas L. Kilbride (born 1953), is an American judge currently serving on the Supreme Court of Illinois. Kilbride served as Chief Justice of the court from October 2010 through October 25, 2013. He was elected to the Illinois Supreme Court Justice for the Third District in 2000 and elected Chief Justice by his colleagues in October 2010 for a three-year term.
Early life and education
Kilbride was born in LaSalle, Illinois.
He received a B.A. degree magna cum laude from St. Mary's College in Winona, Minnesota in 1978 and received his law degree from Antioch School of Law in Washington, DC, in 1981.
Career
Kilbride practiced law for 20 years in Rock Island, Illinois, engaging in the general practice of law, including environmental law, labor law, employment matters, appeals, and other general civil and criminal matters. He was admitted to practice in the United States District Court of Central Illinois and the United States Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals.
He was elected to the Supreme Court of Illinois for the Third District in 2000.
Justice Kilbride is a past board member, past president and past vice-president of the Illinois Township Attorneys Association, a past volunteer lawyer and charter member of the Illinois Pro Bono Center, and a member of the Illinois State Bar and Rock Island County Bar Associations. He has served as volunteer legal advisor for the Community Caring Conference, the charter chairman of the Quad Cities Interfaith Sponsoring committee, volunteer legal advisor to Quad City Harvest, Inc., and a past member of the Rock Island Human Relations Commission.
As of October 2012, he is continuing to promote a 2012 movement (that he and others spearheaded) to place cameras in the Illinois state circuit courts; 23 out of 102 Illinois counties are participating to some extent. He also spearheaded a pilot program to promote electronically filing legal documents to the court, a cost and time saving process.