Judge Thaddeus L. Wilson

About Judge

Judge Thaddeus L. Wilson was appointed to the bench in 2007 and elected in 2010, retained in 2016 and 2022. He is currently assigned to the Chancery Division - General Section, previously serving as a supervising judge in the Criminal Division. He received his Bachelor of Business Administration Degree from the University of Notre Dame in 1989 and his law degree from Northern Illinois University College of Law in 1994. Before his appointment, he was managing attorney of the Law Office of Brookins & Wilson, practicing in various areas including personal injury, criminal defense, and civil rights. He is admitted to practice in Illinois, several U.S. District Courts, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit, and the U.S. Supreme Court. He was a founding board member of KIPP Ascend Charter School and a longtime member of the Cook County Bar Association ARDC Liaison Committee. He was appointed to the Judicial Conference of Illinois in 2011, serving on various committees. In 2015, he was appointed to the Illinois Supreme Court’s e-Business Policy Advisory Board. He created and implemented a case management order for felony criminal cases and led a team in implementing a caseflow management protocol. In 2017, he was appointed to the Illinois Judicial College. In 2021, he was appointed to the Court Technology Modernization Steering Committee. He also served on the Supreme Court’s Weighted Caseload Task Force and the Socrata Judicial Focus Group. He is an ASTAR Fellow in Advanced Science and Technology. He presided over the first terrorism case in Cook County and the first televised trials in Cook County. In 2025, he presided over a case against Trump Tower Chicago resulting in a $4.8 million settlement. He was the 2020-2021 president of the Illinois Judicial Council and an adjunct professor at The John Marshall Law School.

Licensed States

Education

Colleagues at Clifford Law Offices PC

Robert A. Clifford

Founder and Senior Partner at Clifford Law Offices

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Hon. Deborah Mary Dooling

(ret.) who sat on the Cook County Circuit Court for 23 years and also taught Professional Negligence for the Illinois Judicial Conference

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Tracy L. Kepler

Director, Center for Professional Responsibility, American Bar Association

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Judge Michael J. Chmiel

Co-Chair, Illinois State Bar Association AI Committee, Circuit Court of McHenry County

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Mark Palmer

Chief Counsel, Illinois Supreme Court Commission on Professionalism

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Professor Katheryn M. Dutenhaver

Director, DePaul University College of Law Center for Dispute Resolution