Honorees at the 2012 Freedom Award and Distinguished Service Awards (DSA) luncheon are (seated, left) Freedom Award recipient Judge Paul Biebel of the Circuit Court of Cook County, with DSA recipients Kevin Hull (JD ’00), principal at Hull Partners, Ltd.; and (standing, from left) Ricardo Meza (JD ’89), executive inspector general for Agencies of the Illinois Governor; Nicholas C. Zagotta (JD ’94), partner at Roberts McGivney Zagotta LLC; and Professor Barry Kozak (JD ’00, LLM ’00), director of Elder Law Studies at The John Marshall Law School.
The Cook County Court system often takes freedom from those who stand before judges and juries.
But Judge Paul Biebel, presiding judge of the Criminal Division said he and his fellow judges and attorneys are working to give freedom to some of those who otherwise would become a statistic.
Biebel, who received the Freedom Award from The John Marshall Law School Alumni Association at its annual luncheon May 4, 2012, said he accepted the Freedom Award on behalf of “the great judges and attorneys who serve at the largest courthouse with 31 jury rooms, and seven specialty rooms dealing with 20,000 felony cases a year, and 2,000 trials.”
The Freedom Award is shared with those judges and attorneys who are working to help create freedom from the ravages of drug abuse, mental illness, post-traumatic stress disorder, and sexual and physical abuse which often leads women to prostitution.
“Freedom, it’s the hallmark of our society,” Biebel said, and thanks to the work of new specialty courts more people working through these problems are keeping their freedom rather than facing jail time.
“We have one of the most ambitious (court systems) with specialty courts,” Biebel told the more than 325 people in attendance. “Our biggest problem is recidivism.” Today on average 50 percent of those released from prison will be back behind bars within three years.
By contrast, “These (specialty) courts literally save lives,” he noted. Of the people helped by the specialty courts “most don’t return” to the system, the judge said. He stressed that “those who work in these courts are heroic.”
During his introduction, Biebel took a ribbing from Circuit Court of Cook County Judge John Doody (JD ’74) who serves in the Criminal Division. Doody joked that Biebel missed out on a great education at The John Marshall Law School, but said he was happy Biebel would finally get his John Marshall degree when he serves as the June 3, 2012, commencement speaker and receives an honorary degree.
Biebel had high praise for John Marshall alumni, including former Illinois Supreme Court Chief Justice Thomas Fitzgerald, current Supreme Court Justice Charles Freeman, and Circuit Court of Cook County Chief Judge Timothy Evans.
“I used to believe it was the classic city school,” Biebel said of John Marshall. But a look through the latest Sullivan’s Illinois Attorneys Directory showed that 187 judges are John Marshall graduates, and that 83 of those serve in 37 counties outside Cook County.
“If the measure of value is based on the population it serves, John Marshall deserves a large gold star and a solid A+,” Biebel told the audience.