ULCC to honor McMorrow with public service award

The Union League Club of Chicago will honor retired Supreme Court Justice Mary Ann G. McMorrow with a rare presentation of its Distinguished Public Service Award during a luncheon on Thursday, Sept. 21.

The unanimous recommendation by the ULCC Public Affairs Committee was adopted in May in recognition of her 53-year career of achievements and contributions in the legal community.

The last such presentation was made in June 2004 to retired federal judge George Leighton. Among prior recipients were Illinois Supreme Court Justice Walter V. Schafer, Federal Judge Abraham Lincoln Marovitz and Governor Richard B. Ogilvie.

The only woman in the class of 1953 at the Loyola University School of Law, Justice McMorrow was an assistant Cook County state's attorney when she was elected to the circuit court in 1976. She was assigned to the Appellate Court in 1985 and elected in 1986.

Elected to the Supreme Court in 1992 and retained in 2002, she became the 115th chief justice of the Supreme Court in September 2002 and served for three years. She was the court's first woman member.

Justice McMorrow is a past president of the Women's Bar Association of Illinois, a master bencher of the American Inns of Court at Northwestern University, and a Dame of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta.

She has received the Illinois Bar Foundation Fellows Award for Distinguished Service to Law and Society, the Myra Bradwell Award from the Women's Bar Association, and the Medal of Excellence from the Loyola Law Alumni.