Circuit shorts

Chief Judge Kathryn E. Zenoff of the 17th Circuit in Rockford was assigned to the Illinois Appellate Court, 2nd District, on May 9. She replaces Frederick J. Kapala, who was appointed May 8 to the U.S. District Court for the Northern District.

A jurist since 1995, when she was named an associate judge, Zenoff was appointed to the circuit court in June 1998 and elected later that year. Presiding judge of the Criminal Division when she became chief judge in 2003, she also is presiding judge of Mental Health Court.

During her watch, the 17th Circuit has opened a Legal Self-Help Center for pro se litigants and constructed a Criminal Justice Center (see stories on page 10).

A 1971 graduate of the Columbia University Law School, she practiced in New York for four years before joining the Winnebago County firm of her father, Abe J. Zenoff.

She was a niece of Esther R. Rothstein, a past president of the Chicago Bar Association, and David Zenoff, former chief justice of the Nevada Supreme Court.

A member of the ISBA Task Force on Children's Waiting Rooms in the Courts, Zenoff headed a task force that created Kids' Place, a supervised room in the Winnebago County Courthouse for children of witnesses and litigants.

She has received a Marcella Harris Award from the YWCA, a Humanitarian Award from the Illinois State Medical Society Auxiliary, and a Forward Rockford Award from the chamber of commerce.

The Western Division's newest federal judge, Frederick J. Kapala, fills the vacancy caused by Judge Philip G. Reinhard's decision to take senior status.

A former Rockford attorney, Kapala became an associate judge of the 17th Circuit in 1982, and was elected to the circuit court in 1994. He was assigned to the Appellate Court in 2001.

His appointment to federal court caused a 17th Circuit vacancy, to which Eugene G. Doherty of Holmstrom & Kennedy was appointed May 9 for a term that ends Dec. 1, 2008.

DuPage County prosecutor Thomas J. Stanfa was named an associate judge of the 16th Circuit on May 4. He was deputy chief of the DuPage County state's attorney's Civil Bureau and counsel to Sheriff John Zaruba.

A 1980 graduate of the Loyola University School of Law, Stanfa was an assistant Cook County state's attorney until 1987, when he joined the Kane County state's attorney's office as head prosecutor of gang, drug, child sexual abuse, auto theft and white collar crimes.

He entered private practice with Querry & Harrow in Geneva in 1996 and joined the DuPage County prosecutor's office in 1999.

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Assistant Kane County state's attorney Linda S. Abrahamson of Aurora also was appointed an associate judge of the 16th Circuit on May 4.

An assistant state's attorney from 1996 to 2001, she returned to the office in 2005 and was assigned to the Kane County Child Advocacy Center in St. Charles.

Retired 19th Circuit judge Henry Tonigan III has been named administrative hearing officer for the Village of Gurnee. He will adjudicate disputes stemming from a new DUI vehicle seizure and impoundment ordinance.

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Jessica Phillips, a graduate of the Northwestern University School of Law, has been selected as a law clerk by U.S. Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito Jr. She has been a clerk for Judge Joel Flaum of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit.

Phillips is the daughter of Sidley Austin partner Carter Phillips, also a Northwestern law graduate and former colleague of Alito. He also was a law clerk for Supreme Court Chief Justice Warren Burger and for Flaum's predecessor, Judge Robert Sprecher.

Every associate judge in the 23 Illinois circuits faces retention in statewide elections this month. Their terms all expire June 30.

Illinois Supreme Court Rule 39(a) requires re-election of associate judges every fours years, even those who were appointed recently. Ballots were distributed to circuit judges on May 21.

Associate judges of the 22 circuits outside of Cook County were rated in a recent judicial advisory poll. Results may be accessed on the Web site, www.isba.org.