Some called him a rat and a perjurer. Others thought he was a reformer and a martyr.

But one thing they all agreed on was that Terrence Hake helped change a culture of corruption that gripped certain segments of the Cook County court system when he agreed to become a federal mole in 1980.

Lawyers who were aware of the obvious abhorred it, and those who practiced elsewhere ignored it. Only one idealist was vexed enough to toss aside a legitimate career in order to undermine the wayward coven.

When Hake finished three and a half years of undercover work in 1983, first as a prosecutor on the take and later as a sleazy defense lawyer, the feds had begun indictments of an eventual total of 92 men.

Among subjects of the Operation Greylord prosecution were 17 judges, 48 lawyers, 10 deputy sheriffs, eight policemen, eight court employees, and a state legislator.

“I don't feel I am any hero,” Hake told a Chicago Tribune writer in 1989. “But I also don't feel I was a rat, squealer or a fink, either… I was doing the right thing.”

Hake will get some overdue recognition from the bar at 8 a.m. Friday, Dec. 8, when he is inducted as an Honorary Fellow of the Illinois Bar Foundation during a breakfast program at the Sheraton Chicago Hotel.

He was nominated by IBF board member and Fellows chair James L. Reichardt, who filled an important role in the saga. Reichardt agreed to take Hake into his Villa Park practice as an ostensible “associate,” providing vital cover for two years.

Asked by law school friend David Grossman, then an FBI agent, whether he was willing to serve the system by putting Hake's name on his door, Reichardt's immediate answer was “Yes.”

A 1977 graduate of the Loyola University School of Law, Hake was an assistant state's attorney when he first noticed that some lawyers never lost cases and others plied courthouse hallways for ready clients.

He endured the disillusionment of public defenders, whose clients received sentences while similar offenders got off, and police officers with clear-cut cases that were summarily dismissed.

Hake wasn't the only observer. About the same time in April 1980, the U.S. Justice Department was considering an investigation of the court system. They needed an insider, and they had heard of the concerns Hake registered with superiors.

“When they found me, they found someone who was fed up with the corruption and not interested anymore in practicing law because of it,” he told the Tribune writer. “I was willing to give up my career for it.”

Wearing a recording device, and filing daily reports under a code name, Hake amassed 368 tapes of evidentiary conversations with judges, lawyers and bagmen.

He was sworn in secretly as an FBI agent in August 1983, four months before his identity was revealed publicly in media accounts of Operation Greylord activities. The first indictments were announced Dec. 14.

Hake left the bureau in 1988 and was inspector general with the Regional Transportation Authority for five years and with the Railroad Retirement Board for four years.

Since 1997, he has been a special agent in the Justice Department's Office of Inspector General in Chicago. For the past seven years, he also has lectured at the FBI Academy in Virginia and the Federal Law Enforcement Academy in Georgia.

Loyola has honored him as a distinguished alumnus, and he has been given awards by the Chicago Council of Lawyers and the Chicagoland Chamber of Commerce. The FBI conferred its Lou Peters Award on him in 1989, and he received a Raoul Wallenberg Humanitarian Award in 1991.For Terry Hake, the 43-month ordeal of warily wearing his unseemly mantle of corruption is unforgettable. The success of his sacrifice was not a triumph that the profession can celebrate.

“I will live with it always because it has changed my life totally,” he said. “I have no regrets, and I would do it again tomorrow if I were asked.”

The Fellows of the Illinois Bar Foundation will present the 19th Distinguished Service to Law and Society Award to ISBA past president Cheryl I. Niro during a breakfast Friday, Dec. 8, at the Sheraton Chicago Hotel.

Previously a partner in Quinlan & Carroll, Niro began a new challenge April 3 as the first executive director of the Illinois Supreme Court Commission on Professionalism.

The commission was established last fall, pursuant to Rule 799, to improve civility among lawyers, judges and clients in Illinois courts.

Chief Justice Robert R. Thomas said in March that “No one is more qualified for this position. Cheryl's commitment to serving the legal profession is unsurpassed, and we are truly lucky to have her on board.”

Niro was a volunteer facilitator for 14 of the regional town hall forums on professionalism, diversity and equality within the profession that were conducted last year by a special court committee.

State bar president in 1999-2000, she has served recently on special committees on ancillary services and General Agreement on Trade and Services (GATS). She has been active in American Bar Association leadership since 1994.

Previous recipients of the Fellows award include Leonard F. Amari in 2005, R. Michael Henderson in 2002, Justice Thomas L. Kilbride in 2001 and John B. Kincaid in 2000. The inaugural presentation was to Arthur Goldberg in 1984.

To make reservations for the breakfast and program, call (312) 726-6072.