By Stephen Anderson

Were it not for a long family affinity with Lake County, David M. Hall might have been an attorney in Hawaii or Louisiana.

The new chief judge of the 19th Circuit, Hall recounted some twists of family history in his column, "Courterly News," in the January issue of the Lake County Bar Association publication, The Docket.

He also was guest speaker in January for the bar association's monthly luncheon, held in Gurnee.

John Hall, the judge's great-grandfather, was attracted to Waukegan about 1890 because of its steel mills. He had worked for Washburn and Moen in Worcester, Mass.

A grandfather, Albert Hall, graduated from the University of Illinois and started a law practice in 1912 in Honolulu, where his Waukegan High School sweetheart, Orpah Starratt, had moved. Her father, a Navy engineer at Great Lakes, was transferred to help build a base in Pearl Harbor.

Albert soon returned to Illinois and began a Chicago practice. When Orpah followed him in 1915, they were married on the day she arrived.

After Army service during World War I, Albert started a Waukegan practice in 1922 with Minard E. Hulse, another Army veteran, who had received his law degree that year at Northwestern University.

In time, Hulse was elected a judge, Hall & Hulse became Hall Meyer, and two sons, Bill and Harry Hall, joined the firm. In 1955, Albert Hall Jr. (David Hall's father) came on board after graduating from Northwestern's law school.

Moving two decades ahead, David Hall graduated from the law school at Loyola University in New Orleans in 1976. He and his wife, Karen, lived in New Orleans during his studies but returned to Waukegan thereafter.

When he joined the family firm, it was named Hall, Meyer, Fisher, Holmberg & Snook. From 1980 to 1989, David practiced with Ludolph J. Wilson in probate, corporate, real estate and zoning. Then his judicial career ensued.

Appointed an associate judge in 1989, Hall served in juvenile and divorce courts. He was appointed in March 2000 to the 19th Circuit vacancy of Jack Hoogasian, and was elected to the court that November.

Judge Hall was presiding judge of the Civil Division when he took office as chief judge last Dec. 1.

The family's law firm has produced eight Lake County Bar presidents, including Albert L. Hall Sr. in 1931, Minard E. Hulse in 1936 and Harry A. Hall in 1940.

Others were Marshall Meyer (1958), Henry D. Fisher (1963), Edward R. Holmberg Jr. (1972), Robert L. Snook Sr. (1986) and Ned L. Fisher (1989). Robert L. Snook Jr. was on track for the presidency when he was kidnapped and murdered in 1991 by car thieves.

Judge Hall's growing responsibilities as chief of the 19th Circuit are likely to curtail the time he has devoted to serving on the YMCA board for almost 20 years, dabbling in family genealogy and playing the keyboard for his rock band.

But he sees his "incredible opportunity to serve" as part of "a huge team effort we pull off every day in helping to provide a safe and secure community and an efficient method of dispute resolution for the citizens of Lake County."