Clarence DeMoss clerked for two jurists, 30 years apart

Lloyd Karmeier’s mentor returns

This tribute by Supreme Court Justice Lloyd A. Karmeier to his friend and mentor, ISBA Senior Counsellor Clarence W. DeMoss, was published in the February issue of the Bench and Bar Section newsletter.

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Upon my graduation from law school in 1964, and after passing the bar exam and being admitted to practice, I had the good fortune of beginning my legal career as a junior law clerk for Justice Byron O. House of Nashville, who was the Supreme Court Justice from the 5th District.

At that time, a Supreme Court justice had only two law clerks. His then-senior law clerk was a young man, Clarence W. DeMoss, from Villa Park in DuPage County.

Clarence began his legal career clerking for Justice House in 1957, about the time the justice was first elected to fill an unexpired term of another justice from Nashville, Ralph Maxwell, who died in office in late 1956.

Under the Illinois Constitution of 1870, which was still in effect at that time, the vacancy in of Supreme Court justice was filled at a special election for that purpose and not by appointment by the Supreme Court, as is now provided for in the 1970 Illinois Constitution.

Clarence obtained both his undergraduate and law degrees from the University of Illinois. From 1951 to 1955, while pursuing his degrees in Commerce and Law and his J.D., he starred as a running back for the Fighting Illini football team.

He played as a freshman in the Illini win over Stanford in the Rose Bowl in January 1952, an Illini team that was ranked third nationally.

Clarence graduated first in his law school class and was a member of the Order of Coif. Upon his graduation in 1957, he first fulfilled a commitment to serve in the military for a short stint, and then began his clerkship and the practice of law in Nashville.

Clarence won the first ISBA Lincoln Award Legal Writing competition that was presented in 1960. His article, titled “Limiting the Retroactive Effects of a Decision,” was published in the February 1960 edition of the Illinois Bar Journal.

The announcement of the award in that issue indicated that “DeMoss received the handsome Lincoln Award plaque and a check for $100 at the ISBA Peoria meeting lawyers luncheon.”

Shortly after I became acquainted with Clarence, I learned that it had been his intention to clerk for a Supreme Court justice for two or three years and then move back to the Chicago area with his wife and then-young family to engage in the practice of law.

By the time I got to know Clarence, however, he had been clerking with Justice House for more than seven years, and was a partner in a local law firm (at that time law clerks could also have a limited law practice). I knew then he was committed to staying in Nashville with his growing family.

While I clerked for only four years and then was elected state’s attorney, Clarence continued to clerk for Justice House until his death in 1969.

Thereafter, he clerked for Caswell Crebs from Robinson, the judge who was appointed to succeed Justice House and served until the next general election. When Justice Joseph Goldenhersh from Belleville was elected in 1970, he asked Clarence to be his senior law clerk.

At that time, Clarence also had the opportunity to go to the Chicago area and clerk for a justice from the 1st District, but he opted to remain in Nashville.

He continued as the senior clerk for Justice Goldenhersh until 1977, when he decided to devote his full time and talents to the practice of law with the firm of Hohlt, House & DeMoss. He had clerked for 20 years, not two.

Clarence and his wife Barbara have three sons. One of them, William DeMoss, followed in his father’s footsteps and clerked for Justice Goldenhersh for several years before joining his father in the Nashville practice in 1987.

Clarence was my mentor, law partner, and good and trusted friend, not only during the four years I clerked for Justice House but throughout the time that I practiced law until I was elected resident circuit judge of Washington County in 1986, a position I held until my election to the Supreme Court in 2004.

During the 22 years that I clerked and practiced with Clarence, we spent many hours discussing not just the theory of the law, but also the practical aspects of applying the law to cases and to problems brought to us by our clients.

In our later years together, we became sounding boards for each other, testing and trying our own thoughts and proposed solutions against the thoughts and proposals of the other.

That all changed when I was elected circuit judge. Because of my long association with the lawyers from my firm and because of the many clients I had, I was disqualified from hearing most cases in my home county for several years.

I was therefore assigned to a full criminal felony jury docket in neighboring St. Clair County while handling non-conflicting cases in Washington County.

While our paths continued to cross, they did so in different ways and from opposite sides of the bench. Although there were times we had discussions about the law in more general ways, the years of mentoring and being sounding boards were behind us, I thought, forever.

On the day I decided to run for the Supreme Court, I went to Clarence’s office and told him of my decision and asked if he would consider clerking for me, if I was elected, a prospect that seemed fairly dim at the time. He said he would consider it.

Shortly after my election and before I took office in 2004, Justice Phil Rarick, my immediate predecessor, advised me that his clerks were interested in continuing to clerk for me. After meeting with those clerks, I was convinced it was in my best interest to retain them, and I did so.

I also advised my new clerks, however, that I expected to move my district office from St. Clair County closer to my home in Washington County, at which time I intended to replace the most junior clerk.

As I am sure every judge on a court of review will confirm, good law clerks who are committed to the rule of law, and are willing to argue and debate with their respective judges as to their understanding of the law to particular facts and cases, are invaluable.

I have been fortunate to have such clerks. I had worked with Clarence for many years and I fully appreciated his legal abilities, including his ability to analyze a legal problem and to draft a memorandum of law or legal opinion.

When I moved my office to Nashville in July 2005, I asked Clarence if he was interested in beginning to clerk for me. He declined, indicating there were a number of things going on in his practice and life which made him uncomfortable and unwilling to make such a drastic change at that time. But he said he would be interested in considering this position, if it became open in a year or so.

On July 1, 2007, just over 50 years after Clarence W. DeMoss was admitted to practice law in Illinois and 50 years after he began a two-year commitment to clerk and practice law in Nashville, he and I were reunited in working for the Supreme Court, this time on a full-time basis for both of us.

And though the relationship is different, no longer with him as the senior and me as the junior clerk, the mentoring relationship continues, the “sounding board” is working, and our professional lives have come almost full circle.

Clarence was honored as an ISBA Senior Counsellor on Dec. 5, 2007, a 50-year member of the bar and my friend, sounding board and mentor for more than 43 of those years.

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