Richard Eagleton a third-generation 50-year lawyer
Achieving the 50-year mark as an Illinois attorney is a rare honor that Richard Ernest Eagleton of Peoria shares with both his father and grandfather. He’s likely to mention that in his remarks at the ISBA Senior Counsellor luncheon Dec. 10.
A 1958 graduate of the University of Illinois College of Law and a retired judge, Eagleton was the son of William L. Eagleton (admitted 1926) and the grandson of Leander Oscar “L.O.” Eagleton (admitted 1897).
Richard Eagleton’s exemplary career in the bench and bar has yet another distinction that relates to his current of-counsel status with Hinshaw & Culbertson.
During his tenure as U.S. attorney for the Southern District from 1965 to 1969, he hired a summer intern named J. William Roberts, who would graduate in 1968 from the Washington University School of Law.
Not only did Roberts serve eventually as U.S. attorney for the Central District from 1986 to 1993, he now is managing attorney of the Hinshaw firm and technically Eagleton’s boss.
Navy service from 1952 to 1955, after graduation from Yale University, delayed Eagleton’s legal education. (A retired captain, he was chief judge of the Naval Reserve Trial Judiciary from 1980 to 1982.)
He was in private practice for three years before becoming an assistant U.S. attorney in 1961. After he concluded his service as U.S. attorney, he was elected to the 10th Circuit Court in 1970.
Ironically, Eagleton served on the same Peoria court where his grandfather had been a probate judge in the early 1900s. During his 20 years on the bench, he was chief judge from 1979 to 1981 and a member of several Illinois Supreme Court committees.
Also active in the Illinois State Bar Association, Eagleton served on the Criminal Law Section Council from 1965 to 1971 and the Judicial Administration Section Council from 1971 to 1976, and chaired each of them.
He was a member of the Special Committee on Judicial Inquiry from 1974 to 1978, and the Bench and Bar Section Council from 1982 to 1985.
He is a Charter Fellow of the Illinois Bar Foundation and a past president of the Clarence Darrow Inn of the American Inns of Court in Peoria.
Eagleton has been a member of the Illinois Violent Crimes Advisory Committee, the Illinois Criminal Justice Information Authority, the Illinois Law Enforcement Commission, and the American Bar Association Crisis in Jail Committee.
He has been a director of the National Association of Former U.S. Attorneys, national director of the ABA Crime Control Project. and a recipient of the Illinois Governor’s Criminal Justice Award.
Presently managing partner of the Eagleton Farms, he has served on the boards of the Peoria County Farm Bureau, the South Side Trust and Savings Bank, and the Children’s Home Association of Illinois.