Judges Association elects Rita Novak as treasurer

Cook County Associate Judge Rita M. Novak was elected treasurer of the Illinois Judges Association during its annual convention last month in Chicago.
A 1978 graduate of the DePaul University College of Law, Novak was chief of the Illinois attorney general’s Civil Appeals Division before her 1999 appointment to the bench. She sits in the Tax and Miscellaneous Remedies Section of the Law Division.
At one time an assistant professor of law at Indiana University-Indianapolis and an assistant project director for the American Bar Association, Novak is co-author of the ABA book, “Delay on Appeal: A Process for Identifying Causes and Cures.”
She has been an adjunct faculty member at the Loyola University School of Law and the Chicago-Kent College of Law. She served on the ISBA Administrative Law Section Council and the Civil Practice and Procedure Section Council.
Novak served in the Peace Corps in Colombia before entering law school and has studied the Hispanic language and culture. She has been a volunteer member of the leadership council of the Midwest Immigrant and Human Rights Center.
Other IJA officers, who will serve until June, are:
Mark A. Schuering of the 8th Circuit, president; James R. Epstein of Cook County, first vice president; Ronald D. Spears of the 4th Circuit, second vice president; Lewis M. Nixon of Cook County, third vice president, and Mary S. Schostok of the 19th Circuit, secretary.
Judge Spears chairs the ISBA Committee on Military Affairs.

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