The Illinois Supreme Court has announced the assignment of Cook County Circuit Judge Sanjay T. Tailor to the First District Appellate Court. Judge Tailor was assigned to fill the vacancy created by the upcoming retirement of Justice Daniel J. Pierce, effective September 30. The appointment is effective October 3, 2022, and will stay in effect until further order of the court. He will become the first Indian American on the Illinois Appellate Court.

“I would like to thank the Justices of the Illinois Supreme Court for the confidence that they have placed in me and for the opportunity to contribute to the development of the body of Illinois case law,” Judge Tailor said. 

Judge Tailor was appointed to the Cook County Circuit Court as a Circuit Judge in January 2021 and was first appointed to the bench as an Associate Judge in 2003. As an Associate Judge he served in the Chancery Division from 2015 to 2020. From 2009 to 2015, he was assigned to the Law Division, where he heard commercial and tax disputes, and from 2006 to 2009, he was assigned to the Domestic Relations Division of the Court, where he presided over dissolution of marriage and domestic violence trials.  

Judge Tailor has participated in the judicial evaluation process of the Illinois State Bar Association and the Chicago Bar Association and was found to be “highly qualified.” He was found to be “well qualified” by the Chicago Council of Lawyers and “highly qualified” by the Decalogue Society of Lawyers.   

Before joining the bench, Judge Tailor served as an Assistant State’s Attorney in the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office from 1996 to 2003 in the Civil Actions Bureau. From 2001 to 2003, he was the Deputy Supervisor of the Torts and Civil Rights Litigation Section. From 1995 to 1996, he was a senior attorney at the First National Bank of Chicago. From 1991 to 1995, he was an associate at Chapman and Cutler LLP. 

Since 2004, Judge Tailor has served as an Adjunct Professor at the Loyola University of Chicago School of Law, teaching Illinois Civil Litigation Practice, an advanced course in Illinois civil procedure. Judge Tailor earned his Bachelor of Arts from the University of Delaware and received his Juris Doctor with honors from the Loyola University of Chicago School of Law.

His professional associations include the Lawyers Club of Chicago, for which he is a past president, the Illinois Judges Association, the Asian American Judges Association of Illinois, the South Asian Bar Association of North America, the South Asian American Bar Association of Chicago, the Asian American Bar Association of Chicago, and the American Bar Association, where he chaired the India Committee for the International Law Section.