Angela E.L. Barnes Appointed to Racial Justice Diversity Committee for the Northern District of Illinois

The chief judge of Chicago's federal court announced Tuesday that she's appointed a committee of outside lawyers to examine the court's racial diversity and help identify ways the court can overcome any barriers to providing equal justice to everyone.

The Northern District of Illinois' 11-member Racial Justice Diversity Committee includes five retired judges, aims to identify areas of racial disparity within the court and will review potential methods that could help it address those issues, according to an announcement from Chief Judge Rebecca Pallmeyer.

"Ongoing systemic racism has long existed in our nation, justice system, and legal profession. The court recognizes that real change requires ongoing commitment and sustained effort," Judge Pallmeyer said in a statement. "The appointment of a diversity committee is an important next step in examining and addressing these injustices. The court is grateful to this esteemed panel for undertaking this critical task for the Northern District of Illinois."

Chaired by former Chief Judge Ruben Castillo, who stepped down in 2019 and now practices at Akerman LLP, the committee will examine staffing in all levels of the court as well as with court monitors, special masters and receivers, general and trial bar admissions and lawyers who serve as lead or liaison counsel in multidistrict litigation proceedings, according to the group's mission statement.

The committee also plans to release a public report of its findings and recommendations, although it's not clear exactly what form the report will take, Castillo told Law360 on Tuesday. "We could go department by department or issue by issue" in releasing smaller reports, but regardless, "I would like to get something out by the end of the year," he said.

"Overall, in my mind, I'm thinking we need to get this done because this is an issue that is just coming up way too often in the public world that we live in right now," Castillo added. "People want to know, is the Dirksen [Federal] Building part of the problem or part of the solution? I definitely feel an impetus to get going on this as we get going into the last four months of the year."

The committee "will take a hard look" at numbers and statistics during its review, but it also aims to interview as many people as possible through the process so it can "really issue an unvarnished report with recommendations about what currently exists and how it could be better," Castillo said.

The diversity of the court's federal defenders is one "running issue" Castillo said he's known about since his time as chief judge. He cited juror diversity as another issue. But the committee intends to examine the issue from all sides because its mission statement gives it "pretty broad authority to take a hard look at all aspects of the court's operations and see how truly reflective they are of the
Northern District of Illinois," he told Law360.

Castillo said he also "will not hesitate to just call it the way it is" if the committee's findings reflect adversely on his tenure as chief judge.

"I think any institution has room for improvement and I think we can make some usefulsuggestions," he said.

Beyond looking at numbers and conducting interviews, the committee also plans to solicit comments from people who've appeared before the court. Castillo told Law360 that he'd prefer to gather the community's input through a series of public hearings, but the virus has "handicapped" the way the committee will be able to function.

However, if the committee gets to a point where it can conduct remote hearings to gather the public's thoughts, "then so be it," Castillo said.

"But I do think it's important to get public input because I think people have strong feelings on some of the issues we're going to be looking at," he said.

Read the article at Law360.

Download the press release.