CBA Record

On to the Bench Holmes’ next career move may seem baffling to some. She applied for the position of Chief Assistant Corporation Counsel in charge of municipal prosecutions for the City of Chi- cago. While the position itself was exciting, the prospects it created were even more so. Almost everyone who had served in that position eventually joined the judiciary. “I had always wanted to be a judge.” She applied and got the job, and within two years, the County had reopened the appointment process for associate judges after having suspending it for budgetary reasons. Holmes was encouraged to apply, but with 365 applications for 18 positions, “it was like a feeding frenzy.” When the Chief ’s Judge’s office called Holmes to tell her that she made the short list of 36 candidates, she thought it was a joke. “I’m like, what’s the number. I’ll call you right back.” It was not a joke, and over the next two weeks, she put on her walking boots, and met with over 400 circuit court judges across the County. She was appointed as an associate judge, and at the time was the youngest African American female ever appointed. She was 36. She began hearing cases in the juvenile court, where she and a group of new judges reinvigorated the juvenile court system. “We reduced the number of cases... We were saving lives and helping children. It was great.” Holmes eventually took over the Benchmark Permanency Hearings Program, which, according to the court website, “assists teen wards approaching emancipation to prepare for independence.” The program became a national exemplar. But her success on the bench was interrupted. One day, her law clerk found Holmes unconscious on the floor in cham- bers. The clerk and another judge rushed Holmes to the hospital, where the doctors diagnosed her with cancer and gave her six months to live. She reacted, telling the doctor, “I have a six-month old, a four- year old, and a sixteen-year old step son! I don’t have time for this! What do we need to do here?” She fought the cancer for two years, and took another two before she fully recovered from the chemotherapy. Cancer changed Holmes’ perspective

Holmes, with friend, mentor, and “Board of Director” Judge Ann Williams of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit

So there’s no room for number two!” So Holmes began her legal career where many diverse young attorneys did: at the State’s Attorney’s office in the appeals division. When she wrote her first appel- late brief, the brief supervisor asked her a familiar question. “Who helped you with this?” Undeterred, Holmes quickly became a brief supervisor in the appeals division and eventually ended up in the felony trials division. “I tried hundreds of cases.” She recalls sometimes taking three cases a day to trial. “You figure out how to get to the point real quick,” she notes. A quality she has retained to this day. After five years in the state’s attorney’s office, she applied and interviewed for a job with Fred Foreman, the then recently- named U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois. Foreman offered her the job at the end of the interview, and Holmes spent five years as an Assistant United States Attorney. She tried 25 cases in that time. Holmes credits her experience with the state’s attorney and U.S. attorney for her courtroom demeanor. “It helped me be fearless in the courtroom.”

for the test, she did well and was inundated with letters from law schools across the country, soliciting her application. But the University of Illinois College of Law offered her a full scholarship with room and board, which she readily accepted. She also admits that she didn’t want to leave Michael—her then boyfriend and future husband. In law school, Holmes landed a summer job with the City of Chicago at a time of change for the corporation counsel’s office. “Jim Montgomery became the first black City of Chicago corporation counsel under Harold Washington,” Holmes recalls. “I can’t even begin to tell you how proud I was.…He and Eugene Pincham were bigger than life.” In Holmes’ eyes, Mont- gomery set an example for the profession, and one that she could model. Early Career as a Prosecutor Graduating from law school, the market for minority attorneys was markedly different from today. Holmes recalls, “At that point in time, if you had one minority lawyer in your firm, then you were good.” Most law firms at that time did not hire multiple attorneys of color. “People were trying to be that one,” Holmes said, “but…once you’re in, people stuck around for a while.

32 SEPTEMBER 2015