Judge Thomas R. Mulroy is a former Illinois judge who heard cases in the Commercial Section of the Law Division and in the Chancery Division of the Circuit Court of Cook County. He was an active trial judge who tried hundreds of cases, both jury and bench trials, and has written more than 600 legal opinions. He was the Supervising Judge of the Law Division’s Mandatory Arbitration Program. Mulroy wrote the rules for the program.

Judge Mulroy began his legal career as an Assistant United States Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois in Chicago. He drafted the Office’s first trial practice manual.

After he left the United States Attorneys’ office, he practiced law for thirty-five years before becoming a judge. He tried jury cases in federal and state courts in Illinois, Kansas, Iowa, Nebraska, Tennessee, Oklahoma, Minnesota, South Dakota, Missouri and Kentucky involving: breach of contract, fraud, real estate, anti-trust, products liability, environmental, negligence, patent infringement, probate, securities, accounting, anti-trust, real estate, limited partnership, and closely-held corporations.

Judge Mulroy was a partner at Jenner & Block and was the chair of the firm’s finance committee, hiring committee, and a member of the firm’s Executive Committee. He was also Chair of the firm’s product liability group and intellectual property group.

Judge Mulroy has been Special Counsel for the Illinois Attorney Registration & Disciplinary Commission and was a member of its Inquiry and Hearing Boards.

He was President of the Lawyers Club of Chicago which was founded in 1833 and is an organization comprised of lawyers and judges who regularly meet to hear from a broad range of speakers and to discuss current issues of interest to the bar.

Judge Mulroy has also served on the Board of Directors of the Legal Assistance Foundation a not-for-profit organization which provides free legal services in non-criminal matters to people living in poverty in metropolitan Chicago.

He was a member of the Board of Directors for the Illinois Institute for Continuing Legal Education which was created to assume the responsibility for the development and operation of a full-time program of continuing legal education in Illinois.

Judge Mulroy was a member of the Board of Directors for the Illinois Bar Foundation which is the charitable arm of the Chicago Bar Association, and which works to improve access to justice.

Judge Mulroy was a member of the Board of Directors of the Chicago Bar Foundation which is the charitable arm of the Chicago Bar Association.

He is a Fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers and was Chair of the College’s Upstate Illinois Committee. The American College of Trial Lawyers is an invitation only group of exceptional trial lawyers of diverse backgrounds from the United States and Canada.

Judge Mulroy was President of the Chicago Bar Association from 2017 to 2018. In addition, he has been a member of the Chicago Bar Association’s Committee on Evaluation of Judicial Candidates, the Amicus Curiae Committee, the Committee to Evaluate Federal Judges, the Commercial Law Committee, and the Chair of the Continuing Legal Education Committee and the Chair of the Judicial Evaluation Committee Appellate Review Panel.