John Marshall Law School Professors Get Lifetime Achievement Awards 2 Consecutive Years

CHICAGO, Jan. 25, 2016 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- For two years in a row, adjunct professors from The John Marshall Law School in Chicago have been awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Illinois Judges Association.

Retired Judge Raymond McKoski recently was honored with the Illinois Judges Association Lifetime Achievement Award at the Illinois State Bar Association luncheon. Retired Judge Sheila Murphy, co-director of John Marshall's Restorative Justice Project, received the honor in 2014.

The Lifetime Achievement Award is given as a token of appreciation for the time and valuable contributions recipients give to the Illinois Judges Association. Winners of the award are selected based on their many years of service and for promoting a strong and independent judiciary.

Judge McKoski was first appointed to the bench in 1985. In his more than 25 years as a judge, he served as an Associate Judge, Circuit Judge and was later unanimously elected Chief Judge of the Illinois 19th Judicial Circuit. He is renowned for his expertise in judicial ethics and lectures to lawyers and judges in the U.S. and the U.K. He recently was the keynote speaker at the joint meeting of the Illinois Judges Association and Illinois State Bar Association. Judge McKoski has been an adjunct professor at John Marshall since 2010 and teaches Client Interviewing and Counseling, Professional Responsibility and Jury Selection. 

Judge Sheila Murphy is a retired judge from the Circuit Court of Cook County. Judge Murphy presided over the Sixth District Court in Markham, which encompassed 37 towns and more than one million people. She supervised 23 judges and was a pioneer in starting community treatment courts. After exonerating Verneal Jimerson – a man wrongly convicted of rape and murder – from death row in 1996, Judge Murphy retired and worked tirelessly to abolish the death penalty in Illinois. She has been an adjunct professor at John Marshall since 2001, as well as the co-director of the law school's Restorative Justice Program. Judge Murphy recently co-edited the book Restorative Justice in Practice: A Holistic Approach with John Marshall Restorative Justice Project Co-Director Michael Seng.

About The John Marshall Law School

The John Marshall Law School, founded in 1899, is an independent law school located in the heart of Chicago's legal, financial and commercial districts. The 2016 U.S. News & World Report's America's Best Graduate Schools ranks John Marshall's Lawyering Skills Program fifth, its Trial Advocacy Program 16th and its Intellectual Property Law Program 17th in the nation. Since its inception, John Marshall has been a pioneer in legal education and has been guided by a tradition of diversity, innovation, access and opportunity.

For more information, contact Christine Kraly at 312-427-2737 ext. 171 or ckraly@jmls.edu.