ABOUT nadine
NADINE'S RESUME
PROFESSIONAL BACKGROUND
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First-generation attorney with 23 years of public service at the federal, state, and local levels in Illinois
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Chief of the Civil Appeals Division in the Office of the Illinois Attorney General since 2015, leading 24 attorneys
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Litigated hundreds of appeals in federal and state courts
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Clerked for The Honorable Judge William J. Bauer on the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit
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Served as a United States Supreme Court Fellow for the National Association of Attorneys General
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Taught legal writing courses at local law schools for more than a decade
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Presenter for continuing legal education programs
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Active in bar associations and on boards
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Committed mentor and volunteer
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26-year resident of Lakeview/Lincoln Park, entirely within new 20th Subcircuit
personal background
Born in Anaheim, California in 1975, Nadine grew up near the poverty line, with her parents living paycheck to paycheck. Her father, a veteran of the United States Navy, worked as a truck driver and later operated a landscaping company. Her mother worked as a licensed practical nurse and then served as the librarian at her elementary school. Her brother, who had Down Syndrome, passed away when he was four and Nadine was two years old.
Facing further grief with the passing of her father during her freshman year of high school, Nadine persisted through the hardships and graduated with recognition from the National Honor Society and California Scholarship Foundation for her scholarship, leadership, and community service.
Drawn by its music school's renowned reputation and its proximity to Chicago (where she wanted to eventually establish roots), Nadine attended Indiana University, playing trombone in the marching and basketball bands, while majoring in history and political science and minoring in English. At graduation, she received the Political Science Distinguished Service and Marching Band Outstanding Rank Awards. She was the first in her family to graduate from college.
Nadine developed an interest in law after seeing her parents suffer through a mortgage foreclosure on her childhood home and her mother filing for bankruptcy after her father's death. She ultimately attended DePaul University College of Law. While there, she mentored elementary school children in lower-income areas of Chicago who were interested in becoming attorneys and first-year law students. And she faced grief once more when her mother passed away during her first year of law school, leaving her as the sole member of her immediate family at the age of 23. Nadine again showed grit and graduated at the top of her law school class while earning several honors and awards.
Since then, Nadine has built a 23-year legal career dedicated entirely to public service, working for federal, state, and local governments in Illinois. She was selected for a prestigious clerkship on the Seventh Circuit and fellowship before the Supreme Court. And she has litigated hundreds of appeals in federal and state courts while serving in the Illinois Attorney General's Office and City of Chicago's Department of Law.
Nadine has lived within what now constitutes the 20th Subcircuit for more than 26 years. She cares about her neighborhood and is dedicated to seeing it thrive. She and her husband, Ryan, have lived in the Southport Corridor area of Lakeview for almost 13 years. She is proud to call Chicago home and honored by the possibility of representing it as a Circuit Court Judge for the Circuit Court of Cook County.
