 McMorrow's remarkable legal career began with graduation from the School of Law
at Loyola University in 1953 as the only woman in her class, continued as she
was the first woman to try felony cases as an assistant Cook County state's
attorney and culminated with her selection as chief by her colleagues on the
Illinois Supreme Court. She served on the Supreme Court from 1992 until her
retirement July 5, 2006. Her tenure as chief justice began Sept. 5, 2002, and
concluded Sept. 4, 2005.According to a release from the Illinois Supreme
Court, she was greatly admired for her elegance, grace and style over a legal
career that spanned five decades: "Throughout her career, indeed throughout her
lifetime, Justice McMorrow assumed and maintained a strong mentor's role for
women who wished to enter and serve in the law. She accomplished this always in
graceful fashion, earning the respect, admiration and fondness of colleagues,
legal adversaries and ordinary citizens crossing gender lines."
During her years on the Illinois Supreme Court, McMorrow authored 225
majority opinions, or opinions delivering the judgment of the court. She
authored an additional 85 separate concurring and dissenting opinions. Including
opinions in which she participated, cases in which she considered granting or
denying review by the court, attorney discipline, and other matters, McMorrow
was involved in Supreme Court cases numbering into the tens of thousands.
She wrote the opinion for the majority of the court in Best v. Taylor Machine
Works (1997), which held that so-called tort reform legislation seeking to put a
cap on noneconomic damages for individuals injured through negligence was
unconstitutional because it benefited special interests by discriminating
against the most seriously injured plaintiffs.
In Happel v. Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (2002), McMorrow wrote an opinion that
improved pharmaceutical safety by imposing a duty on pharmacies to warn
individual customers of possible severe side effects if known to the pharmacy.
Though a former prosecutor of serious felony cases, she wrote the opinion of
the court in overturning the conviction and death penalty of a defendant accused
of killing a police officer, citing an abuse by prosecutors in using
inflammatory closing argument. (People v. Blue 1999).
One of her noteworthy dissents involved the question of holding parents and
other social hosts liable for injury and death resulting from minors allowed to
drink to the point of intoxication. The majority of the court found no
liability, and McMorrow wrote that the result was "an injustice and an outrage."
(Charles v. Seigfried 1995).
During her tenure as chief, the Supreme Court began to require attorneys to
disclose as part of their licensing procedures whether they have malpractice
insurance, to better inform consumers and would-be clients; and amended its
rules to allow appellate review at an early stage of class actions suits, in an
attempt to lessen the cost of court resources and financial costs of parties to
the suits.
McMorrow used her frequent speaking appearances as chief justice to call on
lawyers to serve the poor; and by example, deed and exhortation she sought to
instill greater civility and professionalism among practitioners.
Under her tenure, the court raised the fee attorneys pay for licensure in
Illinois, with the increase raising more than $2 million annually for the
Lawyers Trust Fund, which provides funds to legal-aid organizations serving
low-income Illinoisans. While she was chief, the court began a program under
which justices of the Supreme Court addressed the incoming classes of new law
students, encouraging civility as they mature into practitioners.
McMorrow received numerous awards and much recognition during her career.
The American Bar Association honored her in 2005 with its prestigious
Margaret Brent Award, named for the first woman lawyer in America who arrived in
the colonies in 1638. She was the recipient of the Myra Bradwell Woman of
Achievement Award, the highest award given by the Women's Bar Association of
Illinois, named after the woman who won her law license in the U.S. Supreme
Court after being rejected by the Illinois Supreme Court.
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The Chicago Bar Association and the Chicago Bar Foundation awarded
her the Justice John Paul Stevens Award, given to Chicago-area
attorneys whose careers exemplify the highest standards of the legal
profession.
She was named by the Chicago Sun Times as the most powerful woman
in the law in Chicago; named by Crain's Chicago Business as one of
Chicago's 100 most influential women; and by Chicago Lawyer Magazine
as its 2003 Person of the Year.
The story has often been told that when she was an assistant
state's attorney in Cook County, she worked tirelessly on a brief
for a case to be argued in the Illinois Supreme Court; but when it
came time to decide who was going to argue the case before the
justices, she was told by her male supervisor that women did not
argue before the Supreme Court, and a man would be arguing the
points in the legal brief she wrote.
It is an ironic story since she went on to become chief justice
of the same court where she was once denied the opportunity to
argue, and it is a profound statement of her personal journey over
her lifetime.
As she put it at her swearing-in as chief: "I am the 115th chief
justice of the Supreme Court of Illinois. You will notice after I
take off my robe that I am the only one of the 114 chief justices
who preceded me that wears a skirt."
Although McMorrow was the only woman in her graduating class, her
male colleagues at Loyola elected her class president and associate
editor of the law review. Upon graduation from law school, she was
employed by Loyola, doing research about race and education under a
Ford Foundation Grant.
After working for a short time with a law firm, she was hired as
an assistant in the state's attorney's office. It was there that she
met her husband, Emmett, who was a gregarious, well-liked police
officer. They were married in 1962 and spent 24 years together until
he died of cancer.
When their daughter, Mary Ann, was born, McMorrow left the
state's attorney's office and eventually started a law practice.
Friends persuaded her to run for circuit judge, and she was elected
in 1976.
She was assigned to the Illinois Appellate Court in 1985 and was
elected to that court in 1986, where she was the first woman to
chair the Executive Committee of the Appellate Court. She was
elected to the Illinois Supreme Court in 1992 and retired in 2005.
McMorrow often said she never set out to be a pioneer; she never
set out to be the first. "I just simply tried to do my best in every
task that was presented to me," she said.
At her retirement from the Supreme Court, she noted that she had
served at the trial, appellate and Supreme Court levels for
approximately 30 years. "And, oh, what grand and glorious years they
were!" she said.
She also quoted Lincoln in her goodbye from the court: "'Let us
have faith that right makes might, and in that faith let us to the
end dare to do our duty as we understand it.' This has been our
guiding principle," she said.
McMorrow is survived by her daughter, Mary Ann, and her sister
Frances.
Funeral arrangements were incomplete.
[Text from file received from the
Illinois Supreme Court]
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