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Lake County Judge Daniel Shanes will run for Illinois Supreme Court seat

Shaw Media

A second Lake County judge is campaigning for a seat on the Illinois Supreme Court.

Judge Daniel B. Shanes, a Republican, will run in the 2022 election for a seat serving the recently redrawn Second District on the high court, which now includes DeKalb, Kendall, Kane, Lake and McHenry counties.

Fellow Lake County Judge Elizabeth M. Rochford announced July 15 she is running for the same position as a Democrat.

Shanes was appointed an associate judge in 2007 and later was elected to his current role as a circuit judge, where he hears both criminal felony and civil law cases. He also serves as the presiding judge of the 19th Judicial Circuit's felony division.

"We hear the most serious of criminal cases, murder, rape, arson, drug trafficking, child abuse," Shanes said. "I've been hearing those cases for over 10 years."

Shanes also presides over cases involving medical malpractice claims and contract disputes, among other civil matters, he said.

He received his bachelor's degree from the University of Iowa and went on to earn his law degree from DePaul University College of Law, where he also served on the DePaul Law Review.

Before becoming a judge, Shanes worked as an assistant Lake County state's attorney and division chief for nearly 12 years. There, he became one of the lead prosecutors in child-sexual-predator and first-degree-murder cases, he said.

"Some of the cases that I'm most proud of were cases that involved the most vulnerable members of our society, particularly children, seniors and the disabled," Shanes said.

Shanes also was a founding team member that created Lake County's drug court program, and previously served as a judicial law clerk to Illinois Appellate Court Justice Justice Robert J. Steigmann. Recently, he had a hand in establishing the 19th Judicial Circuit's COVID-19 procedures.

"I personally have presided over four jury trials in the pandemic in both serious felony and civil cases," Shanes said. " ... It has always been my position that we as a society cannot put the Constitution on a shelf at any time."

The chair of the Illinois Judicial College Board of Trustees, Shanes regularly serves as faculty for judicial education for judges and lawyers in Illinois, he said. He's also a member of the faculty of the National Judicial College, providing judicial education to judges across the country and has served on the board of directors of both the Illinois Judges Association and Lake County Bar Association.

"I think those who appear in front of me know that I listen and consider their arguments, that I have an allegiance to the rule of law," Shanes said. "So whatever their issue is, they know that I will hear them and that the law will be followed in whatever their case is, criminal or civil."

Off the bench, Shanes has coached youth sports and served on the board of directors of a local homeless shelter and transitional living facility for women and children.

Lake County judge running for Illinois Supreme Court

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