Courts

Convicted Lawyer Too Well-Connected To Face Discipline

It's a very Chicago story.

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FBI carries out second search of Chicago aldermanâs City Hall offices

Ald. Ed Burke (Brian Cassella/Chicago Tribune/Tribune News Service via Getty Images)

Attorney and Chicago Alderman Ed Burke was convicted of racketeering, bribery, and attempted extortion in December of 2023. His crimes were described as “a city hall shakedown scheme designed to enrich his law firm” as he was accused of blocking permits in his role as Chicago’s longest serving alderman if companies did not send their tax appeal work to his firm, Klafter & Burke.

Despite the conviction, the Illinois Supreme Court is unable to act on a petition for an interim suspension as requested by the Attorney Registration and Disciplinary Commission. Turns out Burke is just too well-connected.

A majority of the state supreme court recused themselves from hearing the case against Burke. Burke’s wife, Anne Burke, served on the Illinois Supreme Court from 2006 until she retired in November 2022. As reported by the ABA Journal:

At least four of the Illinois Supreme Court’s seven justices are needed for a quorum. Four of the state supreme court’s present justices were on the Illinois Supreme Court when Anne Burke was there, but there is no indication which justices recused themselves.

A spokesperson for the court, Christopher Bonjean, said there just isn’t a mechanism to deal with a situation where a majority has recused. While other state constitutions allow substitutions in these circumstances, “the Illinois Constitution does not have a provision for that.” Something Civic Federation President Joe Ferguson described to the Chicago Sun-Times as “a most Chicago and most Illinois of absurdities that you have identified.”

This situation has highlighted the amount of power the Burkes amassed in the Illinois judiciary.

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For years, the former alderman presided over the judicial slate-making process within the Cook County Democratic Party. That role gave him rarified power in shaping Cook County’s judiciary and in promoting which three justices from Cook County should have seats on the Supreme Court.

Ferguson, a former federal prosecutor who once was Chicago’s inspector general, said the court’s hamstrung answer to the call to discipline the former alderman demonstrates the hazard of concentrating so much political power in the hands of one person for such a long time.

“It’s not so much, to me, a flaw in the system as a reflection of what the system is drawn from,” he said. “And it’s drawn from a party political history in which one figure had enormous influence on determining the composition of the court at all levels, all the way up to the Supreme Court where his wife served, and in that, has created a jabberwocky situation.”

Burke defense attorney Chris Gair said his client has “not practiced law in a number of years, that he was no longer associated with the law firm, and that he would like to retire from the bar permanently.”

After sentencing, scheduled for June, the Illinois Attorney Registration and Disciplinary Commission can file a second petition for Burke’s suspension.

Burke is now the 38th member of the Chicago City Council — since 1968 — convicted of a crime.

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Kathryn Rubino is a Senior Editor at Above the Law, host of The Jabot podcast, and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer. AtL tipsters are the best, so please connect with her. Feel free to email her with any tips, questions, or comments and follow her on Twitter @Kathryn1 or Mastodon @Kathryn1@mastodon.social.

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