Black lawyers group pulls support for top Alvarez aide as judge

Better Government Association
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By Robert Herguth

With embattled Cook County State’s Attorney Anita Alvarez soon out the door after losing the March Democratic primary to Kim Foxx, Alvarez’s top deputy, Daniel Kirk, is finding rough going in his quest to be appointed a Cook County judge.
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Not only was he bypassed in a recent round of 13 associate judge appointments made by sitting circuit judges, but he also lost a “recommended” rating he’d been given by a bar group.

The Cook County Bar Association — among the lawyers’ groups that gauge the suitability of candidates for the bench — took the unusual step of rescinding its positive rating of Kirk.

Last year, it found Kirk “recommended” for judge. But now it’s changed its assessment of Alvarez’s first assistant state’s attorney to “not recommended.” Its top designation is “highly recommended.”

The bar group is largely comprised of black lawyers in the Chicago area.

Alvarez has come under fire for her agency’s handling of excessive-force cases involving police officers and for not filing charges sooner in the shooting death of Laquan McDonald, a black 17-year-old, by a white Chicago cop who was charged with first-degree murder only after a video of the shooting was ordered released.

Arlene Coleman, president of the Cook County Bar Association, would say only that the group reconsidered its rating after “there were concerns” expressed by her group’s judicial evaluation committee about Kirk, who also has served as Alvarez’s chief of staff and campaign chairman.

“I’m not going to say what all those concerns were,” Coleman says. “I don’t think we have to give a reason why. We have a right to change our minds.”

She says the about-face was unusual and that Kirk has appealed the “not recommended” label.

The bar association board — which includes two Cook County prosecutors, several sitting or retired judges and political and governmental figures including Cook County Board of Review Commissioner Larry Rogers Jr. — will soon consider his appeal, Coleman says.

Kirk says he hasn’t been told what the concerns about him are.